Harford County Public Schools began notifying 150 staff members that their positions will be eliminated next year, prompting a reallocation of educators, administrators and other staff.

Internal communications between principals and school staff last week showed that principals were informed of the position reductions on Friday. According to the emails and school officials, the school system will continue notifying affected employees throughout the week about the status of their positions and whether they will be relocated or reassigned.

Aaron Poynton, president of the county Board of Education, said Monday that no staff members would be without a job next year, as officials are confident the cuts can be made through staff retirements and turnover.

“We are talking about positions more than people when we say cuts because we are very confident — based on historic trends of our attrition rates — that these position cuts can be achieved through attrition,” Poynton said.

Superintendent Sean Bulson said in January that eliminating the 150 positions would save $15 million but also affect students. “Unequivocally, yes, this will impact student achievement,” Bulson said then. “I can’t balance this budget in a way that doesn’t impact student achievement.”

Poynton said the staff reduction would result in a rebalancing of the school system. The rebalance and consolidation process is ongoing, according to the district’s public information specialist, Kyle Anderson, and involves educators and administrators either moving to other schools, grade levels, or classes.

“There will be people who are afraid they won’t have a job next year, but the plan is for them to all have jobs,” Poynton said. “The question is whether they will be at a different school or teaching a different class or grade, so people are moving around.”

Since 85% of the Harford schools budget goes to teacher salaries and related benefits, teachers will be impacted the most by the rebalance and position cuts. Poynton said despite the reallocation of educators, the overall reduction of 150 positions will result in slightly larger class sizes in all 55 of Harford County’s public schools.

As of Monday evening, school officials had not disclosed how many of the 150 position cuts will be teachers and how many would be office staff and administrators.

The 150 position cuts stem from a $60 million budget deficit the school system is facing in the fiscal 2026 budget.

Last week, the district announced the cancellation of elementary and middle school summer sessions as well as credit recovery programs administered by high schools for a cost savings of about $220,000. The cancellations do not impact the extended school year for students with Individualized Education Plans.

Last year, Harford’s school system cut 22.2 full-time equivalent positions and most summer programs to lower expenses by $7.6 million and balance its budget.

The school system asked for $354.91 million from the county last year to stave off layoffs and allow the school system to operate as it had the year before. The school system received $321.35 million from County Executive Bob Cassilly — leaving it with a deficit of just over $30 million that was covered primarily by using savings.

With the proposed reductions, Harford schools are expected to ask the county for ’ $347 million in fiscal 2026 — an increase of about $26 million over the current budget.

This story may be updated.

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