Baltimore County wants to eliminate vacant teacher positions to save $24.8 million
BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore County Board of Education will vote on its budget for the next school year this month. In it, there is a proposal to eliminate 162 vacant teacher positions to save the district $24.8 million.
The district says the positions are no longer needed due to a decrease in enrollment.
"We need to work together to fix this budget," a Baltimore County educator said at the Tuesday night board meeting.
As district leaders work to make budget cuts, some teachers are looking to add to the budget.
A group of Baltimore County Educators showed up to voice their concerns about the budget at a Board of Education Tuesday night.
The brought signs and demanded better pay.
"You have the power to keep experienced educators who serve as role models for our students in BCPS," an educator said during the meeting. "Fund our salary scale compression and increase career earnings and better recruit and retain good educators."
Members of the board had a lengthy discussion about the budget and salary increases at the meeting and looked for ways to bump up pay.
"I would strongly urge that we look at the budget and trim in areas from the outer circles in so that we can use as many of our resources as we can to support having competitive salaries for our teachers and staff," Board of Education Vice Chair Rhonda Harvey said.
The president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, Cindy Sexton, attended the meeting, too.
WJZ asked Sexton about the budget and the move to eliminate the vacant teacher positions. She said it was not a good idea.
"We're concerned that our class sizes will get bigger, which then leads to more discipline concerns and less time you can spend one-on-one with students," she said. "So, it really is a multi-layered, multi-faceted up concern that we have."
No official decision was made tonight on those teacher vacancies and raising salaries for current educators.
But, the board of education is still expected to vote on its final budget Feb. 28.