February 23, 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This letter is to update you on proposed changes to the elementary world language program. At a 2018-19 budget work session on Wednesday, the Board of Education made tentative plans, which they will confirm with a vote on Monday, February 26, to make a change to elementary world language in the budget they send to the County Executive.  The superintendent and Board of Education are faced with difficult decisions to address the $23 million dollar deficit and this change has been made to help address the deficit.  

The pending decision regarding World Language instruction will have an immediate impact on our school program. The current proposed budget will include World Language in grades 3-5 only for the 2018-19 school year.  This is a change from the original message of a proposed phase out plan for grades Pre-K-2 over a three year period.  While difficult, this proposed change results in a cost-savings of approximately $1.4 million dollars.

As we stated previously, this is not yet a final decision, but it is the most current information and we wanted to make sure you were informed.  We will continue to keep you informed as the budget is finalized.  For more information about the HCPSS budget and budget process you can visit http://www.hcpss.org/about-us/budgets/.