Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see 220 MS teachers being cut, I don’t see that on the linked document. Can anyone verify this?

I also don’t see any MS teachers on the list.

It's on page 4. Why middle school is my question...we barely have enough staff as it is right now. If they are pre-cutting electives for 2027's math disaster, people need to start getting angry. We are just gutting education at this point. People making the decisions aren't the ones in classrooms. Cutting electives in middle school is the worst idea-we need more electives, not less. So many kids have stated that their favorite elective whether it be band, dance, music,tech, or theatre is the ONLY reason they go to school. I'm a counselor not a teacher, but from what I see/hear from students on a daily basis, this would absolutely negatively affect them. This is all for 15 additional minutes of math a day, which the state apparently thinks is super easy to implement without giving a second thought to how it would drastically alter scheduling for middle schools/hs and thus,cutting arts programs and electives for those 15 minutes of math that kids are probably already tuned out because their attention spans won't allow for it. Disgraceful.

Anonymous wrote:The problem I have is that media assistants aren’t exactly compensated much for their time and energy, so it’s not really going to help the budget gap. If anything it will put more pressure on others . . . whereas Central Office employees get paid significantly more.

+1. Exactly.

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see 220 MS teachers being cut, I don’t see that on the linked document. Can anyone verify this?

I also don’t see any MS teachers on the list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am confused by the Principal, School Business Administrator, and Athletic Director positions for Crown. Is it because these positions will be taken over by Wootton? If so, shouldn’t there be more Crown positions?

Those were the only ones set to be hired the year before opening, which is the budget year in question. But yes, now that there will be no Crown, there is no need for those positions this coming year.

No. MCPS is hiring a principal, AD and admin secretary for Woodward by July 1.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adam Pagnucco with the e-mails and links: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2026/05/12/taylor-to-council-please-dont-do-this/

Taylor went after the most vulnerable student cohorts with his cuts - special education and immigrant students who are learning English. Middle schools are taking a hit too.

Wouldn't it be great if Taylor took a symbolic hit on his own salary, say, $60K, to save some lower-paid position?

I agree that he went after the most vulnerable, but the financial problem is that the most vulnerable populations are a greater portion of the whole than they have ever been. 20% of all students are English language learners and 15% receive special education services. It’s very expensive.

Newsflash: TT himself said that 90% of budget is personnel. Understand that most organizations personnel is ~60-80% of budget, and when orgs reach that threshold, it is serious time for layoffs. So don't go blaming our vulnerable.

This is my work. Of course I’m not blaming kids. But the reason it is so expensive *is* the personnel. Students learning English and students in special education need smaller groups and more one on one attention, which means more staff.

There is room to cut administration staff overhead.

There is over $3mill in transportation cuts on the list. What exactly does that mean? Magnet programs? Reduced stops for everyone?

Even if MCPS gets every cent, gas is sky rocketing and you can’t get blood from a rock.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adam Pagnucco with the e-mails and links: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2026/05/12/taylor-to-council-please-dont-do-this/

Taylor went after the most vulnerable student cohorts with his cuts - special education and immigrant students who are learning English. Middle schools are taking a hit too.

Wouldn't it be great if Taylor took a symbolic hit on his own salary, say, $60K, to save some lower-paid position?

I agree that he went after the most vulnerable, but the financial problem is that the most vulnerable populations are a greater portion of the whole than they have ever been. 20% of all students are English language learners and 15% receive special education services. It’s very expensive.

Newsflash: TT himself said that 90% of budget is personnel. Understand that most organizations personnel is ~60-80% of budget, and when orgs reach that threshold, it is serious time for layoffs. So don't go blaming our vulnerable.

This is my work. Of course I’m not blaming kids. But the reason it is so expensive *is* the personnel. Students learning English and students in special education need smaller groups and more one on one attention, which means more staff.

Anonymous wrote:What is the likelihood that the cuts will actually be implemented? Looking to hear from king time MCPS employees… At this stage in the game, are these positions actually going to be cut?

