My thoughts on the CCPS Operating Budget

As the election approaches, I wanted to share my thoughts on the CCPS operating budget challenges. I’ve compiled a spreadsheet to help me see the trends of our revenue stream and staffing over the past few years and in this post, I’ll be referencing some numbers and/or insights taken from that spreadsheet. 

Our operating budget has increased substantially in CCPS every single year.  Blueprint has led to increased funding from the state, plus increased funding from the county (while providing no new revenue source – but that’s a separate topic).  I went back to the 2019-2020 school year and found that the budget for that year was $359,606,771.  For the 2025-2026 school year, CCPS budgeted $488,511,947.  But those are total figures (county+federal+state).  What I want to focus on is the county contribution.  It seems that prior to 2024, our commissioners included about a $7M increase for the schools each year.  For the 2023-2024 school year, and every year since, that number has just about doubled to over $13M.  And yet, we are still hearing about funding challenges.  How can that be?

Staffing is the largest chunk of the operating budget for any school system.   I cannot in good faith run a campaign that simply says “give us more money”.  I am humble enough to know that I don’t know what I don’t know, so until I have a chance to sit in the office with CCPS Admin and other BOE members, I am not going to advocate for more funding that possibly leads to a local tax increase.   I took the time to look at total FTEs (full-time equivalents) for every budget year from the 2020-2021 (FY21) year through the 2025-2026(FY26) school year.  In FY21 we budgeted for a total of 3,263 FTEs and in FY26 we budgeted for 3,444 FTEs (both excluding food service).  That is an increase of 181 FTEs over 5 years.  And yet, we still hear concerns about staffing and funding.  Again, how can that be?

I spoke at the February 11, 2026 BOE meeting about the budget and some of my concerns and you can view that here.

I understand that you cannot look at revenue or FTE data in total and make consequential decisions – digging into department and program detail is essential.  This is just what I am starting with to understand the trends over the years and the impact of Blueprint.  I want to determine exactly what Blueprint requires, what it does not require, and whether we may be spending more than necessary in some areas because of how requirements are being interpreted or implemented.

That requires further inquiry and analysis—but I believe it is worth asking the questions.

I have also talked a great deal about what I believe is our overuse of technology and my concerns for our younger students, and I want to know the impact of that to our bottom line.  Every dollar we spend on one priority is a dollar we do not have to spend on something else.  Let’s ensure our spending reflects our priorities. 

Until I am satisfied that every dollar (or let’s be realistic - almost every dollar) is being spent responsibly, I will not be advocating for more funding.  At the same time, with declining enrollment, I understand that we may have serious challenges ahead, and there may be circumstances where additional funding becomes necessary. If that happens, I will work closely with other BOE members, Dr. McCabe and our county commissioners to determine how we can address those challenges responsibly.

This is the kind of work I love to do. I’m an analyst at heart, with a genuine love for accounting and digging into the details.

I’m fully prepared—and excited—to take on this new challenge.