With the start of the new school year just weeks away, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Thomas Taylor said Wednesday that the district has work to do in addressing safety.
“Our No. 1 priority is making sure that our students, our staff and our visitors have a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment,” Taylor said during an appearance at County Executive Marc Elrich’s weekly virtual press briefing.
Taylor also noted that the district will be navigating budget cuts through program evaluation and is still looking to fill about 250 full- and part-time teaching vacancies before the school year starts Aug. 26.
The superintendent, who was appointed June 25 following a four-month nationwide search after former MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight resigned Feb. 2, said MCPS has taken “the right steps” to move toward addressing safety and inclusivity, including reviewing school practices.
The district has a new chief of the Department of Security and Compliance, as former Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones was appointed to the position on June 25. Some community members have raised concerns about the role of police in schools following the appointment of Jones, who retired from the police department July 1 after 38 years.
Taylor said the district is looking at the safety of buildings but couldn’t disclose details due to security concerns. In April, Interim Superintendent Monique Felder sent a community letter that said the district was considering adding vape and weapons detection systems and mandatory student as well as staff IDs.
Taylor also said work needed to be done on what safety plans look like and the execution of those plans to ensure standardization when addressing safety incidents and communication.
School safety and discipline were at the forefront of conversations among MCPS community members after several incidents last year. During the 2023-2024 school year, MCPS faced numerous bomb threats, a Paint Branch High School student charged for on-campus gun possession, fights, hate-based graffiti and “swatting” calls resulting in lockdowns.
Taylor noted there are multiple dimensions to safety, including the mental health of students.
“I think you’re going to look forward to some positive changes this year in that space,” he said, referring to safety measures.
While Taylor said safety is the top priority, the district is also dealing with spending cuts and continuing to fill educator vacancies for the coming year.
On June 11, the county school board approved a $3.32 billion operating budget that was $30.5 million less than the amount the school board originally requested from county officials. To close the gap, the district made several cuts, including closing the Montgomery Virtual Academy, delaying pre-kindergarten expansion and increasing class sizes.
Budget cuts and increasing class sizes were expected to result in the layoff of up to 150 educators, which was avoided through position turnover, according to the district.
To address budget cuts and their impacts, Taylor said the district has “a heavy lift in terms of program evaluation” to address what has been effective and requires additional investment or what hasn’t been effective and needs to be scaled back moving forward.
“I just think that’s going to be a long comprehensive process,” he said in the press briefing. “But I also think that it’s what our citizens are expecting of us at this point. They want us to invest in the things that are going to make the biggest difference in the classroom.”
For the upcoming school year, Taylor said the district has hired 900 new teaching hires. He noted the district still has approximately 160 full-time vacancies, 39 of which are special education positions, and 100 part-time vacancies. According to MCPS spokesperson Liliana Lopez, the number full-time vacancies had dropped to 151 as of Wednesday evening.
“We’re a little ahead of where we have been in the last couple of years in terms of recruiting,” Taylor said. “We’re actually thrilled with where we are relative to where we’ve been even just a week ago–that 160 full-time number was a little over 200 a week ago, so we’re really making progress in that space.”
To address the vacancies, Taylor said the “good news” for the district was that the hiring season is year-round, and staff got a head start this spring with earlier recruitment efforts.