Baltimore City schools’ budget could cost kids their favorite staff members

In a “belt-tightening year,” Baltimore kids could lose adults they’ve come to rely on inside their schools.

On Tuesday evening, the Baltimore City school board will vote on a proposed $1.95 billion budget for the next school year, about a 4.3% increase over this year.

But if passed, the spending plan will result in about 154 fewer full-time jobs. In some cases, staff members may be moved out of one building or job and into another, a move known as “surplusing.” Schools with declining enrollment are most likely to be affected.

Thanks to mandates from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s multi-billion dollar education reform plan, schools across the city won’t feel those changes evenly. The Blueprint requires districts to direct more money to schools with high numbers of students who need extra support, like those with disabilities or from poor households.

As a result, 21 of Baltimore’s 157 public schools and programs will see cuts, some for the first time since the Blueprint was passed in 2021. The legislation has scrambled budgets as superintendents have tried to figure out staffing and class sizes when schools within the same district receive vastly different sums.

That’s inspired anxiety among students like Dasha Matthews, one of about 360 high schoolers at Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy. The proposed spending plan slashes her school’s budget from $5.8 million to $5 million.

Matthews is worried the $800,000 loss will push out staff members she’s bonded with; the 17-year-old senior vice president of the student government association said one of her teachers told her they won’t be back next year.

At a student forum, she and some of her classmates wrote to school board commissioners requesting a larger budget to “better support our teachers and staff” and maintain “the positive climate and culture that helps students thrive.”

“They helped me find myself when I was losing myself,” said Matthews, who spent her early high school years in and out of trouble. “They know when I’m putting on a front. And I love that they can see through me and help me understand myself more.”

Her teachers may be heading somewhere else: Baltimore City Public Schools spokesperson André Riley said “teacher surplusing” is common.

Riley said schools will get at least as much per student as they spent last year, but some schools still lost money if their enrollment declined. Vivien T. Thomas, which trains students to work in healthcare professions, is projected to lose 31 students next school year.

Vivien T. Thomas Principal Lori Bush did not respond to a request for comment about her school’s budget Monday, but Riley said it would be “unfair to ask the principal to address someone’s job status publicly.”

In a presentation on the budget, Baltimore City Public Schools Chief Finance Officer Christopher Doherty said most of the district’s increased budget comes from funds set aside for pre-K and schools where at least 55% of students live in poverty. Schools that don’t have preschool classrooms, meaning all middle and high schools, don’t get pre-K funds. And grants for schools with high poverty concentrations can’t pay for classroom teachers.

This is the second smallest increase since the state started distributing Blueprint money in 2022, Doherty said — a $69 million boost. The year-over-year increase peaked at $200 million more heading into the 2022 school year.

“The Blueprint is highly specific to a building and the makeup of the kids in that building,” Doherty said. “If there are schools that are experiencing some belt tightening, it is good to remind all of us that they are belt tightening from historic highs.”

The small budget increase is also not keeping pace with rising costs, Doherty said. His presentation referenced “continued uncertainty about the sustainability of the Blueprint” — the expensive legislation didn’t come with a long-term funding plan.

Another area driving uneven spending is the state’s new formula for doling out more dollars to charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded. It’s a big enough change to warrant potential staff cuts, said Sandi Jacobs, the district’s executive director for strategic resourcing and Blueprint implementation coordinator, at the budget hearing.

City school commissioners will vote on the budget, the last under CEO Sonja Santelises’ tenure, at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.