In a packed, tearful meeting, the Montgomery County Board of Education approved a $3.7 billion budget that eliminates 415 positions, including 43 social worker roles and 27 pupil personnel specialist jobs, after a $7.9 billion council spending plan fell short
The decision came after a room full of people had already done the math for weeks—then heard the numbers land anyway.
On Thursday. the Montgomery County Board of Education approved a $3.7 billion budget that eliminates 415 positions. with more than 100 of those roles already vacant. Among the jobs being cut are 43 social workers and 27 pupil personnel workers—specialists trained to advocate for students and work with schools on issues including attendance. discipline and homelessness.
Board President Grace Rivera-Oven was tearful as she addressed the packed hearing room. “This is incredibly personal, excruciating and painful,” she said, describing the emotional weight of members struggling through the vote.
Board member Julie Yang—who is running for Montgomery County Council—also struggled to keep her composure. “The truth is, there is no way to reduce a budget by this magnitude without impacting people,” she told the crowd.
Vice President Brenda Wolff spoke about duty rather than distance. “We have to make these painful decisions, and we cannot shy from that responsibility,” she said.
The anger and fear in the room spiked when someone asked a question tied directly to trauma at a local school. After citing the shooting at Wootton High School in February—when school staff including social workers provided support—an audience member demanded to know what comes next. “Who’s going to support next year’s students?” the person asked. The crowd burst into applause.
The board’s vote capped a budget process that began long before Thursday’s moment. The school spending plan was built after the Montgomery County Council approved a $7.9 billion spending plan that included $3.7 billion for the school system.
Superintendent Thomas Taylor had requested a budget increase of $179 million over last year’s allocation. He tied the request to increased expenses and mandatory expenses connected to the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. a sweeping reform plan. The council did not fully fund the request. Instead, it increased school spending by $143 million, leaving MCPS $36 million short of its requested spending plan.
Before the vote, Taylor told the board that the budget “creates more problems than it solves,” pointing to concerns about how some one-time funding mechanisms would leave challenges for next year’s spending.
The final tally was 7-1. Voting no. board member Rita Montoya said the school system should have looked harder for ways to avoid cutting existing jobs that affect students directly. “Because I cannot look you — our community in the eye and say that I feel that we’ve done that. I cannot support this budget. ” Montoya said. drawing enthusiastic applause.
Laura Stewart took the opposite tack, acknowledging the difficulty of the process while warning that it won’t get easier. “Guess what? Next year is going to be harder. Next year we will continue to look at cuts. This is the reality we are in,” she said.
Before the vote, parents, students and staff members urged the board to protect jobs that provide direct services to students. Ayana Manzanares. a clinical social worker who said the cuts would not reduce students’ needs. told the board that students arrive with issues that include suicidal thoughts. depression and anxiety. She argued that “today’s vote is not what MCPS can afford. it is about what MCPS is willing to risk.”.
Students also spoke. Grant Nelson, an 11th grader at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said, “Support staff are often the first to notice whenever a student is struggling.”
David Stern. president of the Montgomery County Education Association. which represents thousands of classroom teachers and school staff. said he was relieved that some positions were saved from elimination after further review by the board before Thursday’s meeting. Some jobs preserved included college and career navigators and school psychologists.
But Stern’s relief came with sharp concern. He told WTOP that the school system is “chronically underfunded” despite budget increases. “We are not back to a per-pupil funding that we were in 2009 before the Great Recession,” he said.
Looking ahead. Stern agreed with Taylor that next year will be “very. very. very difficult.” He also argued for changes beyond the school system itself. suggesting an all-hands-on-deck approach to school funding. “I think there’s some work that our partners at the state government need to be doing in order to be giving revenue flexibility to the counties. ” he said. “We cannot continue to be in this cycle of cutting. cutting. cutting and then wondering why services are not being provided to our students and our families.”.
In the end, Thursday’s vote set the tone for what comes next: a budget approved for immediate operation, and a next year already forecast as harder—while students, families and staff search for an answer to the same question that echoed in the room.
Montgomery County MCPS school board budget job cuts social workers pupil personnel workers Blueprint for Maryland's Future Thomas Taylor Grace Rivera-Oven