Montgomery County Public Schools cut its chief of security and compliance, a position held by former Police Chief Marcus Jones, months after shootings at two county high schools.
Schools spokeswoman Liliana Lopez confirmed in a text message that the post was eliminated and that the decision was budget-driven.
“The news that Marcus Jones’ position is being cut really goes to show the impact of budget decisions,” Bridgid Howe, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, told Â鶹¹ÙÍø.
The school system’s fiscal and academic year ended with a push to find $36 million in cost savings after the superintendent’s budget request was not fully funded by the county council.
The personnel change also follows shootings at Wootton High School in February and James Hubert Blake High School in April.
“Safety and security should 100% be a top priority for the system, and I’m eager to hear what the plan is going to be without it being a chief-level position,” Howe said. “It’s important that the system explain what the new structure is going to look like in order to support schools.”
In an email to Â鶹¹ÙÍø, Lopez added that the Department of School Safety and Security is being “restructured into the Department of School Safety, embedded within the Division of School Leadership and Improvement.”
“There will be no operational changes at the school building level, and security staff will still report to their building principals,” Lopez said.
Still, “this personnel shift is causing some concern” among parents, Howe said. She would like Superintendent Thomas Taylor to “explain the new structure so that parents can be reassured that their children can be safe every day in the school buildings.”
“It’s not just about children of course, it’s about staff as well,” Howe said, “and it really needs to be a top priority.”
Howe also said she wanted to give credit to the superintendent, saying the office had been more transparent about safety and security than in the past. She cited after-action reports released in the aftermath of the shootings at Wootton and Blake high schools.
“That, I think, is progress,” she said.
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