It looks like it’s time for the County Council to search for their little hammer and smash their piggy bank to pieces. But we are not just talking about a few spare nickels or dimes here.

Superintendant Dr. Jerry Weast, the big cheese of MCPS, is proposing a new $2.26 Billion status quo operating budget for fiscal 2011. This is one percent, or $25 million dollars more than what the County Council is already currently shelling out. With that, no new initiatives or programs are being offered for next year.

The good news: if the County Council decides to fully fund this new budget, then the school system will operate with all the same programs, or, as Weast puts it, school systems will "go as is." However, Weast warns, "If we go below that, there begin to be problems."

The bad news: If the County Council refuses to fund this new budget, parents and students will be forced to face some major cuts including, but not limited to, reductions in teacher ranks, and less money will be spent on elementary school activity busses and extracurricular activities.

The County Council’s problem is that that the state school board must follow the "maintenance-of- effort" policy that requires, under state law, that all local governments must fund its school systems at the same level that they did the year before. Last April the County Council sought a waiver from this requirement because, due to the hurting economy, they were having enough trouble funding the current budget. The state board denied this waiver in May.

Weast’s proposal suggests that the County Council will fund $79.5 million to the school system in contribution towards their maintenance-of-effort. However, if the County Council can’t cough up the cash, Weast foresees $43 million in potential cuts. These cuts include 240 classroom teaching positions, and 30 central administration employees who could be saying, "Bye-bye job". Not to mention this potentially leading to fewer textbooks to go around and other instructional materials that are already scarce as it is.

Right now, the school system unions are negotiating a new plan. Weast and the county school board have scheduled public hearings on January 13th and 20th to discuss the nitty gritty details of this proposal.

Come February 9th, the school board will put the budget proposal to a vote that will be sent to County Executive Isiah Leggett for review, but the County Council has the final say.