by Llew Brown

Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools (PGCABS), in collaboration with PGCPS staff, hosted an interactive Q&A session on the proposed operating budget on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, at Ernest Everett Just Middle School. Participants listened to a presentation from Mike Herbstman, Chief Financial Officer for PGCPS, and discussed proposed funding for various items including class size reduction, language immersion, transportation, and more. We captured several questions and as many responses as we could during the discussion. We will also post additional materials provided by PGCPS when available. UPDATE: Additional questions and answers from the PGCPS Budget Office have been posted here.

Questions addressed during the discussion

Q. Security staffing – how will that money be used?

• Classroom door upgrades, and overtime
• Second assignment (SA) – money to cover gaps in staffing. For example, an officer or teacher may be asked to provide extra coverage at another school. This is cheaper than hiring an additional person

Q. Explain funding for Community schools

• If the pilot goes well, PGCPS will identify a school and implement the model at a school

Q. Special Education – please explain in more detail, how that funding will be used to address the various needs of special education students

Q. Is there a plan to increase positions of school nurses?

• PGCPS has a long standing nursing shortage (10 years)

Q. Please be more creative with the way K-8’s are budgeted. Doesn’t feel equitable because the needs across grades are very different

Q. Immersion programs – what is the plan for expansion?

• Expansion from 4th grade to 5th grade in this budget

Q. Buses are chronically late. Do we need more bus drivers to get buses to arrive on time?

• PGCPS recently hired 95 drivers within the past two months
• Problem is keeping drivers, PGCPS is working on retention incentives
• About 10% of drivers don’t show up each day. Also working on attendance incentives
• PGCPS has 4,000 buses. PGCPS will examine effect of incentives and continue to discuss interventions this spring.

Q. Charter school – How can we make it more affordable to parents? Having no transportation, cost of uniforms, fees to pay sports, means a lot of money for parents out of pocket

• Line item for charter schools accounts for enrollment. To fund charters, PGCPS examines Per pupil allocation for regular schools, then that cost per pupil is provided to fund the charter school
• To understand a charter school’s budget, or to advocate for changes to the way funds are used, it’s most appropriate to talk to the board governing the charter school

Questions for future follow up from PGCPS

• Special Education – How will th $718K be allocated?
• Lead remediation (page 24) – is the goal for this line item amount to achieve 100% remediation next year? If not, what is the goal for the funding?
• Page 24, what is the difference btw AC upgrades and Healthy schools HVAC?
• Page 25, Under Maintenance of Plant, does this mean no change in the number of staff performing Maintenance?
• Page 43, Chief Executive Officer, looks like a reduction of $380K, please explain the reduction. Is it a reduction in CEO salary, a reduction of an FTE on the CEO Staff? Etc.
• We lost head start funding a few years ago. I believe $5mill/year, does PGCPS plan to apply for that grant again?

Note, PGCPS will host three public hearings on the proposed budget. The first will be Tue Jan 29th, 7pm, at Fairmont Heights

The PGCPS Budget Office has provided additional answers to these questions and other questions about the budget here.