School Board Notebook: Budget Approved, Two Hall of Fame Inductions

Fiscal Year 2012 Budget

Board members voted Monday night to for the school system with two amendments, bringing the unrestricted budget to $447,775,798.

The board held two work sessions to discuss the budget on and . Notable aspects of the recommended budget are an and the .

Amendments to Fiscal Year 2011 Budget

The board also approved amendments to the current expense fund and a capital budget amendment.

The amendment to the current expense fund is due to a federal program called the Education Jobs Fund. Gov. Martin O’Malley is distributing money from the fund, which would decrease the school system’s fiscal year 2011 unrestricted fund by $6,144,622 and increase the restricted fund by $7,680,778.

The funds are to be used for school based employee health care.

The second amendment is for the capital budget and deals with Red Pump Elementary School.

In fiscal year 2009, the Red Pump budget was reduced by $2,355,000, however the Harford County Government then added $2,000,000 of Impact Fees funding for Red Pump.

That funding was never incorporated into the budget and board members approved the amendment of $2,000,000 to the Red Pump capital budget for fiscal year 2011.

Recognitions

The board inducted Charlsie Harkins Brooks and her father, Charles Harkins, into the HCPS Hall of Fame as the 156th and 157th members.

Brooks spent 28 years with Harford County Public Schools and retired in 2000. She made contributions to the home economics program and also started the tradition of inviting John Archer students to the C. Milton Wright High School prom.

She currently teaches as an adjunct professor at Harford Community College.

Harkins began working in Harford County Public Schools in 1943 and spent 11 years there. He was the supervisor of the Harford Glen Environmental Center and developed an outdoor education program with the 245 acres of land there. 

He died of a heart attack in 1954.

“It is a special night tonight, I don’t think we’ve ever had a father-daughter recognition,” Board President Mark Wolkow said.

Gov. Martin O’Malley awarded 15 schools in the state with the Governor’s Citation for Superior Maintenance of Schools and three were in Harford County. Dublin Elementary School, Jarrettsville Elementary School and North Harford Middle School all received the citation.

The College Board also presented C. Milton Wright High School teacher Peter Griffiths with the 2011 Advanced Placement Program Outstanding Teacher Award for the Middle States Region. He is one of six people to receive the award.

Griffiths is the social studies department chair and a European Studies advance placement teacher. He is also considered the first teacher that advanced placement students at C. Milton encounter and the former three-time Harford County Teacher of the Year finalist.

“It’s through the work of Mr. Griffiths that so many students are successful and achieve so well,” Superintendent Robert Tomback said.

Redistricting Request

The only public comment at the business meeting was from Michele Grigora, a parent from the William Paca-Old Post Road Elementary School district.

“I think the fifth graders will be at a disadvantage to be moved for only one year and their academic and their social skills, I think, are going to take a hit,” she said. “I do prefer my child to stay there next year, even though there is no air conditioning at that school right now, so I think that speaks loud and clear of the staff there.”

Grigora also suggested that parents be allowed to drive their children to school in order to alleviate any bus issues with grandfathering.

Easy Approvals

The board approved minutes from previous meetings and proposed resolutions on Career and Technical Education Week and National School Counselor Week.