Elaine Blaisdell
OAKLAND — The Garrett County Public School system is requesting $26,179,897 from the county for fiscal 2015, according to a budget presentation made by Larry McKenzie, director of finance.
The funding request is $820,897 more than the prior year’s request. The additional funding is needed to pay a portion of the costs associated with the teacher pension passback, which increased to more than $1 million, McKenzie said during a county commission meeting Tuesday.
“Since I’ve been here I have been accused of running the school system like a business — actually it is,” said Superintendent of Schools Janet Wilson. “It has to be run that way with our bottom line being very different.”
Capital requests include $582,400 for the design phase of the Southern Middle School renovation project, which is set to begin next year. In January, the commissioners approved the money for the design phase. The renovation will include a performing arts venue, a third of which will fit in the original footprint of the building, according to Wilson.
“This would be for a facility that looks like Mountain Ridge’s (performing arts venue) in terms of its size,” said Wilson.
Mountain Ridge has the capacity to seat 500 and is 9,000 square feet, according to Bill Swift, director of facilities, maintenance and operations at GCPS.
“We are the only county in the state that does not have a performing arts center,” said Swift.
Capital requests also include $415,000 for the Dennett Road maintenance pole building and $213,000 for lighting projects at several middle schools.
“It’s important to understand that $213,000 and the $582,400 were basically appropriated for in fiscal ’14,” said McKenzie. “Those aren’t really new requests.”
Aging Schools and Qualified Zone Academy Bond funds have been appropriated in the fiscal 2015 budget for several school-based maintenance and operations projects. The school system has applied for and received QZAB funds, according to McKenzie.
Funding sources include 54.25 percent local, 39.08 percent state, 6.33 percent federal and 0.34 percent miscellaneous funding. The 54 percent local puts the county over the maintenance of effort, which requires that the level of state and local funding remain relatively constant from year to year, according to Commissioner Gregan Crawford. The school system expects to receive $19,254,093 in state aid, which is similar to the amount received in 2005, according to McKenzie.
Locally, the county has increased funding to almost $8 million since 2005, according to Commissioner Jim Raley.
Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.
