Forty-six Montgomery County Public Schools employees lost their positions and 49 more were moved to shorter contracts after the district implemented its fiscal year 2027 budget, according to Bethesda Magazine.

Most of the eliminated roles were social workers, according to the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA). MCPS has not released a school-by-school breakdown, so it is unclear how many of those positions served Churchill and Wootton cluster schools.

The cuts stem from a $36 million budget shortfall. The Montgomery County Board of Education voted in June to adopt a $3.72 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2027, slashing 255 existing positions and eliminating 160 unfilled proposed roles.

MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram said the 46 who lost their positions fell under MCEA and the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) and were not transferred into different district roles. Another 49 staff members in the support staff union SEIU Local 500 kept their jobs but were shifted from 12-month to 10-month contracts.

Those 95 changes were not the full picture. Cram said many more positions were affected and additional involuntary transfers accounted for the rest of the changes.

The eliminated positions included social workers, family engagement specialists and pupil personnel workers who provided direct support to students and families.

John Robertson, a former administrator who became a social worker at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, was among the 46 who lost their MCPS positions after about 20 years in the district. He retired from MCPS and took a role at a health and wellness center run by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services.

"But it is a completely different model from having school social workers embedded within the infrastructure of the school," Robertson told Bethesda Magazine on Thursday, Sept. 17. "There is a reduction in the number of students whom we can serve working in the wellness center."

Robertson said many former colleagues who were not transferred are still looking for full-time work.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor said in June that the district would need to find creative solutions and rely more on community partners to fill gaps left by the cuts. On the first day of school, Aug. 25, Taylor said the reductions were proportional to declining enrollment and that staff worked over the summer to prevent service gaps, according to Montgomery Community Media.

Board President Grace Rivera-Oven said on Aug. 25 that the county has many community partners providing services to students and that the district was connecting students with those resources, Bethesda Magazine reported.

SEIU Local 500 employees shifted to 10-month contracts have raised concerns about changes in their roles and their ability to cover personal costs, according to a July 2 Bethesda Magazine report on a union grievance. The outcome of that grievance has not been made public.