District 7 Commissioner, Joe Mitrecic (Ocean City) suggests having schools in both Snow Hill and Pocomoke City may cost county taxpayers .
At the December 16th Worcester County Commissioner meeting, District 7 (Ocean City) Commissioner Joe Mitrecic suggested the Commissioners send the County School Board a letter requesting they ‘explore’ whether consolidating schools in the southern part of the county (Snow Hill and Pocomoke City) to “alleviate cost concerns”.
At the end of the December 16th Worcester County Commissioner meeting, District 7 (Ocean City) Commissioner Joe Mitrecic suggested the Commissioners send the County School Board a letter requesting they ‘explore’ whether consolidating schools in the southern part of the county (Snow Hill and Pocomoke City) to “alleviate cost concerns” on the future.
Although Mitrecic was humble in his request, and said repeatedly that this is “only exploratory” he and three other Commissioners – Karyn Abbott (Dist. 1), Chip Bertino (Dist. 5), and Bunting (Dist. 6) – have voted for the past two years to fund the school system at less than the requested amount arguing that the county’s contribution met the State minimum standard, referred to as ‘maintenance of effort’ in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a law passed by the State Legislature in 2021.
This fiscal year, the school system budget was underfunded by $1 million despite the County having an excess of $14 million in tax revenues. During the comment section of the December meeting, Mitrecic said previous Commissioners “made a mistake” in creating a community school model that has cost county taxpayers millions of dollars. He also noted that Worcester’s cost per student is the highest in the state primarily due to low student populations in both those schools.
The Commission unanimously (6-0: Comm. Purnell was absent) agreed to send a letter to the Worcester County School Board requesting an analysis.
Worcester County has operated under a community-based model of education since the 1950’s and until 2023, the County Commissioners had largely supported the school system’s functioning as such. Consolidation of the schools has been considered in the past, but the community has pushed back for a variety of reasons, including student needs and achievement.
Video of the meeting is now available:
https://worcestercountymd.new.swagit.com/videos/364681
Commissioner comments are at the end of the meeting
Both the Pocomoke City Arrowhead and The OC Today-Dispatch have published reports of the meeting.
The Lower Shore Observer 