Baltimore County schools to target union salaries after proposed budget funding falls short

Racquel Bazos

The Baltimore Sun

April 29, 2025

Baltimore County Public Schools is planning adjustments to its proposed budget, including bypassing some planned salary increases, after the county’s proposal came in under the district’s request.

“This uncertain fiscal landscape requires difficult decision making,” BCPS Superintendent Myriam Rogers wrote to the school district community in an email Monday night.

Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier’s proposed budget left a $42.86 million gap in the school district’s funding, according to a comparison table Rogers referenced in her email.

Klausmeier’s budget was 3.5% above the required maintenance of effort level, Rogers said. Maintenance of effort is a state requirement that keeps per-pupil spending at the same or higher level across years.

In addition to some cost-saving measures the county and school district came up with together, Rogers said BCPS “will reopen negotiations for compensation increases with all five union bargaining units…”

“We are deeply frustrated,” Cindy Sexton, president of the Teacher’s Association for Baltimore County, one of the unions affected, wrote in a statement Tuesday. Sexton said she met with Klausmeier and six of the seven county council members to advocate for the county to fund the compensation agreement that was settled in 2024.

Baltimore County is not the school system’s only funder, but it is usually its largest source of revenue, typically accounting for just under half of the district’s budget, according to the district’s website.

Sexton acknowledged that the county reduced spending across the board while facing funding uncertainty on the federal, state and local levels.

“Given that the county has not provided sufficient money for our agreement, we must now fight for the best outcome. We plan to advocate to BCPS for them to make even harder decisions and to find the money needed to fund the negotiated agreement and its structure,” she wrote in the statement.

Because the district anticipated a shortfall, BCPS continued to identify potential cost savings and revenue sources, Rogers wrote. Klausmeier and the county’s budget team worked with their BCPS counterparts to come up with several possible measures, outlined in the email, including:

• Eliminating additional supervisory central office positions.
• Extending a hiring freeze for all central office and non-school-based positions.
• Reducing funding for supplies and materials by 24 percent ($14 million).
• Implementing additional cuts to division and department budgets.

Baltimore County Council was scheduled to hold a public hearing on the county’s budget Tuesday night. The council will approve a final budget for the county, including the school system, on May 22, Rogers said.