It won’t happen. Guaranteed.

In fact, they will get everything they asked for and more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff development positions for middle and HS can absolutely go. They are critical in elementary schools, but totally unnecessary in middle/HS.

Agreed. I’m at a HS, and the topics we talk about during staff PD bring zero value to my job. Complete waste of time. And I’m not blaming our SDT, I think she’s just delivering the message.

They do NOT need to be fully released in my opinion. Have them teach 3-4 classes like RTs

We actually don’t need ANY SDTs not even in ES. I’ve worked in other school districts where such a position never existed. These two other districts have similar demographics to the high needs MCPS ES, MS and HS I’ve worked in and they outperformed MCPS. TT should reassign all SDTs back to the classroom to reduce classroom sizes. That’s would be a huge benefit to everyone. Teachers and students. And that’s based on data. Smaller classes sizes improve student outcomes; SDTs don’t.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to cut language immersion & programming like that.

Focus on the basics
Trade programs
College tracking
gifted programming
Special education
General populace & education

This would not save any money. Immersion teachers do not get paid more than a regular elementary teacher. And the students still need to be in school, so they would just be in an English speaking class instead. Absolutely no impact on the budget.

Yes it would save money. Immersion programs have a different extra sets of curriculums, extra staff hiring goes into finding dual language teachers, there are central office positions that have to support those schools. Most of the kids in the programs, struggle with the language, parents sign up because they don't want their kids to be in a highly concentrated Latino school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff development positions for middle and HS can absolutely go. They are critical in elementary schools, but totally unnecessary in middle/HS.

Agreed. I’m at a HS, and the topics we talk about during staff PD bring zero value to my job. Complete waste of time. And I’m not blaming our SDT, I think she’s just delivering the message.

They do NOT need to be fully released in my opinion. Have them teach 3-4 classes like RTs

I bolded your last sentence. That should be true for many positions at Central office, too. Maybe not 3-4 classes, but I think it could benefit all to have to be in the classroom and teach still or maybe so many monthly substitute days as a requirement. Many are too removed from what it is like in the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adam Pagnucco with the e-mails and links: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2026/05/12/taylor-to-council-please-dont-do-this/

Taylor went after the most vulnerable student cohorts with his cuts - special education and immigrant students who are learning English. Middle schools are taking a hit too.

Wouldn't it be great if Taylor took a symbolic hit on his own salary, say, $60K, to save some lower-paid position?

I agree that he went after the most vulnerable, but the financial problem is that the most vulnerable populations are a greater portion of the whole than they have ever been. 20% of all students are English language learners and 15% receive special education services. It’s very expensive.

Newsflash: TT himself said that 90% of budget is personnel. Understand that most organizations personnel is ~60-80% of budget, and when orgs reach that threshold, it is serious time for layoffs. So don't go blaming our vulnerable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see 220 MS teachers being cut, I don’t see that on the linked document. Can anyone verify this?

Will it be specials teachers due to the new longer math requirements? Not sure when that goes into effect.

That would be my speculation too, although it's just a wild guess. MCPS is not required to hit the higher number of math minutes until fall 2027 but they could always decide to cut the electives sooner.

Of course, it really shouldn't be a cost savings because they should be using that money from the fired music/art/foreign language teachers to hire extra math teachers (middle school math teachers will only be able to teach 4 sections of math starting in 2027-28 rather than 5.) But maybe they figure they will just make those classes larger instead (i.e. 4 classes of 37/38 kids rather than 5 classes of 30 kids) and save money that way?

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see 220 MS teachers being cut, I don’t see that on the linked document. Can anyone verify this?

Will it be specials teachers due to the new longer math requirements? Not sure when that goes into effect.

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to cut language immersion & programming like that.

Focus on the basics
Trade programs
College tracking
gifted programming
Special education
General populace & education

This would not save any money. Immersion teachers do not get paid more than a regular elementary teacher. And the students still need to be in school, so they would just be in a English speaking class instead. Absolutely no impact on the budget.