WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. -- A contentious 4-3 vote on Tuesday morning left Worcester County Public Schools one million dollars short of its budget request. Teachers tell WBOC it puts much-needed raises in jeopardy.
On Tuesday morning, the Worcester County Commissioners approved the final budget for fiscal year 2026. Funding for WCPS, specifically funding for a new salary package, was a big focal point.
Commissioners Chip Bertino, Caryn Abbott, Madison Bunting and Ted Elder were in favor, with commissioners Joe Mitrecic, Diana Purnell and Eric Fiori opposed.
Teachers sought a $4,000 across-the-board raise.
Beth Shockley-Lynch, President of the Worcester County Teachers Association and a teacher at Snow Hill Middle School, said it would have rewarded experienced teachers. It would have also helped WCPS inch its way towards a $60,000 starting salary for new teachers by 2027, which the Blueprint for Maryland's Future requires.
"Our teachers work long and hard, and quite frankly, they deserve this step," said Shockley-Lynch.
The Worcester County Commissioners approved a $2,500 step increase for county employees, which technically includes teachers. However, county commissioners do not determine teacher pay. Worcester County's Board of Education does. The commissioners do, however, contribute.
Negotiation Breakdown:
Each year, the Worcester County Teachers Association negotiates salaries with the Board of Education. If any raises are on the table, the BOE determines how much money it needs to make that happen and then requests that amount from the county.
This year, the BOE asked for $6,024,439. County commissioners approved $4,860,341, underfunding the budget request by a total of $1,164,098.
"I think we expected, now that times certainly are not tight, that we would of been able to work this out," said Shockley-Lynch.
At a budget work session on May 28th, Commissioner Joe Mitrecic questioned why the BOE requested salary budget wasn't being fully funded. He mentioned an estimated $7,785,000 surplus for FY26, an estimated budget surplus of $14 million from FY25 and more than $15 million in the county's budget stabilization fund.
Fast forward to June 3rd, and that surplus looked a bit different, according to numbers provided by Worcester County Government. Before Tuesday's vote, commissioners were dealing with a surplus of $2,811,451.
In order to balance the budget, the surplus was doled out as follows:
- $151,123 was allocated to fund the after-school programs at Worcester County Public Schools.
- Anticipated revenues decreased by $2,444,930 when the property tax rate was reduced by an additional one cent for a total reduction of three cents or $0.815
- Reserve funds were increased by $22,668
- OPEB(retirement) for the BOE was given an additional $192,730
The county does have an extra $15,199,819 in its budget stabilization fund, which the county uses "in case of emergency". If budget revenues are not enough to cover the county's expenses for one year, officials can dip into the stabilization fund to fill in the gaps.
Still, Superintendent Louis Taylor would have liked to see budget decisions break down differently.
"To say that we can't give you another million or million and a half or two million to fund a salary package, it's no common and no business sense in my opinion," said Taylor.
Taylor said the decision keeps Worcester County in a difficult spot, for both recruiting and retention.
"We are 24 out of 24 in starting teacher salary," said Taylor. "We do not sit at the top or even the upper echelon on any part of our scale in the state of Maryland."
Commission President Ted Elder said the decision boiled down to either lowering property taxes or fully funding the school system's request.
"We decided that the county taxpayers need to join in this money," said Elder. "The last two or three years, we've had reassessments, and these same commissioners have been complaining about the cost of their constituency, and now they're upset that we're trying to give some back to them."
Elder also noted that WCPS received a 7% increase in this year's budget.
Commissioner Eric Fiori, however, said the county should have placed a higher priority on salaries.
"It's about investing in the community. Do we all want lower taxes, wellof course we do, but at what cost, and that's what we need to assess as commissioners," said Fiori. "If we pull funding out of education, at what cost? Are we saving $80 a year on our taxes? Is that enough to kick our teachers into the dirt? I don't think so."
The Worcester County Teachers Association will now have to go back to the negotiating table with the BOE.
"We're not sure what the step will look like. We'll have to go back and see how we can rearrange, collectively rearrange funds to do the best we can for our teachers," said Shockley-Lynch.