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WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. — Financial frustration keeps building among teachers in Worcester County and they have not been afraid to show it. Starting last week and up through the last day of school on Tuesday, teachers wore black to show unity.
“More than anything else, we all feel disrespected by the county commissioners decision to underfund our schools,” said Everett Evansky.
Evansky is a science teacher at Stephen Decatur High School. He said the approved budget means teachers won’t be receiving a 4% pay raise, something Evansky said is necessary given the current economic times.
“We asked for 4% and that’s just barely enough to keep up with inflation, we think that’s more than fair considering the commissioners gave themselves an 8.5% raise,” said Evansky.
Worcester County Commissioners recently gave the school system the minimum amount of funding required, also known as the maintenance of effort budget. It totals a little more than $100 million for the school system.
Ted Elder, a county commissioner, said the county needed more transparency for where money would be spent and they never felt they got those answers.
“We want to get the best education for our children and we want to get it by spending money wisely, and I think the time of blank checks is over,” said Elder.
Elder used ‘blank checks’ as a metaphor for the county’s feeling of giving money to the Board of Education without a solid idea of how that money is being spent.
Shannon Bone, a science teacher at Stephen Decatur High, said under the new budget, summer and afterschool programs are at risk.
“There’s no answer for us, programs are just going to be cut, the kids are not going to have this resource for them,” said Bone. “That’s really unfortunate that it kind of has come to this point.”
Elder also said the county did increase the school systems budget in a year where they’ve tightened up spending across multiple departments.
“They’re going to have an increased budget over 4% total and that’s several million dollars that they’re going to have next year that they don’t have in the current budget,” said Elder. “So they should be able to fund all the programs and still give raises out.”
Teachers on the Northern Side don’t believe those programs will be able to happen outside of Snow Hill and Pocomoke, where afterschool and summer programs are grant funded.
If they are cut, Michele Hundley, a fifth grade reading teacher at Berlin Intermediate School, said the students will be the one’s paying the price.
“It’s a loss of that summer education, that afterschool education that a lot of them need to help stay academically successful,” said Hundley.
It could have repercussions on teachers as well. Hundley said a good portion of teachers rely on a paycheck from working afterschool or summer programs. Without that cashflow, teachers could be faced with picking up a second job.
If spending continues to get tighter, there is a worry from teachers that their colleagues in Worcester will abandon ship and venture over state or county lines.
“Wicomico County is right next door and so a lot of people are already applying because they are having retention bonuses, huge pay increases,” said Bone. “Talbot County, I know they are similar demographically, they’re getting a 6% COLA raise.”
A COLA raise is a Cost-of-Living Adjustment raise.
Negotiations are expected to take place throughout the summer, but Hundley said there is a lot of uncertainty moving forward.
