Proposed cuts to MCPS staff who support students, families raise concerns

50 central service positions on chopping block under fiscal year 2027 budget proposal

A typical work week for a pupil personnel worker for Tee Clark in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), can involve helping families and students experiencing homelessness complete required forms, advising families who are considering homeschooling or assisting in the re-enrollment of students who are involved with the county Department of Juvenile Services.   

“We show up at hospitals for kids. We show up at funerals for kids,” Clark told Bethesda Today on Tuesday. “We’re there with families who are grieving the loss of their kids because of whatever reasons. I was at a funeral about a month and a half ago with a family. I went to the house before the funeral. So we do a whole lot of personal touch with the families.”   

That’s why Clark, who serves the Northwood cluster, and her fellow pupil personnel workers, along with county school board members, are raising concerns about Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s recommendation to cut 10 of the district’s 52 positions and other positions that support students as part of his proposed $3.78 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2027.   

“Although I totally understand that we are [in very hard times] times of budgeting … I am very leery about cutting certain positions that we have built on for decades to ensure that we have that trust in the community,” school board President Grace Rivera-Oven said Tuesday during a work session on the budget proposal attended by Clark and other pupil personnel workers at the board’s Rockville headquarters...

  https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/01/07/proposed-cuts-to-mcps-staff-raise-concerns/