Taylor revises recommendation for MCPS personnel cuts, restores some positions
School board to vote Thursday on final fiscal year 2027 budget
By
Ashlyn CampbellJune 2, 2026 8:06 p.m.
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In a late afternoon Tuesday email, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Thomas Taylor announced to district staff that he has revised his list of proposed position cuts needed to close a $36 billion gap in the fiscal year 2027 operating budget.
Initially recommending more than 430 position cuts, Taylor said that number has been reduced to 415, with the list of reductions now including unfilled vacancies and newly proposed positions such as 28 new security assistant jobs in place of some existing jobs.
Among the existing jobs that have been restored are 18 school psychologists, 27 college and career navigators and 15 school staff development teachers.
“Again, many of the position reductions involve vacancies that are not currently filled, which lessens the impact on current employees,” Taylor said in his email to staff. “Unfortunately, this decision forces delays to system priorities in critical areas that also impact our students — safety, literacy, and college readiness. This is a temporary solution to a much bigger problem of needing sustainable revenue to support your hard-working efforts better.”
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Since recommending cutting more than 430 positions to the school board May 21, Taylor said he and MCPS staff had reviewed “staffing needs, vacancies, and other operational considerations.”
Taylor said he is now recommending that the district cut 415 positions – including 12 new secondary literacy specialist positions along with the new security assistant positions, among others. Taylor said he’s also recommending reductions in funding for the district’s dual enrollment program, which allows high school students to take college-credit courses, and for some contractual services.
The school board is scheduled to consider Taylor’s recommended reductions Thursday as part of its adoption of the $3.72 billion MCPS operating budget approved last month by the County Council for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
On May 21, the council adopted a $7.9 billion county operating budget – including the $3.72 billion for MCPS that represented a $143 million year-over-year spending increase for the district. But that MCPS budget represented a $36 million shortfall between the district’s expenses and its approved funding.
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As a result, Taylor recommended to the county school board May 21 that it should eliminate roughly 435 full-time equivalent positions to close the gap. The proposed cuts include the equivalent of 38 social worker jobs at middle, high and alternative schools; 14 family engagement specialists; nearly 27 college and career navigators; about 40 English composition assistants; 18 school psychologists; and 27 pupil personnel workers, among others.
No school board members had immediately responded to Bethesda Today’s requests this week for comment on whether the board has been deliberating the proposed cuts with MCPS prior to Thursday’s budget. In a statement sent to Bethesda today before Taylor’s staff email was distributed, board spokesperson Edith Lozada Salgado said the board was reviewing the budget and no final decisions had been made.
“We are facing a significant budget shortfall, and unfortunately, this financial reality is affecting multiple departments across the school system,” Lozada Salgado said.
Staff, unions and community organizations have raised concerns about the impact of the proposed cuts on students.
“I just am concerned that people are not going to get what they need, and that the school system is not going to get what they need as well,” Melanie Travers, a pupil personnel worker, told Bethesda Today. “People will fall through the cracks. Students, children will fall through the cracks.”
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On Sunday, Taylor told Bethesda Today that the $3.79 billion MCPS operating budget that the board tentatively approved in February was needs-based and more modest in comparison to the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget.
Taylor had recommended a $3.78 billion budget, which represented a 5% increase over current spending and included staff salary increases and a goal of reducing elementary school class sizes by at least one student. The proposed 5% increase — totaling $179.7 million — was 3 percentage points lower than the roughly 8% jump in annual MCPS spending approved by the council for the current fiscal year.
At the May 21 school board meeting, several members asked district officials to explore whether there were options for non-personnel funding reductions in the fiscal year 2027 budget. When asked Sunday if there were other such options that would save jobs, Taylor told Bethesda Today that most of the budget paid for school personnel, a sentiment he echoed in the Tuesday email to staff.
“[The new recommendation] is a temporary solution to a much bigger problem of needing sustainable revenue to support your hard-working efforts better,” Taylor said in the email. “As pressing as this budget has been, I would be remiss if I did not point out that next year’s budget process looks even more challenging.”
Taylor’s May 21 recommendation and the revision released Tuesday did not include reducing negotiated wage increases for employees. Nearly $140 million of the fiscal year 2027 budget would be spent on salaries and benefits, including a 3.25% base salary increase for staff.
After the May 21 meeting, Montgomery County Education Association President David Stein, who represents teachers, and SEIU Local 500 Executive Director Travis Simon, who represents support staff, said MCPS did not ask the unions to take a reduced pay increase.
Taylor told Bethesda Today on Sunday that he understood the hesitancy of the unions to do so, especially considering the county government did not renegotiate contracts with the unions representing county workers to include lower increases as part of the county operating budget deliberations.
In April, County Council President Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) offered an alternative budget framework for fiscal year 2027 that called for a general wage increase of 2% across agencies including MCPS, Montgomery College and county divisions and departments. Labor leaders sharply criticized that plan to reduce negotiated pay increases.
The council approved negotiated contracts with three unions — International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1664, which represents the county’s career firefighters; Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, which represents police officers; and UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO, which represents non-uniformed county government employees as well as correctional officers and sheriff’s deputies.
Under their respective contracts, employees represented by MCGEO will receive a 2.85% general wage increase in fiscal year 2027. Police officers will receive a 3% general wage increase, while career firefighters will receive a 2.5% increase.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine