Montgomery County’s recently appointed school Superintendent Thomas Taylor is excited about the coming school year.
At the weekly briefing held by Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, Taylor declared, “This is going to be a great school year!”
Taylor said the school system’s goal has been to fill 900 positions for the new year. Currently, 160 full-time slots remain open and 100 part-time slots are unfilled. But he added, “that’s tremendous progress,” noting that a week ago, the full-time vacancies totaled “a little over 200.”
Taylor noted that the system has “pretty critical needs,” with 39 special education positions among those that have yet to be filled.
It’s not unusual for school systems to have vacancies weeks before classes start, but Taylor said the pace of hiring is ahead of where it was compared to the same time last year.
Taylor credited “school staff and principals” for hiring efforts that began last school year.
“Their recruitment efforts earlier this year positioned us a lot better than we have been in years past,” he said.
When asked about school safety, Taylor said, “We have a lot of work to do in what our safety plans look like and how we execute those safety plans with fidelity.”
Specifically, he said there’s a need to standardize responses to critical incidents at schools. He explained there’s a need to make sure that “everybody’s on the same page in terms of communication with parents, in terms of communication with students and staff.”
“I think you’re going to look forward to some positive changes this year in that space,” he added.
The school system has hired Marcus Jones, the former Montgomery County police chief, as the new Chief of Security for the school system, which according to the MCPS website, has 211 schools, more than 160,000 students and employs nearly 25,000 teachers and staff.
Taylor encouraged families to attend the school system’s upcoming back-to-school fair on Aug. 24 at the Westfield Wheaton Mall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“A very popular vendor at this event will be the ‘Ask MCPS’ table, where we’ll be staffing with community navigators to answer questions,” including how to set up lunch accounts, find out about bus routes and more, Taylor said. There will also be a free immunization clinic at the fair.
