Hagerstown, Md. — Washington County Public Schools officials have started working on the budget for fiscal year 2028. They say that growing special education needs, higher employee costs, health insurance, inflation and new state rules will make it harder to balance the school system’s finances.
At the Sept. 1 meeting, Superintendent Dr. Gary Willow, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Pru and the budget team explained enrollment trends, Maryland’s funding formulas, and expected expenses to the Washington County Board of Education. They also shared four main priorities for the FY28 budget.
The board also informally agreed to choose Downsville Pike Elementary School as the preferred name for the new school being built.
The FY28 budget will take effect on July 1, 2027. Willow said these early talks are meant to help board members and the public better understand how the school system’s budget is put together before any official decisions are made.
Willow said during the presentation that they want to take a closer look at how the budget is created.
WCPS officials said that enrollment is the main factor in how the school system is funded. They expect about 21,558 students when the count happens on Sept. 30, but this number could change as the school year begins.
Maryland funds schools based on either the Sept. 30 enrollment or a three-year average, whichever is higher. WCPS expects this year’s enrollment to be above the three-year average.
Even though enrollment has stabilized, officials said the district still has fewer K-12 students than before the COVID-19 pandemic. In fiscal year 2020, WCPS had 21,792 students and is still about 200 students below that number.
However, administrators said the total student count does not show the full financial picture because more students now need extra services.
Since fiscal year 2020, special education enrollment has risen about 25 percent, from around 2,400 students to over 3,000. The district also says the number of multilingual learners has increased by about 115 percent.
Officials say the number of multilingual learners has stayed about the same over the past two years. Students who become proficient in English leave the program each year. Administrators add that about 10 percent of multilingual learners exit the program in a typical year, so the total number of students served over time is higher than the year-end figure shows.
Changes in the student population significantly affect the budget because the Maryland Blueprint for Maryland’s Future provides different levels of funding based on student needs.
How Blueprint funding follows students
Pru stated that Maryland school funding begins with foundation funding, which provides a set amount for each student regardless of whether they receive extra services.
Additional funds go to students in special education, multilingual learning and compensatory education, since they are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
Schools with a large number of pupils from low-income families can also receive money for the concentration of poverty, with this funding kept separate from the district’s general fund.
For fiscal year 2028, WCPS anticipates the base amount will increase to around $9,789 per student. Students eligible for additional programs can receive much more funding, since each category is added to the base amount. For instance, a student eligible for free or reduced-price meals, multilingual learner services and special education could receive about $39,392 in funding.
The administrators also said 75 percent of the funds had to go directly to the school the student attends.
Officials said this rule has made it harder for WCPS to transfer money among schools based on the district’s overall needs. “School size is a factor since the funding follows the students,” said Willow.
Pru said larger schools can generally reduce costs because positions such as principal, secretary and custodian are shared among more students; smaller schools, by contrast, may end up with a higher cost per student even if their total budgets are smaller.
For instance, when a school has 600 students, the cost of employing a principal is spread among twice as many students as in a school with 300 students. This principle also extends to other members of the school staff.
Officials made it clear they were not claiming larger schools are better than smaller ones; they only wanted to explain the financial effects of enrollment and the Blueprint funding rules.
Boonsboro, South Hagerstown show funding differences
The budget staff used Boonsboro High School and South Hagerstown High School as examples of how student demographics can greatly affect funding.
Boonsboro has roughly half as many students as South Hagerstown, and South Hagerstown has so many more students eligible for additional funding that it needs more than twice as much.
It was stated that 38 percent of students in Boonsboro are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, whereas 72 percent in South Hagerstown are.
Because of the funding formulas, WCPS ends up spending more than required at some schools, while other schools receive much more targeted funding.
Administrators have warned that it would not be possible to simply transfer money from one school to another, as all schools still require essential staff such as administrators, teachers, and other important workers.
State provides majority of foundation funding
WCPS officials also examined how funding is divided between the state and the county.
The Blueprint model for Maryland was intended to divide funding roughly equally between the state and local governments, but the actual figures vary by area, mainly by the wealth level in each locality.
Washington County is considered less wealthy than the rest of the state. For the fiscal year 27, the state contributed about 68 percent of the county’s foundation funding while the county contributed nearly 32 percent.
For targeted funding, the exact figures vary a little, but officials said that generally two-thirds of WCPS formula funding comes from the state and one-third from the county; the state sets these percentages and revises them each year.
Prekindergarten funding remains separate
The administrators discussed prekindergarten funding, noting that pre-K has its own separate funding system.
Eligibility is divided into income groups based on the federal poverty level.
Families whose income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level are placed in Tier 1 and receive the highest level of funding; for fiscal year 28, officials anticipate that a qualified pre-K student will generate around $19,950.
Families receiving aid under Tier 2 have incomes between 300 and 600 percent of the federal poverty level, and the funding they receive decreases as their income increases. Currently, WCPS receives funding up to around 450 percent.
The school system does not receive state funding for students from higher-income groups once it reaches the prescribed limit.
Despite this, WCPS has chosen to continue offering universal prekindergarten to all families rather than charging families who do not qualify for funding. Staff said the district believes this approach has helped students prepare for kindergarten.
The WCPS system mainly provides pre-K for 4-year-olds, while many 3-year-olds attend community-run providers. Officials said state law requires public schools and private providers to share responsibility for eligible pre-K students.
