In an emailed press release on Monday afternoon, Montgomery County Public Schools sought to clarify some of the issues surrounding recent statements by the Board of Education regarding teacher employment.
Here are the highlights as seen in bold in the original press release:
Current projections for available open positions for general education teachers number approximately 256, while teachers impacted by involuntary transfer or as a result of the class size guidance increase are numbering 229.8. These are daily calculations as the number of vacancies fluctuates. There also are still 90 open special education teaching positions. Therefore, it is likely that no currently employed teachers will face a job loss.
Human Resources staff are communicating with impacted employees about the reassignment process now. Teachers receiving new assignments will be communicated to school leaders by Wednesday, June 12, and, importantly, to impacted educators by Thursday, June 13.
Although there will be a class size guidance increase of no more than one student per class at each level (elementary, middle and high), there will not be an increase in every classroom. These decisions are based on the enrollment and specific programmatic needs at individual schools.
It is important to note that MCPS does not stand alone on this issue as other local school jurisdictions in Maryland are increasing class size guidelines by one or more students.
The press release ended with these final words: “Despite difficult decisions involving necessary reductions, the operating budget for next school year allows us to maintain high-quality teaching and learning for students throughout the district.”
