The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County tonight adopted final Fiscal Year 2027 operating and capital budgets which provide compensation increases to all employees, fund contractual increases across the school system, and enhance instructional and athletic environments for all students.

The Board made no changes to the budgets approved June 11 by the County Council. In its work, the Council added approximately $7 million in operating and capital budget funding to the proposal put forth by County Executive Steuart Pittman in May.

“In a time where school systems are cutting programs and jobs of existing employees, this budget does neither,” Board of Education President Gloria Dent said. “I am enormously grateful to the County Executive and the County Council for the collaborative work in which they continue to engage on behalf of our students and staff.”

The Board tonight also approved negotiated agreements with all four employee bargaining units, meaning the school system will enter the 2026-2027 school year with no outstanding labor relations issues.

“We have spent a lot of time and effort over the last four years to make Anne Arundel County Public Schools a place where every employee feels like they can Belong, Grow, and Succeed,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Bedell said. “That can be seen in the fact that our retention rates for the just-concluded school year are nearly 96 percent for instructional employees and more than 94 percent for non-instructional employees. The successful conclusion of negotiations with all our bargaining units is a huge step in continuing that trajectory.”

The $1.87 billion operating budget approved by the Board contains a step or step equivalent increase for all eligible employees and a 2.25 percent cost-of-living increase for all employees. It adds more than $1 million to bring the rate of pay for Temporary Support Assistants to $18 per hour and nearly $1.9 million in stipends for National Board Certified teachers.

The plan also allocates nearly $5.2 million to open the Carver Early Education Center and New Village Academy public charter school in the fall, and more than $4.6 million to continue funding critical special education teaching positions that were left unfunded by state grants.

In the $174 million capital budget, the County Council allocated more than $89 million for continued construction of the new Old Mill High School and Old Mill Middle School North, along with $9.1 million in funding for field houses at Arundel and Chesapeake high schools.

The council also included money to fund feasibility studies for Ruth Parker Eason School, Arundel Middle School, Riviera Beach Elementary School, Chesapeake Bay Middle School/Bodkin Elementary School, and Van Bokkelen Elementary School.

The budgets go into effect on July 1, 2026.