The Baltimore County school board voted 7-4 on Tuesday night to adopt a budget that raises staff salaries at the expense of nearly 600 jobs and likely larger class sizes.

The board initially fell short of the seven votes needed to adopt Superintendent Myriam Rogers’ budget, but after additional discussion, they passed it on a revote.

The decision followed a nearly three-hour discussion that involved attempts to keep class sizes the way they are and reduce the number of eliminated positions.

Board member Felicia Stolusky said increasing class sizes should be a last resort. She said she didn’t see evidence that it was treated as such and voted against the budget.

“My struggle with approving this budget centers around these class size increases, especially the impact on elementary students reading on grade level by Grade 3,” she said. “I’m gravely concerned about the setbacks and what has been a priority area for our school system where we were making substantial gains.”

The board’s vote means class sizes will likely rise and nearly 600 positions will get axed. The board did agree, however, to add 36 teachers to avoid requiring librarians to take on extra responsibilities.

The pay raises, the final increase in a three-year deal that was negotiated in 2023, would mean a 5% bump for 20,000 union employees, including teachers. Budget challenges delayed part of a pay bump promised last year, which means the school system is making up for it now, to the tune of $93 million.

Rogers initially proposed a $2.5 billion spending plan. She had said the raises were a priority this year, but that officials would need to make other cuts to afford them.

For the third year in a row, her proposed budget called for eliminating hundreds of jobs.

The 600 positions on the chopping block, including 300 teaching jobs, would save $59 million.

The job cuts worry educators who say they are already doing more with less. Budget cuts from previous years have forced them to take on more responsibilities, educators have said.

As a result, Baltimore County Public Schools will change its staffing formula, allowing for up to 25 students per teacher in first grade and up.

That’s a change from 23 students for every teacher in first and second grades and high school; 22 students for every middle school teacher; and 24 students for each third to fifth grade teacher.

Parents and educators, who report some classes have more than 30 students, fear this will increase class sizes even more. But data shows that most class size averages are below 25 students.

Representative of the difficult choices was Courtney Goldbeck, a librarian at Middle River Middle School, who told board members on Tuesday about the importance of her job. She and other librarians had attended the last few school board meetings to express their disapproval of a school system directive that would require middle and high school librarians teach two classes. The purpose was to fill a gap that’d be left by educators whose positions were getting cut.

However, a majority of board members voted to keep librarians in the library and to hire 36 more teachers at a cost of $3.6 million to cover the empty classrooms. Goldbeck said she was “stunned” by the vote.

Some board members also attempted to lower class sizes, but the efforts were unsuccessful. Rogers, however, said she’d asked County Executive Kathy Klausmeier for more funding so the staffing formula could remain the same. Klausmeier said it’s her “desire” to do so, according to Rogers, but it’s not yet a done deal.

Rogers said in previous budget discussions that she had tried limiting new expenses, which account for $6.4 million.

They include $3.5 million and 30 jobs for two new charter schools that are coming to the school district: Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School, which struggled to get off the ground, with 192 students, and Puzzle Pieces Learning Academy, with 135 students.

The budget also adds 12 new building service workers to cover the larger square footage of Dundalk High School, Lansdowne High School and Deer Park Elementary School when the new buildings are up and running, as well as 20 new special education roles: nine paraeducators and 11 teachers.

In its initial vote Tuesday night, the board voted to reject the budget. Shortly afterward, board member Emory Young called for a revote and changed his initial “no” vote to a “yes” — giving the board the seven “yes” votes required to adopt the budget.

Board members Rod McMillion, Julie Henn and Maggie Domanowski joined Stolusky in voting against the budget.

Now that the board has given its stamp of approval, the county executive will review the budget before it goes to the County Council in April.

This story may be updated.

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.