Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Montgomery County Council Education and Culture (EC) Committee met on Oct. 26, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. in Rockville to review implementation of the MCPS FY27 operating budget. The sole agenda item was an update from MCPS staff on position reductions, retirements, new hires, dual enrollment, student well-being staffing, and CTE program changes. Chair Will Jawando opened by noting that the Council funded MCPS below the Board's request but above earlier expectations, and that the budget required MCPS to eliminate 415 full-time equivalent positions, with 46 reductions in force (RIFs) and 162 involuntary transfers. He stressed that behind these numbers were real employees and classroom impacts.
Budget and position reduction overview: Staff reported the final appropriation was 98.4% of the Board's request, a 3.6% increase over the prior year, with local funds up 5.1%; however, $61 million of the Board's request remained unfunded. The $128 million total appropriation increase still left a $61 million gap. MCPS reduced 415 FTEs, totaling $35 million in cuts. Of those, 196.5 positions were new positions not implemented; 20 employees in targeted positions retired; 162 were involuntarily transferred; and MCPS later corrected the RIF number to 47. Dr. Renee McCall noted there were over 1,200 involuntary transfers across all employee associations, most in MCEA, making the year atypical. MCPS projected a K-12 enrollment decline of 4,800 students and said staffing standards lessened the impact.
Retirement incentive and sick leave payouts: MCPS offered a retirement incentive for retirements filed between May 23 and June 5: $10,000 for 10-month employees and $12,000 for 12-month employees, in addition to the 35% sick leave payout. The incentive resulted in increased retirements after the May 22 Board vote; total incentive pay was about $934,000, slightly more than originally projected. The discussion referenced 577 retirees. MCPS said the state retirement deadline limited how much additional time employees could be given to decide.
New hires: As of Aug. 25, MCPS had 853 new hires, mostly in the MCEA unit. More hires were in elementary than middle/high school, with notable numbers in special education, English learner instruction, and speech pathology. A planned expansion of elementary school security assistants was not implemented.
Dual enrollment: MCPS pays for 2,234 students to take Montgomery College courses this year. Of 289 students who were not college and career ready as of 10th grade, 100 were covered by a Montgomery College high school grant or paid themselves, 102 discontinued the program, 31 achieved CCR status over the summer and are being paid for by MCPS, and 56 PTEC students at Clarksburg High School had enrollment delayed a year or two. Councilmember Evan Glass said the dual enrollment program should return to its original equitable-access purpose. Other councilmembers argued there is an inherent tension because MCPS is mandated to prioritize K-12, and the state Blueprint covers only about 25% of program costs in Montgomery County, leaving most funding to local government. Councilmembers requested more demographic and school-level breakdowns, including for the 102 students who left the program.
Pupil personnel workers (PPWs): MCPS cut 27 PPWs. They will continue reducing barriers to education and remain present in assigned schools, but they will no longer coordinate student well-being teams, conduct routine residency verification home visits (with exceptions for foster care and McKinney-Vento cases), or evaluate homeschooling portfolios. MCPS said it aligned PPWs and family engagement specialists into cross-functional teams organized around about four school clusters, with staff expected in schools 80% of the time. Chair Jawando asked about attendance and chronic absenteeism; MCPS acknowledged an impact but said attendance numbers were so far doing reasonably well.
Mental health and social workers: MCPS reported 40 social worker RIFs, one retirement, one call-back, and one employee who found another position. MCPS is working with the Department of Health and Human Services and external providers, and plans to use Community Health Resources Grant funding to maintain a mental health presence in all schools. MCPS acknowledged there could be an increased waitlist for services. Councilmember Kristin Mink cited significant recent losses in therapeutic service contracts, extended-term contract capacity, and social worker capacity, and said the abrupt shift of responsibility from MCPS to HHS was difficult for vulnerable students. She asked MCPS to be candid about gaps and to build sustainable supports. Councilmember Shebra Evans called for an impact analysis, not necessarily an audit, disaggregated by student groups, as the year progresses.
Enrollment trends: MCPS reported that enrollment is 3,200 below projections, on top of the projected 4,800-student decline, for nearly 8,000 fewer students compared with the prior year. There were about 600 fewer kindergarten students than expected. The declines are concentrated in elementary and high school, with middle school more stable. High school withdrawal codes show movement to other Maryland districts, other states, and outside the U.S., with a substantial number of unknown withdrawals; MCPS is not seeing a spike in private school enrollment. MCPS emphasized it is making no mid-year staffing cuts, but lower enrollment will affect future allocations and likely mean more involuntary transfers.
