BALTIMORE COUNTY — The Baltimore County School Board approved a little over $2.5 billion operating budget for FY 2024 Tuesday night at the board of education meeting. But teachers are upset they are not seeing a decent pay increase.
Teachers held a rally here before the meeting and they say the proposed budget was not enough to keep the current teachers and attract new educators.
BCPS teachers raised their signs and their voices in a rally for better pay.
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Included in the approved budget is the contractual raise for teachers. But something added to the amended budget is $14 million that will go toward teachers and bargaining units.
"That’s a start, but that's still not going to get us where we need to be to become competitive with the counties around us,” said TABCO President Cindy Sexton.
The rally before the board of education meeting drew in over 100 teachers and staff, claiming their workload doesn't match their pay.
"It’s really hard to stay after school and put in those extra hours, you know, maybe having a little bit of extra cash funds would help us out,” said Antoinette Hagerich who is a Baltimore County School teacher.
Sexton says this year alone over 200 teachers have either resigned or retired. This brings fear to other teachers on the future of education in Baltimore County.
"Nervous for the future, I’m nervous for the kids and the class sizes and fearful class sizes will get too large because there won't be enough teachers to have smaller class sizes, which we know is a more effective way to teach,” said Baltimore County School teacher Tim Thomas.
The budget will now go to Baltimore County Executive for approval then the County Council.
