Carroll County Public Schools delays Blueprint law staffing cuts affecting 182 positions under state waiver; Accountability Implementation Board grants flexibility on education reform implementation

April 29, 2025 (Baltimore Sun) –

Carroll County officials reached an agreement on Monday to delay implementing aspects of a state law that would cut 92 employees by next school year and relocate another 90 staff to other schools, according to a news release from the Accountability Implementation Board.

The AIB, the state entity that holds the power to withhold state education funding if requirements for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future are not met, granted the school system a waiver to provide the district with more flexibility to meet those  requirements.

“This agreement does not solve the long-term issues associated with the implementation of the Blueprint,” Del. Chris Tomlinson , the  chair of the Carroll County delegation to the General Assembly , said in a Monday news release, “but it does grant a critical additional year of digesting the local impact of the statewide implementation by the Governor, General Assembly , and statewide other decision makers in what must be an ongoing discussion.”

With the waiver’s approval, Carroll County Public Schools will retain for at least one year school-based staff that would otherwise be cut. This will protect math and reading specialist teachers and school media specialists and clerks, Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said earlier this month, but administrative positions slated for removal or transition, including the planned reclassification of high school athletics directors to teachers, will continue as part of a “good faith effort” to implement the Blueprint-related changes.

The Blueprint is a multibillion-dollar education reform law now  in the third year of a decade-long rollout.

The Accountability and Implementation Board adopted the waiver application process on March 20 . Carroll County applied for a waiver when the process officially opened on April 1 .

“The goal of minimum school funding in the Blueprint is to ensure targeted resources are provided to help close achievement gaps for various student populations,” AIB Vice Chair William “Brit” Kirwan said in the release. “The funding will follow these students to their schools so they can receive the services they need to be successful. Given the significant change in the compensatory education population in Carroll County , granting the waiver will provide Carroll County Public Schools with a longer runway to make staffing changes and seek innovative solutions with technical assistance provided by the AIB, to ensure targeted education funds are reaching schools in the intended manner by the end of FY28.”

The waiver to delay Blueprint implementation also gives the county more time to search for solutions in conjunction with consultants. The consultants will help Carroll County reach fiscal compliance with the Blueprint.

APA consultants worked with Maryland’s Kirwan Commission to help create Blueprint’s new school funding formula, which was enacted by the General Assembly , Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jon O’Neal said earlier this month. He said he hopes working with the consultants provides a better way forward, whether it comes in the form of new ideas not yet considered by Carroll officials, or the realization that the Blueprint should be modified to better serve education in counties like Carroll .

Lawmakers met with representatives of the governor’s office, General Assembly leaders, the Maryland State Education Association , the Carroll County Education Association , Carroll County commissioners, and Superintendent McCabe to help secure the waiver, the delegation release states.

Carroll is in a particularly bad position to navigate budgetary challenges because the system made more than $40 million in reductions from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2019 amid declining enrollment, McCabe said this month.

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