MCPS to increase class sizes, lay off 21 central office staffers to close budget gap (2024)

Montgomery County Public Schools will increase class sizes and reduce the amount of its central office staff as part of its efforts to close a roughly $30 million deficit in next year’s school operating budget, according to a Tuesday email to families from Interim Superintendent Monique Felder.

The increase in class sizes is likely to result in the layoffs of up to 150 educators, district officials have said.

The decisions come as MCPS grapples with making budget cuts following the County Council’s adoption of a $7.1 billion county operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which includes $3.3 billion for the school district. The council’s allocation funds 99.2% of the school board’s recommended budget and is the highest-ever amount of funding for MCPS, but district officials say it is not enough to fully fund all programs and services.

Following the council vote, Felder and Board of Education President Karla Silvestre notified families of several budget adjustments the district was considering including class size increases, reductions in central office employees, delaying pre-kindergarten expansion and reducing services from CollegeTracks, which offers college access services to underserved students.

District officials announced the elimination of the Montgomery Virtual Academy last Thursday. Some parents described the decision as a “gut punch” to students and families that rely on the virtual learning program. On Monday afternoon, students enrolled in the academy staged a sit-in at the district’s Rockville headquarters to protest the program’s expected closure at the end of the school year.

The school board had requested more than $4.2 million for the virtual academy next school year, according toits FY 2025 recommended budget. The budget request also included 52.2 full-time equivalent positions for the academy.

According to Felder’s email, class sizes will increase by one student across all grade levels in the next school year. As a result of the increase, “staffing changes” will follow, Felder wrote. In previous communications regarding class size increases, school officials said the increase would result in 100 to 150 educator layoffs.

“We know that staff and families are understandably concerned about these reductions,” Felder wrote Tuesday. “However, we want to reiterate our commitment to mitigating their impact on student learning. MCPS remains dedicated to providing excellent teaching and learning and does so by maintaining a highly qualified workforce in schools and offices.”

According to Felder, school principals received Monday their annual staffing reports, which reflect their teacher allocation for the next school year and include staffing reductions based on the class size increase.

“Principals are currently reviewing these reports and working with their central services partners to ensure any reduction in teacher numbers has the least impact on student learning,” she wrote.

Felder also noted that school-based services such as counselors, school psychologists and pupil personnel workers would not be impacted by the staffing reductions.

The district is also reducing its central office staff by 21 employees. Felder did not specify in her letter which offices or departments would be impacted by the layoffs or how much money the school system would save based on the reductions. According to Felder, MCPS has one of the smallest central office divisions in the state, “allowing maximum funding to be allocated to school operations and staffing.”

The Board of Education will take final action on the district’s fiscal year 2025 operating budget at its June 11 board meeting.

Until then, the district will continue to review further reductions that can be made in contractual services included in the operating budget, Felder wrote.

The local teachers union, the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), has been urging MCPS to consider savings in the contractual services portion of the budget.

Representatives shared a list of potential reductions in a letter to Felder during a May 23 school board meeting, in which dozens of union members flooded the school board headquarters in Rockville to demand MCPS officials take action to avoid the potential staff layoffs, program cuts and increases in class sizes.

In a press release Monday, MCEA doubled down on its demand for action and said the school allocation report sent to principals “confirms there will be alarming staffing reductions, directly impacting students who are already learning in grossly understaffed buildings.”

The release stated the decision to reduce staff is a “blatant disregard of the crushing workloads teachers have already carried” and would force educators “to do more with less.”

“The excellence of our public schools has been our greatest point of pride for this county. Restoring that excellence is the foundation of our community’s future. We cannot stand by while our leaders erode the quality of education our students receive,” MCEA President Jennifer Martin said in the release. “This is a fight for the needs of our children. We implore County Executive [Marc] Elrich and the council to use their power to help us fight for the schools our students deserve and to help right what has become a sinking ship.”

The Black and Brown Coalition for Education Excellence – a county-based nonprofit organization focused on ensuring Black and brown students in MCPS have equitable access to education and opportunities in the school system – also issued a letter to the school board about the budget cuts.

In its letter, the coalition urged the district to ensure the “reductions do not harm those students who are furthest behind academically–especially in reading and math literacy–and who are most in need of support.”

“Whatever the budget looks like, it needs to be equity-focused,” Diego Uriburu, a co-founder of the Black and Brown Coalition, told MoCo360 Tuesday. “And that literacy and math-focused interventions cannot be part of the cuts and that accountability needs to be used to see how these resources are used and to track the result they yield.”

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