It’s a familiar dance in Howard County schools. The superintendent proposes cuts that result in community backlash. The board of education restores the cuts, much to the public’s delight, before shipping off its funding request to county leaders.

But the reality is money is tight. School leaders ultimately must make many of the cuts after all.

The scenario played out last year, spelling the end of third-grade orchestra, a darling program for many in county schools. Now Superintendent Bill Barnes is warning it’s about to happen again — this time in high school science labs.

On Thursday night, the school board unanimously voted to adopt a $1.6 billion budget — one that includes several line items that Barnes wanted to cut. He had proposed a $1.3 billion spending plan that reduced the number of teacher’s aides across the school system, including those who set up science experiments. Bowing to pressure from community members, the board last week restored those positions, among others, to the tune of $3.3 million.

Then, on Monday, County Executive Calvin Ball wrote school officials to say the county is facing an anticipated $67.1 million budget shortfall from all budget requests, posing pointed questions that signal increased scrutiny over school spending.

However, the county is projected to see nearly $97 million in new money. In his letter, Ball asked for budget scenarios in which the school system receives from 50% to 58% of those new dollars. In each scenario, though, Ball requests that the school system repay a one-time $14.5 million infusion that plugged a budget hole last year.

“Nothing in the letter is factually incorrect, but it doesn’t exactly serve the public debate well either,” said Anthony DeBella, a school system parent who co-chairs the Operating Budget Review Committee, which provided recommendations to the school board.

DeBella said, although Ball’s letter is correct in saying the county provides increased education funding year to year, it doesn’t account for “the elephant in the room.”

“With inflation going up, it hasn’t bought us any more education,” DeBella said.

What’s in the proposal?

When Barnes unveiled his budget proposal in January, he characterized it as “a reasonable request” that honors pay raises for teachers, continues prekindergarten expansion and looks to support underperforming students who fall further behind. He proposed asking the county for nearly $62 million more than the school system received last year.

Barnes recommended shifting some high school paraeducators who support multilingual students in the classroom into teaching roles with these students and having elementary school paraeducators in first grade and up focus on students with disabilities and who are multilingual. He also proposed cutting high school science lab aides, librarians and middle school librarian aides.

The school board didn’t go for it. It unanimously restored the positions last week.

“As a school board we ask [for] the ceiling and we cannot guarantee the final results, but we do due diligence,” board member Linfeng Chen said ahead of the vote.

As the school board discussed cutting the superintendent’s addition of six school culture and safety assistant positions at a work session last week, Barnes said he appreciated the conversation. But he added, when push comes to shove, these positions and others would be first to go.

“When we get the [county] money, which is half of $96 million or a little more than half … these [school culture positions] and athletic trainers and other positions that just got added back are all going to be things we have to contend with pulling back out,” Barnes said.

A motion failed to remove the six positions.

Pressed for cash, the school board considered offloading some expenses to students’ families. Board members ultimately passed on two options that would have been extremely unpopular: charging students to ride the bus or to play sports. (A handful of other Maryland school districts charge athletes participation fees.)

But this month the board did vote to raise prices on two summer programs, and it’s considering whether to increase fees for renting school facilities. The increased summer program fees are estimated to generate roughly $250,000 to $275,000, a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of new funds the school system is seeking.

With Thursday night’s vote, the adopted budget heads to the county executive’s office for review. Ball will present his budget proposal, which includes funds for public schools, to the County Council in early spring.

The school board is set to vote on its final budget May 19.

This story has been updated.