Taylor to formally propose MCPS staffing cuts Thursday

County school board to vote June 4 on reconciled fiscal year 2027 budget

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May 19, 2026 6:15 p.m.

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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Thomas Taylor is expected to announce Thursday his recommendations for staffing cuts to close an anticipated $36 million budget gap in proposed district spending for the coming fiscal year. 

In a straw vote Friday, the County Council voted 9-2 to approve a $7.9 billion operating budget for the county for fiscal year 2027. The spending plan includes roughly $3.7 billion for MCPS, which represents an additional $143 million in funding, but is $36 million less than what the district requested. The straw vote is not binding but is expected to stand when the council formally votes to adopt a budget Thursday. Fiscal year 2027 begins July 1. 

“This is a remarkably tight timeline with significant gravity in the decisions and none of those decisions will be easy,” Taylor said Friday in a video to MCPS staff. “But I promise you we will continue to update you as we have new information.” 

The gap in funding means hundreds of MCPS positions — including media assistants, social workers and English composition assistants — could be eliminated. No additional details about the cuts could be determined as of Tuesday.  

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Jawando on Friday suggested taking $36 million from the county’s $6.3 billion six-year capital improvements program (CIP) and giving it to MCPS for operating expenses, funding two $18 million tranches that would have otherwise been slashed.    

In making his motion to reallocate money from the capital to the operating spending plan for MCPS, Jawando said he was cognizant of the fact that there were “no good options.”  

“There are worse options, and among them would be the devastating, catastrophic cuts to MCPS staff and educators,” Jawando said. 

Taylor said in the video that he will present his recommendations for staffing cuts to the county school board following the council’s vote on Thursday. The school board is expected to adopt a final MCPS spending plan on June 4. 

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County Executive Marc Elrich (D) had called for a 6% increase to the county property tax rate to fully fund the school district’s budget request. Most councilmembers opposed that plan.   

In lieu of a property tax rate increase, the council considered reductions to the school district’s requested budget in tranches of 10% — amounting to about $17.9 million per tranche. On May 12, Taylor presented proposed position reductions, listed by tranche, to the council, but implored councilmembers to not move forward with the cuts.

After the council’s Friday straw vote, leaders of unions representing MCPS employees told Bethesda Today that personnel cuts proposed for each tranche of reduced spending were preliminary and that the unions would be working with the district to determine what happens next. 

“It’s real people, it’s not a line item in the budget, it’s real people in real lives,” Montgomery County Education Association President David Stein told Bethesda Today. “We’re going to be working with [MCPS and the school board], and … I know our members are going to be advocating to them over the next couple weeks until they have to make their final decisions. We’ll see where we go from here.”   

SEIU Local 500 President Pia Morrison, head of the union that represents MCPS support staff, noted that support staff positions are disproportionately included in the preliminary lists of position reductions.  

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“This is the lowest paid group in MCPS, so we have some hard conversations to have,” Morrison said.  

Taylor said in his video that he was aiming to “keep reductions as far away from the classroom as possible without drastically impacting operations.” 

Still, “the changes we will need to make to close our $36 million gap will be significant and they will impact services to students and families,” Taylor said. “There is no running from that. I sincerely wish that it was different and I am sorry for that.”  

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine