Imagine a school system that has approximately 4500 students, 7 schools, and a budget of $100 million dollars (when $8 million in grants is included). That’s about $23,000 per student. Theoretically, that would be a school system with the best academic scores in the state, right? Maybe even the country.
One would think. But, that’s not the case in Talbot County, Maryland. In this small Eastern Shore County, accountability takes a back seat to spending on peripheral programs and state mandates.
Proof Of Concept?
Everyone who is a businessperson or an investor knows that huge investments in businesses don’t come without proof of concept, proof of prior success, and accountability. Not so if you run a Maryland public school system. As we have seen over the past decades, public schools don’t have to show improvement in student academic achievement in order to get tens of millions of dollars from the taxpayers. In fact, in the public school system, the more unsuccessful one is, the more money you can ask for and receive.
Maryland Public Schools have learned that lesson well.
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On Monday, February 9, the Talbot County Public Schools presented a budget of $90,900,690 million dollars in a budget workshop. Then, two days later, they changed that budget to $92,345,690, 1 million, four hundred and forty-five thousand more. In just two days.
Excluding $8 million from grants, this is a 13.282% increase over last year’s budget of $81,526,613.
In a school board meeting on Wednesday, February 11, Talbot County Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Sarah Jones attributed that change partially to some mistakes in figures presented on Monday night. While I don’t doubt what she says, it seems unusual because Jones doesn’t make mistakes like that often.
What Changed From Last Year’s Budget?
Some of the changes were attributed to the possible purchase of a weapons detection system for schools which amounted to around $800,000. We agree that student safety is critical. We are one of the few counties that has School Resource Officers in all of the schools. Thanks to Joe Gamble and the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office for that.
Another change was $647,000 more for some of the new proposed staff additions. They were one coordinator of educational technology, one grant writer, four certified alternative education teachers, and one additional social worker. Alternative education teachers are for those students who are disruptive and need a different classroom environment.
Other positions were added in the new budget in addition to the six listed above: 1 elementary teacher, 1 high school English teacher, 1 special education teacher, 1 payroll clerk (formerly grant funded), 1 National Board Certification coordinator (formerly grant funded), 1 Pupil Personnel Worker for McKinney Vento students (The McKinney‑Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a U.S. federal law that ensures students experiencing homelessness have equal access to public education. It removes barriers to enrollment, attendance, and academic success for children and youth who lack stable housing)*.
While we support the addition of more classroom teachers, does the county REALLY need a coordinator for National Board Certification, an additional payroll clerk, and an additional social worker? These positions were formerly funded by grants. As is usually the case, when grants provide positions while the grant is active, those positions tend to remain after the grant, and the funding, is gone. This means that the county now has to pay for those positions. It may be time to stop that practice.
It also seems like the TCPS Central Office staff includes more supervisors/ content supervisors now than ever before. Here are those positions. Some of these positions are not new.
Assistant Superintendent – Teaching and Learning,
Director of Teaching and Learning,(Are those two positions redundant?)
Web Facilitator,
Gifted & Talented Supervisor
Reading Supervisor,
Language Arts Supervisor,
English Supervisor
Early Childhood Supervisor,
Math Supervisor,
Social Studies Supervisor,
Local Accountability Coordinator,
World Languages Supervisor,
Science Supervisor,
PE/Health Supervisor,
Career & Technology Supervisor,
Fine Arts Supervisor,
Community Schools Coordinator, (State Mandated)
National Board Certification Coordinator,
Supervisor of Educational Technology
These are 16.25 Central Office education supervision positions. Almost half a million dollars. And to think that just ten years ago the schools were getting by with half as many middle management positions. During that time, supervisors usually had responsibility for more than one content area.
Imagine if the county took at least half of those coordinators and put them into classrooms where they are needed. It would not only help academics, but also cut spending as coordinators make more than teachers.
