Frederick County School System Proposed Budget Comes Under Criticism During Hearing

Those who spoke said it was top heavy with administrators.Frederick, Md (KM) Testimony was taken on Wednesday by the Frederick County Board of Education on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget for the School System. The spending plan totals 988 million dollars which is a five-percent increase compared with last year.It’s “unrealistic”: and “must be trimmed”  were the comments from Tom Newmark.  He noted that the teachers’ union says local teachers make the  eighth highest salaries in the country. “Yet the union has the audacity to come here year after year to portray themselves   as significantly underpaid,”  he said. “We have a 40 percent failure rate in English; 70 percent in science; 75 percent in algebra. Despite some of the highest pay in America, our SAT scores are in the bottom half of the state. Can we even justify higher pay with such poor results?”Other criticism leveled at the School System had to do with too many administrators who make large salaries. “So I’m assuming we’re going to need to re-evaluate the salaries of the administrators, and bring that money down to the teachers, and those who are supporting the students,”  says Patty Worsely, to the applause of the audience at the Frederick County School System’s Central Office on East Street, where the hearing was held.Missy Dirks, the President of the Frederick County Teachers Association, urged the Board not to balance the budget at the expense of local educators. “There is no program or curriculum that can teach itself; no meals that can serve themselves; or school buses that can drive themselves,”  she said. “It is the caring and dedicated educators that make this system run. It is those dedicated educators that support our students every single day that need the support of your budget decisions.”The School System is facing a deficit of $21.7 million. The Board of Education is expected to discuss this proposed budget during its meeting next Wednesday.Other citizens took the Board of Education to task for other issues besides the budget. Cindy Rose called for the School System end its diversity, equity and inclusion program. She noted that the Trump Administration is working to end DEI, and has threatened to withhold federal funding for governments, universities, school systems and other entities which continue these programs. “My request is that you put a halt in what you’re doing, keep your status in your budget–don’t add one penny more to it–until you figure out what kind of money you’re going to get. And to go to the DEI. You guys spend way too much time in the classroom trying to proselytize and propagandize children,” Rose  said.The Board of Ed also came under fire for a novel entitled “Push,”  written by Sapphire. It contains graphic language and scenes about a man who rapes his daughter. Jennifer Eberhart said she found that book in a school media center. “What is FCPS’ position on porn in our schools? Is FCPS saying ‘yes’ to porn in our schools? Remove this book ‘Push’ or it will set a precedent for other pornographic books to be allowed into our schools,” she demanded.Eberhart also called for a better process of screening books allowed in schools, which includes someone reading these books, and getting parents involved in the process.By Kevin McManus