(4/23/2024) Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater released a fiscal year 2025 budget announcement on April 15 that highlighted residents' budget priorities previously requested at five different community listening sessions, the balancing act survey or testifying at one of two public hearings.
"We heard loud and clear throughout our budget listening sessions that the state of our schools matters," Fitzwater said through a video posted to the Frederick county government website.
According to the county executive, she was able to include the new board of education request for a $134 million dollar replacement Brunswick High School project within the six year capital improvement plan.
Heather Clabaugh, associate superintendent for Frederick County Public Schools, said they were not surprised at the amount of support for education at the final budget hearing on March 20 at Winchester Hall.
"Our budget, approximately 85 percent of it, is made up of salary and benefits that support over seven thousand employees," Clabaugh said. "That is a big part of the budget so they [FCPS staff] support it and they understand the budget. They [FCPS staff] understand what the budget being fully funded not only means to them personally but also to the students in Frederick county."
The FCPS budget request is broken down into four main categories: retaining and recruiting staff, growth increase, inflationary pressures, and operational excellence. The majority of the requests surrounded recruiting and retaining staff due to the county being one the fastest growing school districts in Maryland, according to Clabaugh.
"In the past five years we’ve grown by nearly 10 percent in enrollment and the second fastest growing county has grown by just about two percent and that’s Carroll county…that’s our neighbor to the east," Clabaugh said.
The importance of funding for FCPS goes well beyond the administration department. Kelly Esslinger, a six year user support specialist for the Department of Technology Infrastructure, said she felt grateful that the Frederick county charter scheduled listening sessions so residents had a chance to contribute to decisions within the county government.
"When discussing concerns about public education, I feel a disparity between the amount of attention teachers receive and the amount education support professionals such as myself are given," Esslinger said. "As such, I want to highlight the wide range of specialized folks we require and rely on as a school system who are often taken for granted."
The sixth year specialist said she felt the county executive accepted all remarks made by residents at the final budget hearing and factored the support vocalized within each of the strategic goals as outlined in her budget proposal.
"I’ve spoken at other listening sessions offered by County Executive Fitzwater and I noted that my comments were directly reflected in the district-defined ‘listening session requests’ of her budget proposal. And I know that County Executive Fitzwater values her roots in education," Esslinger said.
FCPS requested $62 million dollars in additional funding and have received $10 million dollars so far, according to Clabaugh. On June 30, the education budget must be balanced–the revenues have to equal the expenditures.
The spending plan for the new fiscal year must be adopted by May 31. The 2025 fiscal year in Frederick county will start July 1.
