Baltimore County schools propose hundreds of position reductions to fund raises, pushing average class sizes higher

Budget plan ties compensation commitments to staffing reductions

Baltimore County Public Schools is weighing a budget strategy that pairs scheduled employee pay increases with significant reductions in filled and unfilled positions, a combination district leaders say is intended to close a projected funding gap while maintaining contractually negotiated compensation.

District leadership has outlined a plan that would eliminate about 594 full-time positions as part of the school system’s next operating budget cycle. The reductions are largely structured around attrition—retirements, resignations and position reallocations—rather than layoffs, consistent with the district’s stated approach in recent budget planning.

The staffing changes are expected to affect classroom conditions. Under the proposal presented publicly in January 2026, average class sizes for grades 1 through 12 would increase from about 22 students per class to about 25. Kindergarten and prekindergarten class-size targets would remain at roughly 22.

How the proposed cuts are distributed

District documents and public presentations describe multiple drivers behind the position reductions, including enrollment decline and revisions to staffing allocation formulas. A substantial share of the reductions is tied to changes in how staff are assigned to schools based on student counts and grade-level ratios, while another portion is linked to fewer students enrolled across the system.

• Approximately 594 full-time positions proposed for elimination, primarily through attrition and reassignment.
• Average class sizes in grades 1–12 projected to rise to about 25 students per educator.
• Staffing reductions also connected to enrollment decreases and adjustments in allocation formulas.

Raises remain a central pressure point

Compensation has been a defining element of the district’s recent budget debate. In 2025, pay negotiations and budget constraints led to delays in when certain raises would take effect, even as the district sought to preserve the overall scale of the increases promised in earlier agreements. The revised schedules moved key raise timelines later, complicating annual spending plans and increasing the need for recurring budget adjustments.

District officials have said the goal is to meet compensation commitments without instituting layoffs, relying instead on attrition and position rebalancing.

Public process and next decisions

The proposal has drawn community scrutiny during public comment hearings, where families and employees have raised concerns about how larger class sizes could shape instructional time, student support and workload. The district’s budget process includes board deliberation and votes before county-level review and approval.

If adopted as proposed, the plan would set up a tradeoff that school systems across the region have increasingly confronted: maintaining competitive pay for educators and staff while operating within constrained revenue growth, rising costs and shifting enrollment patterns.