After months of discussions and hearing, the Montgomery County Boards of Supervisors passed the budget that County Administrator Craig Meadows put in front of them in March.
The $189 million budget passed on a 7-0 vote at Monday’s meeting, as did a 6-1 vote to keep the real estate tax rate at $0.89 per $100 of assessed value ($890 per $100,000 of value).
The board hasn’t increased taxes since 2013 when it approved a two-cent increase to go directly towards capital projects for the school system.
Every cent of real estate tax generates approximately $775,000 in county revenue, equating to about 36 percent of the budget according to the county.
A half-cent tax increase was on the table at Monday’s meeting, and was supported by the three democrats on the board: April Demotts (District G), Mary Biggs (District F) and Sara Bohn (District A).
The extra revenue would have gone directly toward funding full-time student resource officers in the county’s elementary schools. Currently, only three of the 11 elementary schools have fulltime SROs with the others schools being covered part time. All of the middle and high schools have fulltime SROs.
Following the high school shooting in Parkland Florida, Sherriff Hank Partin asked for a one-cent increase to expand the program, but after reviewing costs, the county determined that less funding was required for SROs than previously thought.
The four Republicans on the board: Steve Fijalkowski (District C), Todd King (District D), Darrell Sheppard (District E) and Chairman Chris Tuck (District B) were skeptical about the effectiveness of having SROs in the schools at all times, questioning the effectiveness it would have on preventing or minimizing the effects of an active shooter.
The entire board did agree to set aside $85,000 of revenue that the county recently found into a contingency fund that could be used for a resource officer program pending further review of all the options.
Fijalkowski and Tuck both made points to say that they don’t let fear dictate their lives, asserting that they thought that fear was the main reason others were suddenly in favor of the SRO program.
“SROs may not be the solution we really want and what the school board really wants. That’s why we need to look into it, instead of jumping into it. And we might regret something we started in the first place,” Fijalkowski.
The school system will receive $1.5 million of the $2.3 million it requested in increased funding ($109.5 million total).
The majority of the increase would go toward salary increases for teachers ($1.9 million), with the rest covering the costs of increased bandwidth, health insurance costs, technology costs and maintaining a program that provides many students with Chromebooks.
Superintendent Mark Miear has said that the funding is vital for getting teachers caught up on the pay scale that is based on years of service, but still wouldn’t make starting salaries competitive with surrounding school systems.
The starting wage in the county is $36,503 whereas Salem’s is over $40,000. Radford City and Pulaski and Floyd counties also have higher starting salaries for beginning teachers of at least $2,000 more, with Giles County being the only surrounding school district to offer a lower starting wage.
It takes Montgomery County teachers between six and ten years to catch up to the surrounding school systems in pay.
The school system has stated previously that it is hopeful that additional money from the state and carryover funds from the state will fulfill the funding request.
MCPS could pass its budget as early as the beginning of May depending on when the state passes its budget.
