State Funding Per Pupil
The state’s per-pupil funding for Dorchester Public Schools would increase 36.9% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That’s the tenth-largest increase among all 24 Maryland public school districts.
Per-pupil funding is based on a formula that utilizes the district’s total enrollment and the characteristics of its students. It’s too soon to know what the per-pupil funding level will be in the later years of the Blueprint.
Here’s the district’s initial Blueprint Implementation Plan. And here’s what the state Accountability and Implementation Board – which oversees the Blueprint – had to say about Dorchester Public Schools’ Blueprint Implementation Plan:
Strengths:
- Dorchester County Public Schools is collaborating with private providers to increase Pre-K enrollment among 3 and 4-year-olds and is communicating well with families about Pre-K enrollment.
- The district plans to hire more diverse teachers by partnering with the Teacher Academy of Maryland program, Chesapeake College, and Salisbury University.
Needs improvement:
- Dorchester County Public Schools needs to improve its National Board Certification recruitment and support program so that more teachers get certification, giving them the ability to serve as teacher leaders.
- The district should seek the opinions of stakeholders such as employees and parents as the implementation of the Blueprint continues.
- A staffing shortage continues to be a roadblock to the Blueprint implementation. To address this shortage, the district may want to ensure that teacher leaders return to teach during part of the day. Dorchester also may want to increase tutoring and reallocate central office staff.
- Dorchester County Public Schools is still working on its literacy and mathematics plans based on community and stakeholder input and must make sure those plans eventually meet expectations set by the Blueprint.
– Hannah Stein