LEONARDTOWN, Md. — The St. Mary’s County Public Schools Board of Education reported another year of declining enrollment during a biannual joint session Tuesday with the St. Mary’s County Commissioners, a trend likely to change by 2031 but, for now, could impact future state and local funding.
St. Mary’s County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. James Scott Smith said the school system is down approximately 320 students from last year, marking the third consecutive year of decline.
“Following the pandemic, we find ourselves with declining enrollment,” Smith said. “Two years ago, [there were] about 150 fewer students than the year before. Last year, we saw over 300 students decline, and this year, we find ourselves once again with declining enrollment.”
Smith said the drop translated to a reduction in combined state and county funding.
“For the purposes of funding, they do a three-year rolling average,” Smith said. “That represents about $4 and $5 million in decreased state and local funding based on maintenance of effort and the state funding formulas.”
Kimberly Howe, St. Mary’s County Public Schools director of capital planning, said the enrollment decline reflected a demographic lag caused by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the birth rate. However, she was optimistic that enrollment would approach pre-COVID-19 rates by 2031 because of the rebounding birth rate.
“During the period of COVID and several years after, the birth rate declined, but it is starting to come back up,” Howe said. “From the day a child is born, it’s five years before they enter into our school system. If you look at where we are, and you look at FY31, you’re going to start to see a return in student enrollment.”
The trend reaches beyond St. Mary’s County and across the entire state of Maryland. Smith noted that there were other contributing reasons to the enrollment decline, such as homeowners keeping their homes after their kids graduate, home-school trends and an aging population.
St. Mary’s County Public Schools tracked trends in homeschooling, which has increased since the pandemic.
“We saw it spike with over 1,600 students during the pandemic,” Smith said, referencing homeschooling numbers. “Then it went down to 1,200, and it’s building right back up again.”
Smith said many home-schooled students struggled because children did not earn a high school diploma at the end of their homeschooling, but he said St. Mary’s County Public Schools could build bridges with home-schooled families by offering pathways for them to receive a high school diploma and hopefully earn their trust to bring them back as enrolled students.
“We really just need to be engaging with them and finding out if there is a way that St. Mary’s County Public Schools can position an option that will draw them back in,” Smith said. “What we hope to do is provide a formal program so that if they follow it, they can earn a high school diploma.”
School Safety, Security And The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future
St. Mary’s County Public Schools Director of Safety and Security Charles Eible said districtwide safety upgrades and technology investments have improved security, facility access and student safety.
“All of our schools are set up the same way with our security vestibule system,” Eible said. “You walk into the security vestibule system, you get stopped, that’s as far as you’re going to make it.”
The schools were equipped with window laminations to prevent smashing entry, lightning detection to keep students safe during sports and outdoor activities, and St. Mary’s County Public Schools monitors more than 700 cameras through updated software that can live stream to local, state and federal organizations in the event of an emergency.
“One of the things we implemented at the beginning of this school year was M-View,” Eible said. “That program can actually have our camera systems live stream in the event of an emergency to our local, state and federal partners.”
Every school is equipped with public safety radios, which connect directly to 911 dispatchers, and administrators are continuously reviewing new technology and assessing the needs of each school.
“They [staff] can literally pick that radio up, and that’s direct contact to our 911 dispatchers,” Eible said. “With new technology, we’re constantly reviewing whether it’s metal detection or AI-driven technology, we want to make sure that we get it right for St. Mary’s County schools.”
St. Mary’s County Public Schools also reported it is fully compliant with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the statewide education reform plan built on five pillars of improvement. Superintendent Smith said the district has submitted all required plans and received approval from the state.
“We are in complete compliance with every expectation for the 2025–26 school year,” Smith said. “We are not writing for a waiver.”
The five pillars focus on early childhood education, high-quality teachers and leaders, college and career readiness, student resources, and governance and accountability. Smith said St. Mary’s County Public Schools has met or exceeded goals in each area, which include competitive teacher pay.
Fiscal Audit And School Facility Maintenance
Deputy Superintendent of Fiscal and Spending Services Tammy McCourt presented the results of the fiscal year 2025 audit and a funding amendment for 2026.
“Maryland state law requires that school districts complete their audited financial statements by Sept. 30,” McCourt said. “Our audit results resulted in an unmodified opinion with no audit findings, and we are deemed a low-risk auditee.”
McCourt reported a $21.1 million fund balance, slightly below last year’s $21.8 million, with plans to amend the budget to allocate $1.8 million for school maintenance and capital projects.
“Our request before you today is to use that fund balance for a variety of maintenance, operational support,” McCourt said. “The total use of the fund balance requested here is $1,887,120.”
The amendment included a series of facility upgrades focused heavily on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Major allocations included $250,000 for rooftop unit replacements, $224,000 for HVAC coil cleaning and $80,000 to recalibrate HVAC systems at various sites.
Additional projects include roof and pipe repairs, chiller and oil tank replacements, and septic and signage upgrades, with significant work scheduled at Lexington Park Elementary, Benjamin Banneker Elementary, Hollywood Elementary and Leonardtown High School.
School officials said the funding ensured that the core infrastructure continues to meet safety and efficiency standards while preventing larger costs in future budgets.
St. Mary’s County Commissioners passed the budget amendment for St. Mary’s County Public Schools unanimously.
Karen Baily, chair of the Board of Education, thanked commissioners for their continued partnership and noted that they always fund the schools as appropriately as possible.
“It is very clear that the five of you [County Commissioners] are committed to the public school system and each and every one of our students and employees that walk through those doors every day,” Bailey said.
St. Mary’s County Commissioner President Randy Guy commended the collaboration between the county and the school system.
“I believe in a good education system,” Guy said. “I think we are very fortunate with our schools, our local college and our trade schools. I definitely support education.”
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