In Maryland, Montgomery County’s Board of Education will vote on the school system’s budget Thursday and more than 400 positions are on the line.
And Kate Heald holds one of those jobs.
Heald is a college and career navigator at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. She’s one of 27 school system employees charged with helping students with their college and career search.
Heald’s work doesn’t stop with the college selection process. Like her colleagues across the school system, she then works to help students and their families figure out how to pay for their post-high school education.
The board has been presented by school Superintendent Thomas Taylor with a list of positions that could be eliminated, a move that Taylor made after the county council approved all but $36 million of the school system’s proposed budget increase.
Heald is a 12-month employee and often provides transportation for kids who otherwise couldn’t get to college interview appointments or makes sure that a translator is available for meetings for those students whose families need that service.
“I truly care about these kids and believe that our youth are going to make this country a better place,” Heald told WTOP.
She said that the class of 2026 was “a phenomenal graduating class,” not just because of their academic accomplishments, but because of the way they cared for and supported each other over their four years in high school.
“This is a kind class,” Heald said.
At the graduation ceremony Monday, class president Donovan Hicks told the crowd to give a hand to the teachers who helped them learn and grow in the past four years.
And then, Hicks gave a special mention to “our counselors, who pushed us to try harder classes, and carried us through the college process. Special shout out to Mrs. Heald and to everyone else who was always in our corner,” he said, which led to an applause that rang out in the auditorium.
“I started to cry, I mean it’s just — it’s the proudest, most amazing moment that — it’s very hard to describe,” Heald said.
Prior to graduation, Heald said students, who had been aware of the potential elimination of Heald’s job, had been stopping by her office.
“They were streaming into my office,” she said, asking what they could do. “Kids that I didn’t even really know” told her that they’d reached out to the school board ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
Heald said she’s made up her mind that whatever happens and will make peace with it.
“I am fairly close to retirement,” she said. “I feel sorry for the young people that are just getting started. The job market’s really tough right now.”
Heald said she doesn’t blame the county council or the school board for the situation that could result in job losses. “I don’t envy them, I think it’s a very difficult decision” that the board faces, she said.
As she closes out the school year, Heald said she’s savoring the good news that students she’d worked with have gotten. One student who experienced a family loss, but has won multiple scholarships and another who won a scholarship to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.
“She blew me a kiss” at graduation, said Heald, “and I got tears in my eyes,” tears of joy.
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