FREDERICK, Md. (KR) The President of the Frederick County Board of Education, Brad Young, is defending the board’s decision to approve the operating budget for fiscal year 2017.
He spoke to Bob Miller on the Morning News Express this week and explained why even though the school board received 10-million dollars above Maintenance of Effort, it really worked out to be less.
“What happened this year was the first time that we got significantly more money than Maintenance of Effort than we have in the past, the county allocated $10.5 million over Maintenance of Effort,” said Young.
During a public hearing a number of teachers and union representatives expressed their frustration at the board about making salaries higher and competitive with other districts.
Critics feel salaries should be higher since the board received $10 million dollars over Maintenance of Effort for next fiscal year.
Young disagrees and said the school system ended up receiveing less money due to adjusted enrollment.
“We shrunk a little bit in kids and we also had a correction last year in the student council. We actually only got $9 million more than what we had last year. So, even though we got a $10.5 million increase over Maintenance of Effort it was only $9.5 million of new money.” said Young
Young said that employee salaries account for 90 percent of every dollar that they receive from the county state and federal government. The fiscal year 2017 budget goes into effect on July 1st.