Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers made a preemptive reduction of 370 school personnel last Monday in accordance with expected county budget cuts.

The Board of Education is concerned that the Montgomery County Council won’t approve MCPS’s $2.39 billion budget request after Governor Larry Hogan’s proposed system-wide budget cuts, that threaten to limit state aid to the county by $25 million, an MCPS press release said. The personnel reductions will attempt to alleviate the budget cuts by lessening county expenses by about $27 million.

“While I am hopeful that the County Council will be able to fully fund our budget, we must prepare for the possibility that we will have to make additional reductions to our budget request,” Bowers said in the press release. “We are taking this action now so that our schools and staff impacted by these changes can begin planning for next year.”

The staff cuts will include 150 teaching positions, which will exacerbate MCPS’s overcrowding problem by further increasing class sizes. Although MCPS officials have said the county plans to increase class sizes for all grades and schools, schools with higher free and reduced-price meal rates will face less severe class size increases.

Whitman will lose one special education teacher, one part-time ESOL teacher, one composition assistant, one media assistant and one paraeducator, principal Alan Goodwin said.

If the county’s budget request is partly or fully fulfilled, MCPS officials said they will act quickly to restore the positions.

“Historically, [the budget] has improved slightly but not completely,” Goodwin said.

Infographic by Naba Khan.