The following was announced on December 9th:

The presentation of the Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2021 Operating Budget, originally scheduled for December 17, 2019, will now occur during the January 9, 2020, Board of Education meeting.

The later date accounts for several competing priorities scheduled during December, including Board actions on the Capital Budget, affecting the Board and school system. The Board’s budget work sessions and public hearings scheduled for January and February will take place as scheduled.

A schedule of upcoming Board meetings is available online.

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Now this is significant (a bit) in that our community was told that the budget presentation and meetings needed to start in December and that was one of the reasons given for not having additional meetings relating to the redistricting process. Remember that…if not…I have the video of that discussion from the November 18th Howard County Board of Education (HoCoBOE) meeting:

Every board member gave an opinion on adding (or not adding) additional sessions for redistricting. Some noted the budget process and when that process needed to start. I know the video is a bit long…but I wanted to make sure I got the comments from everyone during this discussion and the vote on that motion.

I get that there has been new information presented to the school system and HoCoBOE…but we could have had one or two additional meetings to focus on middle and elementary schools this month relating to redistricting…and the world would not have ended had that happened (obviously).

Nothing about redistricting was easy…nothing about the upcoming HCPSS budget (operating or capital) will be easy…and that should not be forgotten as you think about all of what is happening right now.

Have thoughts…let me know in the comments.

Scott E