Board hears FY27 budget kickoff; staff aim to finalize by Dec. 1

Harford County Public Schools finance staff opened the board's work-session budget discussion by saying the district is aiming to have a FY27 budget "ready to be finalized the December 1." Miss Judd, the district's chief financial officer, told board members the full FY27 budget book is posted on the district website for public review and that staff have been meeting with principals and will meet with bargaining units as the process continues.

Board members pressed for ways to make a 300-page line-item budget more accessible to the public and to trustees. The chair said the board should consider periodic, focused presentations so trustees and the community understand the "top three or four" spending areas rather than parsing the entire packet at once. Judd said the Sept. 28 meeting will present quarterly financials showing where the district ended FY26 and cited contractual increases and special education costs as areas to watch.

Judd warned the board that in FY26 the district transferred funds into special education, saying, "we transferred 7,000,000, from other state categories into that," and added that those one-time transfers may not be available this year. Trustees agreed to form a small budget committee to vet detailed requests and return findings to the full board ahead of December.