The district also cannot extend services to 3-year-olds because it lacks building space, especially since students with greater needs tend to live in areas where schools have less room.
Employee costs dominate budget
Staff costs make up the largest part of the WCPS budget.
The officials stated that approximately 86 percent of the general fund budget is allocated to staff and related expenses.
These costs include salary payments, payroll taxes, health insurance, workers’ compensation, and contracted services. For example, school resource officers, school nurses, and specialists engaged when WCPS cannot find sufficient staff for particular positions, such as speech-language pathologists, fall into this category. This high percentage indicates that little money remains in the budget for other expenses after paying for staff.
Most staff recruited in recent years have been hired for special education. Officials said about 62 percent of the new positions created between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2027 were for special education, including teachers, classrooms, and paraprofessionals. About 19 percent of the new staff members were hired for multilingual learners, with the remainder hired for general education and other positions.
Administrators said these figures reflect students’ changing needs.
Raises, insurance could add millions
Officials provided several examples of how quickly staff costs can increase.
A 1 percent raise for all employees would cost about $2.2 million, while a 3 percent raise would cost about $6.6 million. Health insurance is also a major item. A 1 percent increase in insurance costs would add roughly $550,000 to the budget, and a 10 percent increase would cost about $5.5 million.
The administrators said it is still too early in the year to assess how much insurance costs will rise; other anticipated increases include pensions, utilities, nursing contracts, school resource officers, and inflation. WCPS will have to cover these costs even if it has not set aside additional funds.
Time to Care Act adds new expense
WCPS is likewise preparing for the expenses associated with Maryland’s Time to Care Act.
The program includes paid family and medical leave, and both employers and employees finance it.
Officials said that since WCPS has joined a self-funding group of other public organizations, the district’s mandatory contributions will begin in January 2028, even though that date is later than for many other Maryland employers.
The district anticipates employer costs of about $1 million, equivalent to about half a year’s worth of payments in that period.
Once the program is fully in place, administrators said WCPS expects to pay around $2 million each year, with employees making a similar contribution through payroll deductions.
It was made clear that this scheme is not the same as the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which safeguards an employee’s position during periods of leave. Moreover, Maryland’s scheme also includes wage replacement for qualifying leave.
Four priorities emerge
After the financial overview, Willow shared four areas that the district’s senior leaders recommend as top priorities for the FY28 budget:
- Employee salaries and benefits.
- Operational costs and inflation.
- Special education programming.
- Elementary collaborative planning time.
The board did not hold a formal vote during the work session. Instead, members discussed the recommendations and generally agreed that these four areas are the school system’s biggest financial needs.
The group discussed special education in great detail. Officials stated that the district already has more students with substantial needs in the elementary schools. As these students advance, WCPS will need to ensure it has sufficient programs, classrooms, and staff at the middle and high schools.
The typical cost of a new special education classroom is around $210,000, depending on staffing levels. The WCPS budget provides about $95,000 for a special education case manager or teacher and about $50,000 for a paraprofessional.
The board members also discussed the difficulty of balancing the need to hire more staff with the need to pay employees fairly.
A person said special education should remain a priority but questioned how the school system can keep increasing salaries and hiring more staff given its limited funds.
Another board member asked WCPS to continue reviewing the elementary Encore pilot and examine results from the ABLE program before deciding whether to continue.
Board members said there is little scope to eliminate any of the four proposed priorities.
Staff said the administration will draft more specific language and then return the priorities to the board for a formal vote.
The district also intended to hold a Community Matters meeting on the budget at the Center for Education Services on September 8. Officials said the meeting would help residents learn about the budgeting process and work through sample budget scenarios.
Board considers new elementary school name
The session then turned to naming the new elementary school under construction. A committee, set up under Board of Education policy, was asked to investigate possible names and make three recommendations. This committee decided that Downsville Pike Elementary School should be its first choice.
Officials said the name reflects the school’s location and aligns with WCPS’s practice of naming schools after roads, communities, or local areas.
The other schools shortlisted were Crossroads Elementary School, whose name refers to the school’s location near Interstates 70 and 81 and the area’s historical crossroads, and Limestone Springs Elementary School, whose name refers to the region’s limestone and natural springs.
The committee considered other possibilities, including Downsville Crossroads Elementary, Downsville Heritage Elementary, Manor Road Elementary, Peace Valley Elementary and Marsh Run Elementary.
One proposal, Grafton Downs Elementary School, would honor Grafton Downs, the first principal of the old Downsville school.
Other names could have been given in honor of people from Washington County, such as a serviceman who went missing in action in the Korean War and Craig Wibberley, a student from Fountain Rock and a graduate of Williamsport High School, who died in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
The Washington County Historical Society assisted the committee with research into local properties, historical names, and the people associated with the area, and board members said Downsville Pike Elementary would be easy for residents to identify and would reduce confusion.
Although one person preferred the suggestion of using names that emphasize local history, the board chose Downsville Pike Elementary School. The administrators said the name will go to a formal vote at the board’s meeting in September.
Cellphone policy gets early praise
The meeting concluded with favorable comments regarding the district’s new cellphone policy.
The board member waited until the second week of classes to visit the schools, since he believed the new policy would be difficult to implement at first.
He said he was “pleasantly surprised” by what he saw during his visits to three schools Willow attended.
The board member said he didn’t see any cellphones during his visits and praised students, teachers, and staff for how they started the school year and responded to the new rules.