It’s astonishing when one adds the approximately $8 million dollars of grants to the budget. With that, the actual budget, as it stands, totals over $100 million. We aren’t alleging that. Ms. Jones said so in her budget presentation.
$22 million of that comes from the state. That is the yearly support the state gives to all districts. (As you will read later, that is based on the wealth of the citizens in a county. Thus, Baltimore City gets a higher percentage of state funding while counties like Talbot, Worcester, Howard, get a smaller percentage.)
Here is the budget document presented at Wednesday’s meeting:
Highlights Of Increases/Decreases
Mid-Level Administration –Total: $2,239,378 Plus $409,679 over FY 26 (This includes 16.25 positions which are various supervisors as previously stated)
English Language Learners-Down $64,567
Pre-K – Plus $634,871
Principals -Total: $1,149,124 Plus $65,913 ( 8 Principals)
Assistant Principals –Total: $1,767,537 Plus $188,206 (15 Asst. Principals)
Total ALL Salaries/Wages was $37,782,593 an increase of $2,114,000
The budget includes state mandates regarding community schools, etc. Talbot has five community schools: Easton High, Easton Middle, Easton Elementary, White Marsh Elementary, and Tilghman Elementary.
The graphics below are from the Monday, February 9th meeting. Some of the figures may have changed since then:
While many of the requests are dictated by the state and technically out of the hands of the local administration, there is one question that the citizens of Talbot County need to have answered.
How Is This Budget Going To Improve Student Achievement?
Let’s look at the total county scores from the 2025 testing:
English Language Arts – 45.4% of students proficient
Math – 18.9% of students proficient
Broken down by grade divisions that is 29.5% of elementary students proficient, 13.8% percent of middle students proficient, and 20.9% of high school students proficient in math. English Language Arts scores are higher—41.9%, 43.3%, and 59.7% percent proficient respectively. These figures do not align with the 97% graduation rate for the county.
These scores are not an outlier. They are fairly consistent with where scores have been for the past four years. In fact, ELA decreased this year.
Not a very strong proof of concept. Yet the budget request is staggeringly high. During the budget meeting on February 9th, the Administration shared these slides regarding the county’s academic performance benchmarks. The first one states a priority, the second a further explanation of the priorities, and the third and fourth show local quarterly assessment results in Reading and Math. They are disaggregated by school and different population subgroups.
These quarterly assessments were requested by the BOE.
Local Assessment Results – Beginning of the Year (BOY) Middle of the Year (MOY)
It appears as though some subgroups and schools are making progress. It is difficult to tell how that will translate on state testing this Spring. It is still not high enough.
Here is a link to the entire 200-page budget presentation from 2/9 ( before the additional 2 million was added):
Public Budget Hearing & Board Work Session – Feb 09 2026 – Agenda – Pdf
We have no doubt that school staff and administration wants to improve instruction. If that is the case, why are we dumping more money into positions that don’t directly impact classroom instruction? Why are we carrying so many non-school administrators and central office staff?
Lack Of Accountability
The budget has gone progressively up year after year: FY 2025 $77,141,150 million, 2026 $81,526,613 million, 2027, $92,345,690 million. This does not include grant monies. The test scores don’t go up accordingly.
While the Blueprint for Maryland’s future is mandating much of this funding, this year, as stated in one of the slides from Administration, the Board requested millions above the amount that the state considers “maintenance of effort”. That means the county HAS to fund that amount.
We didn’t hear much about how all this money is specifically going to boost academics.
Lack of accountability?
We are not talking about teachers, although they play a major role in academic success. I’m talking about those who run the schools at a local and state level. Teachers can only do their jobs if they are allowed to focus on academics and not be asked to do jobs they are not qualified for. Teachers can only do their jobs with classes of a reasonable size, classes that are not disrupted by rude, disrespectful and often violent students. But that’s a discussion for another day.
Why Aren’t Board Members Holding The Schools Accountable?
