Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Thomas Taylor is expected Thursday to provide the school board with its first look at his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
It’s a spending plan that focuses on campus safety, improving students’ math and literacy skills, and reducing the district’s bureaucratic layers, among other priorities, according to a copy of the presentation, which doesn’t include a budget amount for the 2026 fiscal year. Among other notable items include a focus on providing more resources to schools and decentralizing some decision-making by giving schools more authority.
Taylor’s proposal also includes reimagining special education and emergent multilingual learner (EML) delivery models, shoring up staffing for special education and EML and reducing bureaucracy and flattening organizational structures.
The proposal comes in the wake of last year’s difficult budget season, in which the school board had to make significant cuts to close a spending gap after the County Council approved $30.5 million less in spending than was requested. The 2025 fiscal year operating budget was $3.32 billion.
Those cuts included the elimination of Montgomery Virtual Academy, the school system’s online learning program that served about 700 students. Also, the district’s Office of the School System Medical Officer was abolished, pre-kindergarten expansion was delayed and class sizes were increased.
According to Taylor’s upcoming presentation, the superintendent is taking a new approach with the proposed fiscal year 2026 plan by implementing zero-based budgeting, which is when the budget doesn’t use the previous budget as a baseline. He’s also proposing the shifting of services and resources to schools and reducing bureaucratic layers.
Three members will also be joining the board on Thursday, adding new voices to the table as budget season begins.
What are the school board’s priorities?
At the Nov. 7 school board meeting, board members stated their priorities for the fiscal year 2026 budget: Improving literacy and math rates for all students, focusing on school safety and student wellbeing; addressing college and career readiness; reaching vulnerable students and achieving fiscal efficiency.
“Nobody expects this to be an easy budget year. But you know, sometimes when you go through a crisis, resilience and innovation come through,” outgoing at-large board member Lynne Harris said at the meeting, “I really think this is an opportunity for us to make absolutely certain that we are being strategic.”
Praneel Suvarna, the student member of the board, asked Taylor to analyze the availability and location of programs, both academic and extracurricular, and to provide transportation for programming if needed.
“A lot of students talk about finding school boring, but it’s important to us as board members that our students have curriculum that’s engaging and relevant,” Suvarna said.
What budget priorities has Taylor discussed?
Taylor has addressed the upcoming budget during the past several months at forums, listening sessions and town halls, addressing issues ranging from special education to educator recruitment and retainment.
At a Nov. 14 listening session, Taylor said the community feedback was helpful “not just in structuring leadership” but also in informing he should include in the budget as he created his presentation.
Special education is mentioned consistently during community discussions, Taylor said at an Oct. 24 town hall hosted by the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity Excellence.
At the town hall, Taylor said special education services are often the first spending item to be adjusted during budget negotiations.
“I hope that you see this reflected in a budget proposal that I bring forward is how we might meet the needs of students with disabilities with adequate staffing and adequate materials and supplies,” Taylor told the crowd of hundreds of attendees. “But then there’s a part two to that, too: How are we serving our students with disabilities in a general [education] setting with really great scaffolding and support?”
At the Nov. 14 listening session, one parent addressed the increases in class sizes, which was one of the impacts of budget cuts last year. Taylor said he and the school board consider reducing class sizes to be a priority.
“That is a part of what I would like to start getting work on as soon as humanly possible. I will say this is an expensive problem, and it is definitely one of those things that you will have to chip at year over year,” Taylor said. “I will say that every time that there is some kind of reduction, you go to the classroom last, not first.”
At an Oct. 15 meeting with the Bethesda Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club, Taylor said educator retention and recruitment were top of mind while he was working on his budget proposal. According to a Nov. 12 work session with the County Council, personnel costs generally make up 90% of the district’s budget.
“We are a school system of people, not of things. This is a strength and a challenge … it is an inherent truth of public education as we quite literally cannot serve our students and families without excellent employees,” Taylor told the council.
Taylor has also said he’s heard from many families about the difficulty of navigating the MCPS bureaucracy. At the Nov. 14 town hall, Taylor said his budget proposal will include plans to decentralize decision-making and to support high school clusters.
During that listening session, Taylor also noted his proposal would address existing inequities among school operating accounts, especially as inflation has increased and the district hasn’t kept up.
“One of the things that I would be doing is investing in an equity add-on for schools,” Taylor said. “That’s not to take away anything from any school, but to add on and give an extra amount for every [free and reduced meal] student at a school.”
Taylor said such a big shift in philosophy will require the district to support the differentiation of resources based on need.
While families protested the closing of MVA and the district has tried to expand some virtual options, it’s unclear if the virtual academy will return.
At the Nov. 14 listening session, Taylor said he sees the benefits of virtual learning, including for creating access to popular courses that may not be offered at all schools because a given school may not have enough interest to warrant the assignment of a full-time teacher. Taylor said he envisions a future in which virtual learning is part of the MCPS experience.
“There’s also some spaces in virtual learning that we did not explore with the whole virtual program that are 100% worth exploring,” Taylor said. “I’m certainly very hopeful. I see a lot of benefits.”
Taylor’s zero-based budgeting approach
During the Nov. 12 work session with the council, Taylor said the district’s current mode of operation isn’t sustainable and needs to undergo a “revaluation of resource allocation.”
With the zero-based budgeting approach, Taylor told the council the process will begin by budgeting for non-negotiable items, then move toward funding to “implement those fundamentals with excellence for all students.” After that, the district will budget for items and services that district also wants to provide and phase in spending over time.
“This will not be fully accomplished in one year, but it will begin a multi-year effort to focus on our fundamentals and align our resources with our foundational core work,” Taylor told the council.
In a Nov. 19 forum with the Montgomery Taxpayers League, Taylor also said he will be providing more public information on the budget, including a digital summary sheet where people can check specific line items to “demystify” spending and expenditures.
Taylor told the taxpayers League that he expects the upcoming budget season to be difficult, but he’s hoping his proposal will provide more structure and insight into the district’s values and priorities.
“The things that we value is a long list, but the things that we value most should be the things that we invest in in our budget,” Taylor said.
