Baltimore County Public Schools plans to add student wellness centers at Berkshire Elementary School, Chadwick Elementary School and Padonia Elementary School while increasing access to college and readiness programs in the fiscal year 2025.

These wellness centers provide vaccinations, physicals and more. Thirteen wellness centers serve 16 schools, and each costs $100,000 annually to cover staff, medicine and equipment, according to Superintendent Myriam Rogers’ financial report.

During this fiscal year, the wellness centers have handled about 5,250 vaccines, 3,625 student visits and 400 physicals, according to the report.

Over the next two years, the school system plans to expand with three wellness centers this year and an additional one in Baltimore Highlands in the next fiscal year, said Christopher Hartlove, BCPS chief financial officer, at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Along with these wellness centers, BCPS will allow all students in grades 11 and 12 to earn early college credits and career and technical education credentials through programs such as dual enrollment, Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-tech), Advanced Placement (AP) exams, technical skills assessments, and Early College Access Programs (ECAP).

These programs will cost the school system over $2 million to implement, according to Rogers’ financial report.

Last school year, BCPS had 6,233 dual enrollment courses for 2,548 students; 2,426 students took an assessment for an industry-recognized credential; and 15,411 took AP exams, according to the report.

The school system also plans to use the Concentration of Poverty grant from the Maryland State Blueprint, which covers about $37.2 million, for centrally funded personnel and school-based personnel.

Centrally funded personnel include Caregivers, Assistance, Resource, and Engagement (CARE) liaisons and transition facilitators. School-based personnel include health assistants and community school facilitators.

The Blueprint requires that at least 75% of per-student formula funding follows students to their schools. Generally, schools with the highest need will get greater minimum funding.

“Seventy-five percent of the funding has to go to all schools, but some schools have more students in particular pockets that are getting more money,” Hartlove said.

The concern, Rogers said, is that there are finite resources for the schools, which makes it difficult to find this balance. This balancing act can cause instability in communities, she said.

“We can’t predict the financial outlook 10 years from now,” Rogers said at the board meeting. “If this were to be the model that is followed, the implications would be that you are moving resources, and that’s a problem in two different ways,” referring to instability in schools and communities.

Have a news tip? Contact Tony Roberts at troberts@baltsun.com, 443-623-1817 or @TonyRobAegis on X.