The Montgomery County Board of Education approved a $3.7 billion budget Thursday that eliminates 415 positions, more than 100 of them vacant.
Among jobs being cut are 43 social workers and 27 pupil personnel workers, specialists trained to advocate for students and work with schools on issues such as attendance, discipline and homelessness.
Some positions, like college and career navigators and school psychologists, were saved from elimination after further review by the board before Thursday’s meeting.
Board of Education President Grace Rivera-Oven was tearful as she told the packed hearing room that the board members struggled with the vote.
“This is incredibly personal, excruciating and painful,” she said.
Board member Julie Yang, who’s running for Montgomery County Council, also struggled to maintain her composure as she told the crowd, “The truth is, there is no way to reduce a budget by this magnitude without impacting people.”
“We have to make these painful decisions, and we cannot shy from that responsibility,” school board Vice President Brenda Wolff said.
But a member of the audience shouted a question to the board. Citing the shooting at Wootton High School in February, when school staff including social workers provided support to students, he asked, “Who’s going to support next year’s students?”
The crowd burst into applause.
The budget approved by the school board followed the Montgomery County Council’s approval of a $7.9 billion dollar spending plan that included $3.7 billion for the school system.
Superintendent Thomas Taylor had requested a budget increase of $179 million over last year’s allocation, citing increased expenses and mandatory expenses tied to the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a sweeping reform plan.
The council did not fully fund the school system’s request, but did increase school spending by $143 million, leaving MCPS $36 million short of its requested spending plan.
“This is a budget that creates more problems than it solves,” Taylor told the school board before Thursday’s vote, noting that some one-time funding mechanisms leave challenges for next year’s school spending plans.
The budget passed with a 7-1 vote. Voting no, school board member Rita Montoya said the school system should have looked harder for ways to avoid cutting existing jobs that have a direct impact on students.
“Because I cannot look you — our community in the eye and say that I feel that we’ve done that, I cannot support this budget,” Montoya said to enthusiastic applause.
Board member Laura Stewart told the crowd that as tough as this budget process has been, “Guess what? Next year is going to be harder. Next year we will continue to look at cuts. This is the reality we are in,” she said.
Before the vote, parents, students and staff members appealed to the school board to protect jobs that provide direct services to students.
Ayana Manzanares, a clinical social worker the cuts would not reduce the needs of students.
Students come to school with issues like suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, she said, and “today’s vote is not what MCPS can afford, it is about what MCPS is willing to risk.”
Students joined staff members to comment before the board vote.
“Support staff are often the first to notice whenever a student is struggling,” Grant Nelson, an 11th grader at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said.
David Stern, the president of the Montgomery County Education Association, which represents thousands of classroom teachers and school staff, said he was relieved to see some jobs saved.
However, Stein told WTOP that the school system is “chronically underfunded” despite budget increases.
“We are not back to a per-pupil funding that we were in 2009 before the Great Recession,” Stein said.
Looking ahead, Stein agreed with Taylor that next year will be “very, very, very difficult.” And he suggested an all-hands on deck approach to school funding.
“I think there’s some work that our partners at the state government need to be doing in order to be giving revenue flexibility to the counties,” he said. “We cannot continue to be in this cycle of cutting, cutting, cutting and then wondering why services are not being provided to our students and our families.”
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