JUNE 8, 2023
BERLIN • NORTH WORCESTER COUNTY• OCEAN PINES
FREE
JACK CHAVEZ/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
It was standing room only at the Worcester County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, with the vast majority of the crowd comrprised of teachers, bus contractors and school staff who came to watch as the commissioners voted 5-2 to fund the school system at the legal minimum, dashing school officials’ hopes to use a budget increase to raise salaries.
County denies schools more money Commissioners not swayed by crowd, as they vote 5-2 to spend no more than what system received last year By Jack Chavez Staff Writer (June 8, 2023) The Worcester County Public Schools budget is officially set, and it’s exactly what the new commissioner majority has said for months what it could be — flat. The Worcester County Commissioners passed the school budget on a 5-to-2 vote at roughly $100.01 million in maintenance-of-effort funding and $759,000 for the county’s required share of
teacher pensions on Tuesday. Commissioners Diana Purnell and Joe Mitrecic opposed the measure. The approved framework is not a penny more than what the county is legally obligated to provide to its school system, meaning it is now on the board of education to determine how to come up with the roughly $4.5 million it asked for to pay for staff and contractor salary increases, among other things. At the core of the budget discussion was a quarrel over the accessibility of specific expenses in the school system’s yearly budget. While repeated assurances from both sides that the relationship is still healthy, or that everyone is cooperating as well as possible, they have ex-
changed many pointed words. One side harped on the unprecedented nature of the request — and making veiled implications that the county moved the goalposts by making its request late in the budget process — and the other reminded county residents and the board that it was asking for transparency in the use of taxpayer money, not private money. “I have been against this motion since day one. It does not look at the future of our education system properly,” Mitrecic said. “We have state mandates coming down, the Blueprint for Maryland’s future in four years. It’ll be two years after this budget is over. It’s almost See PURNELL Page 11
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