The Montgomery County Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a $3.32 billion fiscal year 2025 operating budget for county schools, which represents an increase of 4.6%, or $147.3 million, over current spending.
The budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 is $30.5 million less than the amount that the school board originally requested from county officials, leaving Montgomery County Public Schools to make significant cuts to close the spending gap.
The elimination of Montgomery Virtual Academy, the school system’s online learning program; the abolishment of the school system Office of the School System Medical Officer; delayed pre-kindergarten expansion; and increases in class sizes are among some of the cuts and adjustments that MCPS finalized Tuesday before the board’s vote.
Though the board voted unanimously to adopt the budget, some members expressed their disappointment with the spending plan.
“In eight years [on the school board], I’ve never been on a budget where I had the worst taste in my mouth ever,” school board member Shebra Evans (Dist. 4) said. “This is not a budget that makes me happy at all. To me there are no winners. There are no winners in this budget, particularly for our students.”
Board member Grace Rivera-Oven (Dist. 1) said that it “breaks her heart” to see the services and programs that have been delayed or cut.
Before the vote, MCPS officials and board members acknowledged the challenges of calculating a spending plan for the next fiscal year, noting that federal pandemic aid is ending, costs are increasing due to inflation and the district must meet the spending requirements of the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform bill.
According to an MCPS release, preparing the fiscal year 2025 budget involved moving resources and services that were funded by the pandemic aid into the district’s general operating budget such as counselors and social workers, or cutting programs like the virtual academy and social-emotional learning curriculum.
Challenges also came after the County Council adopted a $7.1 billion county operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which includes $3.3 billion for MCPS. The council’s allocation funds 99.2% of the school board’s recommended budget and is the highest-ever amount of funding for MCPS, but district officials said it was not enough to fully fund all programs and services.
After the council’s vote, MCPS notified staff and families of several spending cuts under consideration, including the possibility of up to 150 educator layoffs, as officials tried to close the budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. However, the district announced Monday that no current teachers were expected to lose their jobs as a result of the district’s plan to increase class sizes.
“Closing a $30 million gap is never easy,” MCPS Chief Operating Officer Brian Hull said during Tuesday’s board meeting.
Ahead of the school board’s vote Tuesday, council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) called out the board for a “lack of leadership” in making financial decisions during a press briefing on Monday. He described the board’s need to close the $30 million gap as a “management issue” and not a “fiscal issue.”
But board President Karla Silvestre told reporters after the vote Tuesday that it is “evident” that MCPS budget cuts are a fiscal issue. “The numbers just simply did not add up to what the board had requested in our budget,” she said.
According to MCPS officials, the district will save about $10.1 million by increasing class sizes by one student in the next school year. According to the board documents, increasing class sizes will result in a reduction of about 123 full-time equivalent positions. The district expects to absorb “a number” of the reductions through retirements and vacancies.
Delaying pre-kindergarten expansion is expected to result in a savings of $7.5 million while removing 94.8 full-time equivalent positions that had been included in the school board’s budget recommendation. However, a portion of the pre-kindergarten increase at Stonegate Elementary School in Silver Spring will remain funded due to the school receiving a grant that requires the funding to be used in fiscal year 2025.
Cuts to MCPS central office staff are projected to save $3.4 million, according to board documents. The reductions include the abolishment of the Office of the Deputy Superintendent and the Office of the School System Medical Officer, eliminating the post held by MCPS Medical Officer Patricia Kapunan.
Rivera-Oven and board member Lynne Harris (At-large) noted Kapunan’s efforts to educate and provide resources to students about the opioid crisis and Narcan training.
“Dr. Kapunan’s work has been transformational and we have to find a way to continue her work,” Harris said.
After the vote, MCPS Interim Superintendent Monique Felder told reporters that MCPS would be working with the county’s Department of Health and Human Services to ensure service gaps that may occur from the elimination of the district’s medical officer’s office can be addressed by the county.
Among other reductions, full-time equivalent positions for staff development teachers in middle and high schools will be reduced by 26, resulting in savings of $2.3 million.
The district also will reduce contractual services by about $3.2 million, which will come from services in academics, operations and technology, according to school board documents.
Reductions in academics will impact science, technology, engineering, mathematics opportunities and tutoring services for students, school board documents state. Operations reductions will impact training opportunities, equipment maintenance, consulting services for economic impact studies and safety initiatives for facilities. The technology reduction will reduce the footprint of business systems, documents state.
MCPS has also cut musical instrument repair and the purchase of instruments for economically disadvantaged students from the budget. According to board documents, the reduction will result in $1.1 million in savings, but the district anticipates the MCPS Educational Foundation will help fund a portion of repairs in purchases in the next school year.
Felder echoed Hull’s sentiment at the meeting, and noted the district had “a short period of time to make very difficult decisions about reductions in the operating budget.”
In-person and video pleas from parents, families and students to save the Montgomery Virtual Academy dominated the public comments section of the meeting.
As board members discussed the program’s future, parents and students advocating to keep the academy open shook their heads and shouted in disagreement. Following the board’s vote approving the budget, boos filled the room and advocates chanted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “MVA must stay!”
The elimination of the academy will remove about 53 full-time equivalent positions and more than $5 million from the fiscal year 2025 school budget, according to the district’s budget presentation.
MCPS officials said reasons for eliminating the academy include a decrease in the number of students enrolled and the fact that the attendance and graduation rates of the program “significantly are less than that of the overall district.” However, some parent advocates have disputed that data, claiming academy students are thriving.
After listening to the testimony, school board member Rebecca Smondrowski said she hopes the district’s families understand that the school board “would love to fund everything.”
“And it’s not for lack of trying to find money, despite what other agencies might say. We want to do what’s best for kids,” she said.
Smondrowski asked Hull about the possibility of funding a hybrid virtual learning program for students who thrive in a virtual learning environment and whether the board could ask the council for an appropriation to fund such a program.
Hull said he would have to discuss the idea with other district officials and that the board could request a supplemental appropriation from the council after July 1.
While discussing the virtual academy’s fate Silvestre said, the board has not discussed whether to request a supplemental appropriation to continue funding a virtual learning program.
Before voting on the budget, Silvestre noted that MCPS and county officials need to figure out how to work together before the fiscal year 2026 budget season begins.
“We have to come together as a community,” she said. “Our children and our families are too important. This is too important of work for us to get in the way of ourselves. We have to figure this out. We have to work with our elected leaders. We have to work with our families.”