Editor’s note: This story, originally published Jan. 28, 2025, at 7:54 p.m., was updated Feb. 4, 2025, at 3:42 p.m., to correct that the proposed $298.7 million increase is the total increase from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026.
Dozens of speakers called for smaller class sizes, improved school safety and support for career readiness education for English learners during a nearly four-hour public hearing Monday night in Rockville on the Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) proposed $3.61 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Nearly 50 people spoke at the packed hearing held in the county school board’s meeting room at its West Gude Drive headquarters, raising a variety of issues during the board’s second public session this month on the spending proposal. Even with the addition of more chairs, many community members had to stand or sit on the floor in the back of the meeting room.
“Looking around this room, I see democracy in action. We are a better county, state and country when truth can be spoken to power,” Brigid Howe, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA), said during the hearing.
MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1, represents a nearly 9% increase over current spending. 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-mandated 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.
The proposed $298.7 million increase from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 comes in the wake of a difficult budget season in 2024 in which the county school board had to make significant cuts. The cuts were needed to close a spending gap after the County Council approved a fiscal year 2025 MCPS operating budget that was $30.5 million less in spending than the school board requested. The operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which ends June 30, is $3.32 billion. Fiscal year 2026 starts July 1.
The nearly $300 million proposed addition would help pay for spending that includes an expected 3.25% base salary increase for staff and the proposed addition of 688 special education positions. Other proposed expenditures include providing $40 million for an “underfunded” employee benefit plan and $5.47 million for an equity addition to the school material funding formula.
Class sizes, staffing and curriculum
Similar to the first public hearing Jan. 16 on Taylor’s proposed budget, concerns over class sizes and staffing were highlighted in much of the discussion from community members during Monday night’s session.
“The bulk of my testimony tonight can be summed up as, ‘Please, we need smaller class sizes now,’” said Stephanie Fitz, MCCPTA coordinator for the Quince Orchard High School cluster. “We would like MCPS to return to the 2023-2024 [class size] guidelines, imperfect as they were. As I heard [Taylor] say in the past, ‘We should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.’”
Taylor’s budget proposal doesn’t include a reduction in class sizes. He told Bethesda Today in December he wished he was addressing that issue but isn’t because of the high cost of the other expenditures that he is proposing. For the 2024-2025 school year, class sizes were increased by one student districtwide to help close the spending gap in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
Several speakers, including Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton, said increased class sizes have negatively impacted students and schools. Ashton said the districtwide class size increase impacted Rockville schools by requiring the combining of classes or causing teachers to get assigned to different positions in MCPS.
While many speakers were disappointed that the proposed budget doesn’t call for reducing class sizes, many also thanked Taylor for the proposed addition of special education and Emergent Multilingual Learner staff and discussed the importance of adequate staffing in schools.
Audra Dove, MCCPTA representative for the Clarksburg High School cluster, said “staffing impacts everything.” She advocated for MCPS to set aside funding for mid-year staffing allocations to address increased enrollment throughout the year.
“Inadequate staffing puts a strain on every child and directly impacts the ability of schools to consistently meet student accommodations, provide support services, ensure the well-being of students and differentiate learning to ensure all [students] means all,” Dove said.
Taylor’s budget proposal includes funding for 688 special education positions, most of which are paraeducators. The budget also reclassifies paraeducator positions to better reflect their responsibilities. Christopher Cano, director of politics and legislative affairs at SEIU Local 500, the union representing paraeducators, said the reclassification would ensure a career ladder that provided a level of respect for the staff members. Cano said administrators and teachers would agree that schools couldn’t operate without paraeducators.
“Paraeducators are working some of the most physically and emotionally demanding, high-stress positions in our school system while also being paid wages that are lower than priests, who take a vow of poverty,” Cano said. “How can we expect to retain qualified staff like this?”
Several parents also advocated for new curricula for middle and high schools, including Regan Kelly, chair of the MCCPTA curriculum committee. Kelly said while MCPS has a rigorous curriculum for math and reading for elementary and middle school students, the same is not true for the higher grades or subjects outside of reading and math.
“High school [English Language Arts curriculum] is unvetted and the rigor is uneven at best,” Kelly said. “Some texts included are also included in [the] fourth grade [curriculum]. This should raise serious alarms for everyone here today.”
Safety and security
Just days after two safety-related incidents occurred Thursday at Silver Spring’s John F. Kennedy High School, Kennedy community members and others from the broader MCPS community attended the hearing to discuss the importance of safety within schools.
Kennedy PTA President Ricky Ribeiro said the incidents, which included an attempted suicide and a possible gun on campus, showed that the “chickens have come home to roost” after repeated warnings and concerns about safety.
Ribeiro shared comments from the Kennedy community, including a Kennedy student government member who said he “refused to believe” that his younger brother would have to attend a school where students no longer were shocked when lockdowns occurred.
Ribeiro said another Kennedy parent said she didn’t trust that MCPS was being truthful about what happened on Thursday.
“MCPS seems more concerned about putting up a front to either make excuses for inaction or string together some fancy words to make it sound like they are doing something,” Ribeiro read from the parent’s comments.
Speakers advocated for additional security staff, an item included in Taylor’s budget proposal, as well as other initiatives such as installing ID card scanners in schools. Junior Peter Boyko, who attends Northwest High School in Germantown, testified in support of the additional security staff. Another safety aspect that was recently rolled out, mandatory IDs, wasn’t effective and needed to be changed, Boyko said.
Support for Career Readiness Education Academy (CREA)
Several MCPS students spoke out in favor of the Career Readiness Education Academy, an “academic and career readiness education program for older English learners in MCPS,” according to the MCPS website.
The students said the program, which is currently offered at Silver Spring’s Thomas Edison High School of Technology as a full-day or evening program, doesn’t receive nearly enough resources.
Junior Tracy Espinoza, who attends Watkins Mill High School in Germantown, said the voice of academy students has been dismissed. Espinoza said the academy only has one full-time staff member, and the rest are paraeducators and other staff members who “take on more than their titles.” Academy enrollment has also been paused since September, according to its website.
Espinoza shared the comments of an academy student, who she quoted as saying MCPS can’t “deprive someone of education, especially if they have the will to push forward.” Espinoza said academy students don’t have access to hot meals, a school psychologist or other resources at all MCPS schools.
Taylor’s proposed budget also includes about $1.66 million to expand and stabilize the academy program, according to Thursday’s work session.
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 the academy’s programs.