MCPS hiring freeze...

Gazette: Leggett recommends $36 million in budget cuts for Montgomery
Proposal would eliminate $19 million for schools, lay off 118 public safety employees

...Montgomery County Public Schools froze hiring last month, which accounts for $10 million in savings so far for this fiscal year, said Marshall C. Spatz, the school system's director of the Department of Management, Budget and Planning.

He has said that the school system also has been told to expect an additional $4.4 million in federal stimulus money through the state. This leaves $4.6 million that the school system still needs to figure out how it's going to cut.

"It's very difficult," Spatz said of eliminating positions to save money during a school year. "You've got classes that are being taught. I'm not sure how we'll do it at this point."

Another sticking point for the school system may be Leggett's recommendation to eliminate the nine remaining school resource officers — saving about $500,000.

School resource officers are Montgomery County Police officers who work in the county's public schools...