Why aren’t members of the board demanding more accountability of the TCPS administration? Last year and earlier this fall they demanded accountability. They wanted benchmarks and periodic reports, like the ones provided. But, when you read the minutes of the meeting, you won’t hear many of the Board members asking for which specific strategies and different approaches being employed to improve student achievement.
And then maybe some of them just don’t understand what is going on in Maryland when it comes to education funding.
Who will be the one to tell them that the funding depends on the wealth of the county and in order to increase funding support from the State we need to bring more poor people into Talbot County?
There was not much opposition when it came time to vote on the budget Wednesday night. Just a blank check and a rubber stamp from the elected officials who are supposed to question everything, especially when it costs the taxpayers money.
Most of the Board seemed more interested in questioning the school calendar for next year than what will be going on in schools during that time.
Then, it dawned on us. Could it be that we are going into a school board election year and the incumbent board members who are running again will probably be counting on a teachers’ union endorsement to win their races? What better way to guarantee that you are on the “Apple Ballot” then to give schools a huge budget increase, necessary or not. All they have to do is show them the money.
We hope that isn’t the case.
We would like to remind them that only one of the three “Apple Ballot” candidates won in the last election. That apple ballot might be rotten.
If you think we are picking on the Talbot County Public Schools and the School Board unfairly, then maybe you should ask yourself why do we elect a school board? When was the last time a board member challenged any of the upper-level district administration staff about any substantive academic issue? Some of these senior staff members have been here for decades and haven’t moved the academic needle at all.
Why is the board silent?
The fact is that this while this budget was approved by the School Board, it ultimately has to go through the Talbot County Council. Usually, this means that the budget gets cut to the “maintenance of effort” level. That means there is political cover for those school board members running for re-election. They can say that they approved the budget, but the county council didn’t. “Hey, they tried.”
Let’s not forget there is a county council election this year as well. Maybe the BOE thinks they will sneak things through because of that.
It can’t be that, right? They can’t be using any of this for political reasons, can they?
Go to this link and you can email them and ask them yourself.
Board of Education | Talbot County Public Schools
Also, since the Talbot County Council has final say, be sure to email them with your questions and concerns about this budget:
Council Contact Information – Talbot County, Maryland
Other Notes: Statewide Trend
This situation is not just here in Talbot County. While not all of the 24 districts have published their FY 27 budgets, we did find that Montgomery County is asking for $3.775 billion, a 5% increase. Baltimore County asked for $2.49 billion, a 2.8% increase. Only Prince George’s County, which asked for $3.6 billion, cut $150 million.
Talbot County asked for a 13.282% increase. Let that sink in.
It’s partially our fault, those of us who elected these board members. If you go to a school board meeting, there is rarely anyone there. People just don’t get involved with public school issues. Nothing will change until the board members and administration see and hear from the public on a regular basis. Not just when they are masking your kid all day long. Not just when you want a new athletic field or program.
We have to be there all the time.
Otherwise, taxpayers are, in effect, being held hostage to these rising costs because of our own apathy.
We also need to pay more attention to who is running and recruit candidates who are willing to do what is needed to help our schools head in the right direction.
Only each one of us can change that. For some of you, that might mean running for school board.
Districts 1,4,3 and 7 are open for election this year. If interested in running, go here. You must register by 2/24/26 and you should leave yourself a couple of days to do that. Don’t wait!
Candidate Information – Talbot County, Maryland
Additional Note: Someone PLEASE inform Board Member Karla Wieland Cherry on how the funding formula in Maryland works. Somehow after two years in office, she still doesn’t know and seems to think that the problem with how much money the State gives Talbot County lies with the Talbot County Council and that “we need to fix that.”
*Definition of Homeless: The definition of homeless doesn’t necessarily mean that these children do not live in homes. It could mean that they are living with relatives. Kent, Talbot see rise in student homelessness – NewsBreak
-Jan Greenhawk, Author
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