Montgomery County Council's Education and Culture Committee will hold oversight hearings on the impact of eliminating school-based counselors and social workers, committee chair Will Jawando announced Tuesday, Aug. 25, the same day MCPS students across Maryland's largest school district returned to class.

"We're going to be … holding some oversight hearings like the [cuts to] school-based counseling, social worker, that suite of services, what the impact's been?" Jawando told Bethesda Magazine at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, where district leaders gathered for first-day celebrations.

The hearings target a direct consequence of the $36 million gap between MCPS expenses and the $3.72 billion the County Council approved for fiscal year 2027. To close that shortfall, the Board of Education cut more than 400 positions over the summer, including 43 school-based social workers and 17 counselors who served emergent multilingual learners, according to an open letter from MCPS student journalists published in June.

No hearing dates have been announced. Jawando did not specify which schools would be examined, and no Potomac-specific data on counselor reductions at Wootton or Churchill cluster schools has been released.

For families at Thomas S. Wootton High School and Winston Churchill High School, the cuts land in a year already shaped by last spring's shootings at Wootton and Blake. As we reported Tuesday, MCPS added door sensors and upgraded cameras districtwide in response, but the security restructuring also eliminated the chief of security and compliance post formerly held by Marcus Jones.

Jawando was joined at Blake by school board President Grace Rivera-Oven and Vice President Brenda Wolff, along with Superintendent Thomas Taylor, who is entering his third year leading the district. Taylor pushed back on concerns about service gaps, calling the staff reductions "proportional" to declining enrollment.

"We've worked hard this summer to make sure that there aren't any service gaps for our students," Taylor said. "We're starting the school year in a great place with that, and feel like we're going to be able to deliver and exceed expectations."

The new school year also brings a systemwide "bell to bell" cell phone ban covering all grade levels, including high schools. Taylor described the year's theme as "intentionality," with a focus on managing phone distractions and improving math and literacy skills.

Families seeking updates on the oversight hearing schedule can monitor the Montgomery County Council's Education and Culture Committee calendar.