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Baltimore County teachers to see 3% raise in new agreement

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CBS News Baltimore Live

Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) has announced the details of a new agreement with the Teachers Union of Baltimore County (TABCO), after a push for a three-year pay raise.

TABCO announced that the new agreement had been reached last week, and that details would be released on July 23.

The compensation package represents a 3.05% pay increase, which has a total cash value of $26 million, according to the union.

What's in the new pay agreement?

If TABCO members ratify the agreement later this week, all TABCO members will see a 1% cost-of-living increase (COLA) effective on September 20, 2025.

That amounts to an average increase of $329 per paycheck for each TABCO-represented employee.

The agreement also preserves the amounts that teachers receive in their step increases, which are periodic increases in each employee's rate of pay.

Employees who have not yet reached the top of their pay scale will receive their normal annual step increase on January 1, 2026, plus the pay equivalent of a second step due to pay compression, according to TABCO. 

Adjustments to school calendar

As part of the agreement, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 2025 will be split into a half-day of remote professional development and a half-day of "mental health" time. This is subject to board revision of the school calendar, BCPS said.

One existing professional development day will be converted into a remote professional development day.

Why is there a new agreement?

Baltimore County Public Schools initially committed to a 5% raise as part of a three-year agreement.

But after federal and state funding cuts, the district reduced its raise offer from 5% to 1.5% for teachers.

TABCO rejected the revised deal, as it fell short of the initial agreement.

Teachers, backed by the union, organized rallies and protests, including a shift to "work to rule" where educators limit their work strictly to contracted hours.

Eventually, the district returned with a revised offer for a 2.5% raise, but it still fell short of TABCO's expectations.

Negotiations led BCPS to , where TABCO would still get the full 5% pay raise, but not until Jan. 1, 2026, not July 1, 2025, as initially promised.

Funding the agreement

Rogers said that BCPS originally planned to use strategic cuts along with state funding to fund the compensation packages, but the county had to change course.

Funding uncertainty posed challenges to the compensation agreement, BCPS said.

"As shared throughout the budget process in 2023 and 2024, BCPS was slated to see a significant increase in Blueprint dollars from the state for fiscal years 2026 and 2027," Rogers said in part. "Those additional Blueprint funds, strategic reductions in staffing and materials, and anticipated local and federal funding were to be used to fund our compensation packages. However, it became increasingly clear that uncertainty at the federal, state, and local levels meant that we would need to approach the budget differently."

Some of that uncertainty includes Maryland's $1 billion combined structural and cash deficit in the current fiscal year, which is slated to grow to $2.6 billion in FY26 and FY27.

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