Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is planning to evaluate the success of the Community Engagement Officer program in the near future and add security assistants to serve groups of elementary schools, according to a Tuesday County Council discussion.
The comment was part of a discussion of the MCPS fiscal year 2026 operating budget request. The county school board tentatively approved a $3.65 billion operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Feb. 4 and it is now up to the full council to determine a final county operating budget. The council is required to make a formal decision on any tax changes, which would fund the budget, by May 15 if they are to be implemented in fiscal year 2026.
At the Tuesday meeting, MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor and school board president Julie Yang said safety and security were among the most pressing issues for the district. County councilmember Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) noted that some community members have raised concerns about the Community Engagement Officer (CEO) program, which involves county police officers serving a cluster of schools out of an office in a cluster’s high school, but not patrolling hallways.
The CEO program was introduced in the 2022-2023 school year after MCPS removed county police officers, known as school resource officers, from capuses the previous year following concerns over students of color being disproportionately disciplined. Some community members have argued that school resource officers would make schools safer.
Yang and Taylor said it was time to reevaluate the effectiveness of the CEO program.
“We always have to have a relationship with law enforcement,” Taylor said. “We have a great relationship with law enforcement.”
The proposed fiscal year 2026 MCPS budget includes the addition of 52 security assistant positions. Security assistants are not police officers, rather they assist in screening school visitors and patrolling and monitoring hallways, according to MCPS job descriptions. Of the added positions, 35 would be allocated to elementary schools, 10 to middle schools and seven to high schools. According to a council staff report, there are currently 91.5 full-time equivalent security assistants in middle schools and 139.5 full-time equivalent security assistants in high schools.
Taylor told the council Tuesday while there are substantial security needs at the middle and high school level, elementary schools “from time to time” require service from security assistants, ranging from serving as the first point of contact for law enforcement to investigating whether there’s an unauthorized visitor. Currently, there are no security assistants for elementary schools.
Taylor said having security assistants nearby who could be deployed to several schools, “makes a huge difference.” If one security assistant was stationed at one school, Taylor said, they could also be on call to address safety issues at nearby schools.
“Many of our elementary schools are in walking distance to other elementary schools, they are close by and so having a geographic alignment of some of our security assistants can go a long way,” Taylor said.
For the 17 middle and high school positions, Taylor said the district would try to balance the security assistants based on school size and student population.
Councilmember Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) said issues can’t be solved just with money and more security, but need to be addressed with a change in school culture.
“It’s about having principals … who are truly engaging the staff, the teachers, the students and the families so they can feel welcome,” Fani-González said.
Taylor said the district was in the midst of establishing its strategic plan for the next five years that will include a score card that the district can use to measure items like school climate and performance.
