Montgomery County schools will feel different next year after a budget shortfall is expected to cost the district more than 400 jobs.

The County Council on Thursday passed a $7.9 billion operating budget, nearly half of which will flow to the public school system.

The budget provides the district $143 million more than it received in the current fiscal year, but it fell tens of millions short of the number Superintendent Thomas Taylor said was necessary to operate Maryland’s largest school district.

The Montgomery County Public Schools system is grappling with steep inflation and declining enrollment, stretching the district’s finances. In a system where roughly 90% of money goes toward personnel, Taylor said, staff cuts were impossible to avoid.

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Shortly after the council’s vote, the superintendent emailed his team his plan to address a $36 million funding gap.

“Reductions at this level cannot occur without impacting employees and teams across MCPS. To be clear, this will interrupt the services that we provide and this will touch every aspect of our school system,” he wrote in the email.

Later Thursday, Taylor is expected to present his reconciliation plan to the school board. They will finalize the budget next month.

His plan calls to cut about 435 positions, including more than 30 social worker jobs, over 100 special education resource teacher slots and about 20 psychologist positions.

The cuts span the district, which employs more than 25,000 people, and include English composition assistants, media assistants and maintenance workers. The district will also lose two executive-level positions, including an associate superintendent. Those two top jobs will collectively save the district more than half a million dollars.

“These reductions are not a negative reflection on any one person’s work or any group of hard working teammates — these reductions are a reflection of needing to meet a financial reality,” Taylor wrote.