Budget season for Prince George’s County Public Schools is in full swing. The CEO’s proposed operating budget for Fiscal Year 2021 is now available on the PGCPS website. If you don’t have time to read the whole budget, consider reading the introduction, which includes specific changes in expenditures compared with last year’s budget (p. 15-17), as well as information on capital improvement projects (p. 19-23).  A less-detailed  Budget in Brief document is also available.

Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools (PGCABS) is hosting, in collaboration with PGCPS staff, a question and answer session about the proposed operating budget on Wednesday, January 22, 6:00-7:30 pm at Ernest Everett Just Middle School. This will be an excellent opportunity for interested residents to pose questions to the PGCPS budget office staff about the proposed operating budget in order to be more prepared for advocacy at the Board of Education Public Hearings.  Questions may also be submitted in advance to PGCABS at https://tinyurl.com/2021budgetquestions to allow the staff time to prepare specific answers and tailor their presentation to community concerns.

The Board of Education has scheduled three public hearings around the county to solicit community input regarding the CEO’s proposed budget. These hearings will be held on January 21 at Northwestern HS, January 28 at Charles H Flowers HS, and February 4 at Crossland HS, all at 7 pm. In addition, February 11 is on the Board calendar as a possible make-up date, should any event be canceled by inclement weather.

To sign up to speak at the hearings, call the BOE office at 301-952-6115, or sign up online. Generally, each speaker is allowed three minutes for public comment, although the Board may reduce the amount of time allowed if there is a large number of speakers registered. Individuals are also encouraged to bring a hard copy of their remarks to submit for the record.

Facebook event page for this year’s Budget Q & A: https://www.facebook.com/events/847007482416112/

Notes from last year’s (FY 2020) Budget Q&A: https://pgcabs.org/2019/01/23/notes-from-pgcps-budget-qa-session/

School Budget Questions Answered from 2019: https://pgcabs.org/2018/03/10/prince-georges-schools-budget-questions-answered-for-fy-2019/