Community Corner
County Executive Cassilly Calls for Education Budget Transparency Following Whistleblower Comments
Retired HCPS accountability supervisor raises concerns about leadership and school budget priorities.
Reacting to shocking public comments on the education budget from a whistleblower at Monday’s school board meeting, Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly has issued the following statement:
“It is imperative that taxpayer dollars be directed to the classroom and not to bloated central office salaries. At Monday’s school board meeting, Phil Snyder, the recently retired Supervisor of Accountability for Harford County Public Schools, raised serious concerns about the school system’s leadership and budget priorities.”
Snyder called out $379,361 budgeted for central office administrators to attend conferences, money that he said could have funded approximately four teaching positions. He asked that every single conference and purchase be aggressively questioned and funds be directed to students, exposing how critical education dollars are being squandered on non-essential spending.
Snyder said that over the last seven years, central office administrators awarded themselves massive pay hikes averaging around 40 percent, listing individual increases reaching 52%, 57%, 58%, 82%, 96%, and a jaw-dropping 116% percent.
Snyder also exposed the current interim superintendent’s refusal to rescind the former superintendent’s “work-from-home” policy, which he said has enabled no-shows among highly paid administrators, a benefit that is not available to teachers and principals.
Snyder said that such practices take money away from students and he planned to follow up in an email to the school board outlining additional concerns and cost-saving recommendations. He said that unnecessary funding in central office should be sent to the schools, a view he said any principal would support.
“Snyder’s testimony as a former insider is a powerful call to eliminate wasteful spending and send every dollar back where it belongs, with students and teachers in the classroom,” County Executive Cassilly said. “In our highly competitive world, we must provide our children with the best education we can afford, and that means we should take every reasonable step to safeguard taxpayers' substantial investments in public education. Therefore, I call on the school board to publicly release and respond to each of Mr. Snyder’s recommendations and concerns.”
