District outlines root-cause work after AIB notice; budget draft shows $12.1M gap for FY27

Queen Anne's County Public Schools administrators briefed the board Feb. 4 on two related pressures: the district's response to an Accountability & Implementation Board (AIB) notice and a draft fiscal 2027 budget that shows a projected $12.1 million shortfall.

Jennifer Schreckengost, interim assistant superintendent, said the AIB cited concerns about third‑grade ELA proficiency, fifth‑grade math proficiency and minimum school funding. The district has conducted a district root‑cause analysis and, per AIB guidance, asked each impacted school to produce its own school‑level analysis. Schreckengost said nine schools were designated as needing targeted school improvement and that school teams began completing these analyses with supervisors and specialists; a draft of the district action plan will be due to the AIB on April 1 after receiving feedback on a draft root cause submission.

Rob Watkins, interim chief financial officer, presented the FY27 draft budget book incorporating state aid figures. Key numbers: the FY27 proposed budget is roughly $140.8 million, an increase of about $13.38 million over FY26; projected additional state and local revenues total about $1.3 million, leaving an estimated structural shortfall of approximately $12.1 million. Watkins and the superintendent said the bulk of increases are salaries, wages and fixed charges; the district flagged an anticipated request to the County Commissioners to help balance the budget.

Board members pressed on staffing and the operational impact of AIB responses, asking how monitoring and root‑cause work would affect classroom instruction. Administrators said they are trying to preserve principals' and specialists' capacity to support teachers while conducting analyses and that some timeline extensions were negotiated with the AIB to accommodate workload. The district also noted that one source of grant funding (the Read and Lead grant) covers materials but not staffing for sustained interventions.

Next steps: schools will complete school‑level analyses, the district will finalize an action plan for the AIB by April 1, and the administration will continue budget discussions with the board and commissioners as the FY27 process proceeds.