MoCo Board of Education Adopts $3.165 Billion Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2024

The Montgomery County Board of Education has unanimously adopted a $3.165 billion operating budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, an increase of $245 million or 8.4 percent over the prior year. The adopted budget will allow Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to make investments to support enrollment growth and student academic needs, while providing staff wage increases to competitively hire and retain highly qualified teachers, administrators and support service workers.

The FY 2024 Operating Budget was developed to specifically target investments aligned to the three focus areas of the MCPS strategic plan: Academic Excellence, Well-Being and Family Engagement and Professional and Operational Excellence. The budget also includes focused investments by the Board of Education to improve math and literacy rates, build a safe and inclusive school culture and support two-way communication.

Significant Wage Increases and Other Core Investments
MCPS has agreed to a two-year economic wage agreement with the three MCPS employee associations. All three unions were provided comparable compensation packages to meet the needs of their members and will allow the district to attract and retain world-class employees.

Core investments include:

• $206.5 million to maintain the negotiated agreements with school system employee associations.
• $45.5 million for increases in enrollment and inflation.
• $26.8 million for vital academic achievement supports and safety enhancements.

These above investments are offset by other reductions in the FY 2024 Operating Budget.

A Difficult Year Ahead
To maintain budget investments, the district has also realigned funds to fully meet anticipated needs by reducing the amount of savings generated from the lapse and turnover of positions by $30 million, moving $29.3 million of recurring base expenditures to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III Fund, which is a one-time source of revenue from the federal government ending September 2024, reduce requested academic and safety supports by $20.2 million and permanent reductions to the base budget totaling $8.6 million.

Multi-Year Employee Negotiated Agreements Approved
The Board of Education also approved multi-year agreements with employee associations representing teachers, administrators and supporting staff. These agreements provide fair and equitable salary enhancements supporting recruitment and retention, as well as :

• An elementary school planning time pilot program.
• Enhanced instructional coverage and compensation.
• Recruitment and retention for high-impact schools.
• Increased professional development opportunities.
• Improvements to new educator and new employee onboarding.
• Improvements to support two-way engagement, such as supports to expand interpretations and for school staff to do home visits.

Resources:

• Read the MCPS Superintendent’s Fiscal Year 2024 Operating Budget memorandum to the Board of Education.
• Association agreements will be published on this website.