At Westminster’s East Middle School, buses rolled into the school’s newly paved bus loop for the first time Tuesday, the first day of classes in Carroll County.
The new school building opened last fall with a temporary traffic pattern, but completion of the school’s bus loop was delayed about a year after a large obstructive rock mass was discovered. In December, the board approved up to $600,000 in additional funds to remove the rock.
Tuesday marked the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year for Carroll County Public Schools.
The school system’s 22 elementary, eight middle and seven high schools, as well as the Carroll County Career and Technology Center, Carroll Springs School and several alternative schools, are back in session with about 26,100 students settling in for the new year.
Enrollment is projected to climb to around 28,941 students by the 2032-2033 school year, according to school system documents.
Approximately 240 regular route buses will travel more than 5.2 million miles to provide school transportation this year. Nearly 25,400 students ride the bus, according to the school system.
Carroll County school buses were involved in 55 traffic accidents last school year, according to Michael Hardesty, the school system’s transportation director, which averages about 1.5 incidents during a typical full week of school.
Last school year, the sheriff’s office issued 5,084 citations to motorists caught on camera passing a school bus when it had its stop arm extended while picking up or dropping off students, which is illegal. Cameras captured 8,933 motorists failing to stop for a school bus during last school year, according to Hardesty, but not every violation results in a citation.
Carroll County Career and Technology Center students will benefit from a newly renovated building this year. A four-year, $74 million construction project added 108,205 square feet to the facility, which opened in 1971. The center was designed for 380 students in 19 programs and currently educates about 800 students in 24 programs per semester. Carroll schools Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said in February that the renovation will improve the quality of existing programs but will do little to raise the school’s capacity.
The school system has an operating budget of $416.3 million for fiscal 2025, which began July 1 and will encompass the 2024-2025 school year. The largest increase in the budget compared to last year’s budget is $19.2 million for boosting employee salaries. The fiscal 2025 budget also includes an increase of $6.9 million due to inflation, $4.6 million for technology, $2 million for special education, $700,000 in state Blueprint requirements and $400,000 for transportation.
County commissioners provided the school system with $6 million more than legally required for fiscal 2025. The bulk of Carroll County’s operating budget (42.06%) goes to public schools.
Teachers in Carroll County now earn a starting salary of $60,000, which will be legally required statewide by fiscal 2027.
Hiring and funding initiatives to develop staff were among the county’s biggest challenges outlined in a June plan to implement the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. In the wake of the salary increase, Carroll has had far fewer teacher vacancies than in previous years before the start of classes.
The Blueprint, a multibillion-dollar state law passed in 2021, is designed to make Maryland’s schools among the highest performing in the country by providing more time for teachers to plan lessons and develop skills outside the classroom, allowing high school students to enroll in unlimited community college classes at no charge to them or their family, and offering universal prekindergarten for 3-year-olds, among other initiatives.
