WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. -- As the state of Maryland mandates a pay increase for teachers and staff in the next few years, Worcester County finds itself facing significant hurdles to meet the specified threshold. The Worcester County School System must elevate salaries, but this move could put vital positions at risk unless the county steps in with financial assistance amounting to $9 million.
Worcester County schools have the lowest starting salary in the state of Maryland. Beth Shockley-Lynch, a teacher at Snow Hill Middle School and President of the Worcester County Teachers Association, said it can make hiring and retaining teacher very challenging.
"We expect a lot out of our teachers, right now we're not paying them for what they're doing," said Shockley-Lynch. "Maintenance of effort will not get us there alone, it won't even fund our salary scale."
Last year, Worcester County Commissioners chose to fund the school system at the maintenance of effort level. It came after WCPS attempted to get teachers a 4% pay raise.
"We negotiated a 4% COLA[Cost-of-Living Adjustment] for our employees that did not get funded, so that ask last year was about a $4 million ask," said Assistant Superintendent Dwayne Abt.
So now, school officials plan on going back to the county commissioners to ask for $9 million, and if like last year the commissioners choose to not pay up, jobs could be lost.
"If we were to fund the entire 6% and 6% step on maintenance of effort budget, we're looking at about 90 positions," said Abt.
There will also come a time when Worcester County will not have a choice but to increase teacher pay.
"The law right now says in 2027, we have to have a minimum starting salary of $60,000," said Shockley-Lynch.
A bump in pay would also put Worcester on a more even playing field with surrounding counties like Wicomico, Dorchester and Somerset that all have a higher starting salary.
Another reason Shockley-Lynch hopes the county sides with the Board of Education and the budget they plan on proposing is for the students.
"If we lose positions that's resources for kids that they aren't going to have, that's going to be larger class sizes and our key to success has always been smaller class sizes," said Shockley-Lynch. "I think our community expects smaller class sizes."
We did reach out the all of the Worcester County Commissioners today, those who got back to us said it was too early on in the budget process to provide a comment.
