St. Mary’s County School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano has proposed an operating budget for the next fiscal year that is $8.8 million more than the current budget. Martirano’s proposal for the fiscal year that begins July 1 includes a request for almost $8 million more from the county commissioners for the operating budget in addition to funding requests for the state-mandated teacher pension shift, monies for the Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) trust fund and $2 million from the county’s fund balance.
Martirano emphasized in presenting the budget on Wednesday to the school board that it not only includes funding for basic needs but also growth from an anticipated student increase (323) and also for the beginning of required funding for the new Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary School in Leonardtown. It also includes monies for several new programs.
Although negotiations with the school system’s three employee bargaining units have just begun, the proposal includes a “placeholder” of $2.7 million to fund any possible outcome of those negotiations.
The proposal includes 31 new positions. They are:
· Eight elementary teachers
· Two English as a Second Language teachers
· One Academy of Visual & Performing Arts Teacher (This is a new program. The Bay Net will have a separate story on that and other proposed changes to the High School Program of Studies)
·
–>
