The financial struggle between the two elected boards of St. Mary’s County – the Board of County Commissioners and the Board of Education – was clearly visible at the budget work session Tuesday afternoon.

The school board representatives were conspicuously absent from the budget work session, and the commissioners took another $200,000 from the already approved school budget and put it in the commissioners’ reserve fund.

 
Commissioners Thomas A. Mattingly (D), left, and Kenny Dement (R).

“They are usually here, but they are not always here,” County Administrator John Savich told the Bay Net after the Tuesday meeting when asked why none from the school board attended the budget work session.

“I don’t see a standoff,” Savich said.

Savich played down the differences and said the presence of department representatives was not required at all budget work sessions. Ruling out any room for any give and take on the $76 million school budget, Savich said, “These are now fixed numbers.”

Savich said that seldom does a budget request, put forth by any department, get complete funding. When asked if the further cut might be considered by the school board as adding insult to injury, Savich conceded, “Maybe.”

“I don’t think they boycotted it,” Commissioner President Jack Russell (D, St. George Island) said about the absence of school representatives at the budget work session. “I think school Finance Director Dan Carney is out of town and could not show up.”

Privately, the commissioners had been accusing the school board of not doing their homework right, though they did not discuss St. Mary’s per-pupil spending as compared to the neighboring counties of Charles and Calvert Counties.

Russell said there were a few questions that have yet to be answered by the school board before the budget season ends.

“We have to balance the budget by [May 29th].  Everybody is working very hard, including the school board,” Russell said.

At a public hearing four weeks ago at the Great Mills High School, dozens of citizens appeared and spoke in support of school Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano’s budget, after the commissioners cut $2.5 million from his budget request.

 
Commissioners Daniel Raley (D), right, and Larry Jarboe (R).

On Tuesday, the commissioners publicly put the school board on the mat for the first time, calling for greater accountability of the funding requests. Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R, Golden Beach) thrice mentioned a $12,000 car lease for a Chinese instructor recently hired by the school system.

“I don’t know how they are making those kinds of decisions,” Commissioner Tom Mattingly (D, Leonardtown) said about some items on the school budget. He questioned what factors determined the needs put forward by the school system, expressing concern over some of the extravagant demands.

Mattingly told