Baltimore City Council members on Wednesday were reviewing a $1.87 billion City Schools budget proposal presented this week that’s 5% up from last year’s $1.78 billion, and a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Scott said he was committed to supporting the school system, despite funding uncertainty.

“As a former teacher and current City Schools dad, I know that education is the single most important investment that we can make in Baltimore’s future,” City Council President Zeke Cohen said in an email to The Baltimore Sun. “We cannot achieve the growth that our city or economy needs if we don’t give our kids the tools they need to thrive.”

In a separate email, Kamau Marshall, Scott’s spokesperson, said the mayor “believes in investing in our students’ future.”

The school system’s proposal, presented to the Board of School Commissioners Tuesday night, provided a $1.5 billion general fund, up from about $1.4 billion last year; just over $71 million in the enterprise fund used for school food and nutrition; and just under $300 million in special revenue, which Chief Finance Officer Christopher Doherty said is made up of federal funding, mostly concentrations of poverty grants.

Although late-night dealings in Annapolis on Monday might have secured about $22 million more for the school district, Doherty said the budget was not created with that in mind. The numbers he presented did not reflect that “unexpected surprise.”

That last-minute state funding would create a median increase of $88,000 per school, he said. Maryland is expected to contribute $1.07 billion of the system’s budget, or $1.09 billion should the extra bump of funding materialize.

Certain financial triggers could reopen the state’s budget, Doherty said, which would in turn force the school district to reopen its own budget, as the state funds nearly 70% of the school district’s budget.

Baltimore will contribute $392.3 million, about $3 million more than last year, due to increased student population, Doherty said. At the same time, the city has implemented a spending freeze for police and fire departments under pressure from a $8.3 million deficit.

“Mayor Scott is deeply committed to supporting the city’s public school system” Marshall, the spokesperson, wrote in the email. “Since the start of the Scott Administration, the funding commitment to city schools has grown by 49%. This year, that contribution is increasing by $3 million—from $389 million to $392 million. The funding amount is determined by a formula, so we do not have discretion over the total.”

The formula in question is required by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, according to the mayor’s budget book. Local governments pay the greater amount: maintenance of effort or combined local share aid formulas.

In addition to local property values and the prior year’s funding, those formulas look at enrollment data of students learning English, those in special education, and those receiving free or reduced price meals, according to the mayor’s budget.

Marshall said Scott’s preliminary budget plan “fully funds the required local share of City schools.”

But larger economic uncertainties, in the form of last-minute changes in funding from Annapolis and the federal government, are creeping into city classrooms.

“Blueprint dollars are not guaranteed,” read one of Doherty’s slides. Since the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan has been implemented, City Schools have received progressively less funding from the program each year, he said. However, in the current fiscal year, the district saw an increase of $42 million.

Though Gov. Wes Moore had proposed changes to the Blueprint, including a pause on funding increases for community schools, or schools that receive Concentration of Poverty Grants, earlier in the legislation session, the legislature restored those increases.

The City Schools budget included an anticipated increase of about 6.5% in Blueprint funding, according to the presentation. The addition of the potential $22 million could bring that total to 7.5% or 7.6%, Doherty said. But uncertainty looms over future years.

“There are cuts for the planned FY27 and FY28 revenue … one doesn’t know what will happen in next year’s session, but ‘27 and ‘28 will be lower than Blueprint authorized and that has been envisioned,” he said.

By Friday, the school board will have a draft of the budget book to review, according to Doherty’s presentation. The final budget presentation and vote on the budget are scheduled for May 13.

School Board Chair Robert Salley and Student Commissioner Dylan Rooks did not respond to requests for comment by deadline Wednesday, nor did the Baltimore Teachers Union.

Despite the Trump administration rescinding $48 million in federal coronavirus pandemic relief funding last week, Doherty said the district is “confident” the impacts will be limited to the current fiscal year.

Tuesday marked the last day for tutoring across the district as a result of the cuts the district made to respond to the loss.

At the same time, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding, another COVID-era revenue source, is expiring. Because those so-called ESSER funds were scheduled to expire, the school system had a chance to to prepare for the loss.

“Initiatives previously funded by ESSER have sunsetted or downsized, been left to the discretion of school leaders to fund, or have transitioned to other funding sources, such as Concentration of Poverty Grants (CPG),” read a slide on the budget presented Tuesday night.

The school district will receive $166 million in concentration of poverty funding, Doherty said. With the lean times ahead, Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises said during Tuesday’s presentation, the school system should not bend to everyone who asks for funding.

“Voicing priorities and your opinion does not mean you get everything you want,” said Santelises.

Having those hard discussions is a skill, she said, but the district’s ability to say no is part of why it can navigate these hard times. The district’s fund balancing dollars are for emergencies like last week’s federal cuts, she said.

“The fund balance is not your personal kitty when you go over budget.”

Hannah Gaskill contributed to this article.

Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos @baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.