No new money changed hands when Charles County commissioners approved a $930,299 shift inside the public school system’s budget. But the commissioner who made the motion used the vote to put school officials on notice.
“From the outside, and I just speak on behalf of constituents that come to me, it looks like there’s a little bit of a shell game being played here,” Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling III told Charles County Public Schools’ finance staff at the board’s Sept. 15 meeting. “I’m going to approve it today. I’m going to make the motion to approve. But I’m going to keep asking these questions.”
The board approved the transfer 3-0, with Bowling, Amanda Stewart and Reuben Collins voting yes, according to the signed meeting minutes. Commissioners Thomasina Coates and Ralph Patterson were not present for the vote.
What moved, and why
Maryland law, Section 5-105 of the Education Article, requires county approval before a school board moves money between the major categories of its budget. The school system’s chief financial officer, Uriel Bowdre, presented the request with budget manager Sherri Fisher-Davis.
Bowdre told the board the request “is not for new spending.” It needs no additional county money and no fund balance, and every dollar added to one category is offset by a cut to another. “The categories are changing. The county’s financial commitment is not,” he said.
He described the moves in three groups:
- Administration, up $469,701. Bowdre said this is not new administrative spending. It moves two existing positions, school board member pay that had been budgeted under fixed charges, and technology software maintenance that had been under operation of plant. He said it creates no positions and does not raise board pay.
- Instruction, down $33,272 overall. Money shifted to match summer programs that were delivered, the license for a virtual school platform, and school-level needs such as smart board installation, furniture, fine arts supplies and pool supplies. Bowdre said the net decrease mostly reflects costs being reclassified, not a cut to instruction.
- Facilities. An existing $130,000 building-services overtime budget moved from community services to operation of plant, where those employees are recorded. Other existing money was aligned for a loan repayment, technology services, furniture and an exterior bell addition.
Some of the changes reflect information that became clearer once the fiscal year began, Bowdre said, and others correct classifications made while the budget was being built.
‘We can’t keep coming to the 17%’
Bowling noted that the school system had originally sought to move far more. He put the first request at about $4 million and asked whether more transfers would follow. Bowdre said the school system planned additional reductions it would manage internally and expects more transfers between categories as the year goes on.
Bowling also asked where $400,000 budgeted for a school chiller in fiscal 2027 is going now, after an earlier transfer moved $400,000 in savings to the chiller. Bowdre said he had not yet looked into it.
Bowling’s larger complaint was timing. When teachers and county employee unions ask for raises, he said, the money is usually found in county government’s own share of the budget, which he put at about 17%. He put the school system’s share at roughly 47% to 48%.
“When we come back after the budget’s adopted, it’s like now we find all these savings and these things we can move around,” Bowling said. “We can’t keep coming to the 17% of the county and saying we got to find cuts.”
He said he has seen the same pattern across seven budgets and pointed to complaints he hears from teachers and parents about larger classes, falling enrollment and lower scores. Bowling said he would pull every school budget transfer for review when the next budget season begins. He stressed that the criticism was not aimed at Bowdre, whom he noted is new to the job.
Another commissioner thanked Bowdre for anticipating the board’s questions, saying the item had been expected to take much longer.
The scrutiny comes as the commissioners face a tight budget outlook. At the same Sept. 15 meeting, Bowling demanded a fiscal note before advancing an affordable housing zoning bill, citing a state budget shortfall he said could push new costs onto counties.
