County school board digs into non-required spending in MCPS proposed operating budget

Second work session focuses on school materials formula, safety

January 24, 2025 11:58 a.m. | Updated: January 29, 2025 5:02 p.m.

In the second work session of this year’s budget season, the Montgomery County school board explored non-required spending included in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s proposed $3.6 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2026. 

The Thursday work session at school board headquarters in Rockville focused on topics including a new formula for providing schools with materials, proposed additional security assistants and leadership development for the district’s central office, providing a deeper look into proposed non-required spending for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1. During the first work session, Taylor and the board discussed state-mandated funding and other required costs.  

Taylor and the board are planning to another work session, focused on changes to the district’s fiscal year 2025 base budget. The final public hearing on the budget proposal is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at school board headquarters at 15 W. Gude Drive in Rockville The first public hearing held Jan. 16 was dominated by concerns about class size. 

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The district is also holding community sessions to explain how the budget works. Upcoming sessions will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville and virtually on Thursday. 

According to a budget spreadsheet shared online by the district, Taylor is requesting $2.4 billion from the county, which is $291 million above the state-mandate maintenance of effort requirement. State law requires the county to provide the district with at least the same amount in local dollars from one year to the next. The maintenance of effort amount for fiscal year 2025 is about $2.1 billion. 

Equity add-on formula for materials  

Taylor’s budget includes a new formula for determining material resources for schools that’s based on specific student populations such as those who qualify for Free and Reduced Meals (FARMS), a measure of poverty, special education students and Emergent Multilingual Learners. The new formula adds almost $5.75 million to Taylor’s proposed budget.   

Taylor said the funds could be used to provide supplementary materials such as books translated into different languages, tutoring or school supplies for students who need it.  

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When board member Karla Silvestre asked how the district would advise schools on how to spend the funding, Taylor said the MCPS central office would provide guidance that the funding should be used for materials that would improve circumstances for FARMS, special education and EML students.  

“I can’t emphasize enough, guidance is needed on what is going to help academic achievement,” Silvestre said. “We can’t try to fix the world, we have to focus on our mission.”  

School safety and career readiness program 

Taylor’s budget proposal also includes roughly $3.2 million to add 52 security positions. Taylor said the district wants to expand security staff into elementary schools. Currently, only middle and high schools have security staff. 

“We believe that that we do need to enhance our security assistant workforce,” Taylor told the board. “We think that by adding additional security assistants in some targeted areas and growing this over time that we can improve the safety and security across the district.” 

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Several board members thanked Tayor for the proposed addition of more security staff, and Taylor noted his budget also includes funding for training security assistants. Board member Rita Montoya raised concerns that the proposed increase wasn’t enough.  

The proposed budget also includes about $1.66 million for the Career Readiness Education Academy (CREA) to expand and stabilize the program, according to Thursday’s presentation. CREA is “an academic and career readiness education program for older English learners in MCPS,” according to the MCPS website.  

According to MCPS Chief Financial Officer Ivon Alfonso Windsor, the majority of funding for the academy in previous years would be borrowed from other areas of the budget. This year, the academy has its own line item.  

Taylor said the funding would give MCPS an opportunity to enhance programs, specifically in the hospitality and tourism space.  

“We have a program that’s in existence right now. We feel like this really does need to be shored up and can become a lot more robust with more comprehensive supports,” he said.  

Central services leadership development and blended learning 

Included in discretionary funding is $500,000 for central services leadership development, according to the budget. This would include the adoption of a project management approach for MCPS leadership and training for executive leadership and central services directors in fiscal year 2026.  

Taylor said funding leadership development and training for central services staff was part of a three-year plan.  

“The absence of a structure has not served MCPS well,” Taylor told the board. “We don’t manage projects as well as we should.” 

Taylor’s budget also includes $2.1 million to expand blended, online and distance learning. The Montgomery Virtual Academy, the district’s online schooling program, was cut from the fiscal year 2025 budget, despite an outcry from families in the program.  

Taylor said Thursday the proposed funding would focus on enhancing programs for students who are medically fragile, like many of those who previously attended the virtual academy. But the funding will also go toward expanding course options through distance learning to allow students to take classes offered at other schools in the county that may not generate enough interest to be offered at their own schools. 

Montoya questioned the reasoning for providing the funding amid several other issues that need to be addressed in the school district.  

“If we have children who can’t read or do math and we can’t afford to provide high-dosage tutoring, which we know works, why are we considering spending more money to allow some students to seek extra classes … when we have kids who can’t read and do math?” Montoya asked.  

Taylor said the board ultimately decides how to allocate funds, but that most of the $2.1 million focused on programs for medically fragile students. “A very little amount of money” is going toward planning to expand class options with distance learning programs, he said.  

“I think that this budget represents no concrete, complete solution, but rather the starting place to making progress towards a lot of solutions,” Taylor said.   

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