CTE programs: Career and technical education programs are now managed by the Office of Career and Postsecondary Partnerships. MCPS is developing new MOUs with foundation partners to continue construction and automotive programs. Materials continue to be purchased with federal Perkins grants, existing cars remain available for automotive classes, but the house-building project has not yet secured land. MCPS said most student experiences in CTE are continuing, but it is re-envisioning the foundation relationship. Councilmember Evans stressed that the public should know the program was changed, not eliminated.
Other reductions: Staff also noted cuts or deferrals across bus leases, project management certification, mental health contractual services, air conditioning filters, higher education partnerships, equity and organizational development, Operational Understanding DC, technology services, the equity add-on program, professional development, and temporary part-time salaries.
Good morning. It is October 26th, just after 9 30. This is the Education and Culture Committee. And we're glad to be back here after a little little hiatus. We are talking about a very important topic this morning, the implementation of the FY27 budget, which we know there were some difficult decisions that were made, and we want to make sure we're monitoring as we head in to next year's budget, which is almost upon us, of where things are and what we need to be looking out for. Just as by way of background, and I'll turn to staff in a second, the council uh provided a budget that was below the board's request, but uh but higher than we initially anticipated it was going to be able to be, but you had to MCPS was forced to eliminate, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong, 415 full-time position equivalent positions, resulting in 46 reductions in force and 162 involuntary transfers. And I just want to put say that these are real people and uh real jobs and that have an impact in the classroom. Um, and uh we've heard, I know this committee and the whole council had heard from and still here from social workers or proof of personnel workers and others who have been impacted either personally or their parents uh or the students in the classrooms. Um I personally had a a young a young woman advocate who was senior last year and said she would not be going to college if it wasn't for her uh guidance counselor uh who was on this list to be to be let go and just that type of thing is happening, and it just I think it's important to understand these when you talk about the numbers. Um we know that uh these are difficult budgetary times for the council and for the county and for the country. Um, and so we we're we have to make tough decisions, but we want to do it with full information, understand what the impact is, and so we can prioritize the best we can. And I know the school board shares that goal, and and as does the as MCPS administration and staff. Um so we're excited to uh excited is probably the wrong word. We are eager to talk about these things because of the importance uh for them for our kids and families. Um so uh with that I'll I'll briefly turn it over to council staff just to tee us up, and then I'll ask Ms. McGuire to make her a few say a few words about her weekend and but no, but no, but about about this topic, and then we'll get into the discussion. Uh Mr. Proudy. Thank you, Church Wanda. So we do have a slide that to take you through, which highlights um a number of different areas in terms of the reductions that MCPS made and adjustments they made in terms of different positions and workloads. We will go through that, um, but MCPS would like to have a brief statement to start us before we do that. Ms. McGuire. Thank you, and thank you uh for having us here this morning. Certainly, the the puts and takes of last year's budget, as you pointed out, are still reverberating, and so we really appreciate the opportunity to come here today and really talk through sort of how we got to where we are and how we're doing this year. Um as we start, I do just want to highlight that you know, part of the um, I just want to highlight the time trajectory that this process was on. A lot of what we'll be talking about today, um, and a lot of what's summarized in the packet are a lot of the changes that happened at the end of the process, and that end was certainly very impactful. But this was a process that started in December of last year, just over a year ago. The state law and the county process and charter do require that the school system is pretty early out of the gate. Um, and so the superintendent's budget followed by the board in February, and then through the council process in the spring, a lot changes in that time period and last year especially. There was a lot of change in that time period. At each of those points between December with the superintendent and then February with the board, and then again in the spring. At each of those points, MCPS did work to make adjustments and to be up to date with employees and to try to communicate. But again, that process does keep evolving. Information evolves, the fiscal picture evolves. And so I just want us to again kind of keep that picture in mind as well, which is some of the numbers you see here, either were added to by things that happened earlier or were the culmination of things that happened earlier as well. Um, I would say too that even at the end, um we we were getting uh puts and takes and different information again, which is all part of the process. It's not a criticism, just wanting us to be um mindful uh of that dynamic as we go forward. As we were making these difficult decisions, which um again, both the council and the school board were were charged with, um, we really MCPS and the Board of Education worked to prioritize our core mission in a context of declining enrollment. And that context of declining enrollment is challenging. It's challenging because it challenges us to strategically focus the resources that we have and the resources that ultimately will be working with. But a change in the enrollment does necessarily often impact a change in positions, and that is in a system, a school system, a public school system. That's a correlation and a dynamic that will continue, that will continue this year.