Long-Term Budget Planning
Dr. McCabe and CCPS staff put forth a long-term budget projection that illustrates the recurring budget challenges that CCPS faces over the next five years. Carroll County needs to have real, honest conversations about what we want our schools to look like and what it will take to achieve that vision. We are entering what looks to be a period of declining student enrollment, and with state funding awarded on a per pupil basis, this equates to less funding from the state. CCPS anticipates budget deficits of $13 to $18M per year for the next five years.
Source: Carroll County Board of Education Meeting, February 11, 2026.
The working relationship between the BOE and the Commissioners will be essential to finding solutions in future years, as our schools are faced with ongoing financial challenges. The role of the BOE to communicate those challenges and work with stakeholders and elected officials to identify solutions will be crucial in the coming years to avoid painful cuts to our schools. We aim to elevate this issue to be an ongoing conversation between the BOE, Commissioners, and county residents.
CCPS operates on the least amount of money per student compared to all jurisdictions in Maryland whether they be urban or rural, small, medium, or large, wealthy or less affluent. While it can be viewed as CCPS being efficient, it also presents challenges. It is easy to think there must always be savings hiding, waiting in the wings, but that’s wishful thinking after so many years of cuts.
Each year it seems that CCPS and the BOE must entertain cuts to valuable programs and staff in order to balance the budget. CCPS’ lean funding creates challenges to keeping the school system operating as it is now given rising inflationary impacts and Blueprint requirements. Without sufficient resources, the BOE will need to make difficult decisions that affect:
class sizes
staff workloads
access to extracurriculars and athletic programs
access to elementary chorus, band, and orchestra
access to schools during the summer for camps and programs
access to buses with reasonable school start and end times
Source: Carroll County Board of Education Meeting, February 11, 2026.
For the FY27 budget cycle, CCPS and the BOE are having to consider painful cuts that will directly impact students, staff, and families to find savings. A 4th transportation tier would have increase the number of runs for each bus, but result in high school students starting the earliest in the state and some elementary students getting home after 5. Reducing athletics and extra-curriculars will impact high school students’ opportunities to be involved, build their resumes and be competitive in college applications. Closing schools in the summer to save on utility bills will directly impact summer camp and activity offerings for our youth. Additionally, keeping the thermostats set in unoccupied mode encourages mold growth and other potential building problems. The elimination of elementary school chorus, orchestra, and band savings would come in the form of staff positions. Students would be forced to wait until middle school to start an instrument or those families who could afford it would need to seek lessons on their own. A reduction in the materials of instruction budget would further impact the classroom, as this budget has been decreased twice before but never increased. All of these painful cuts will return to the table each year if CCPS continues to scrape by.