By Adam Pagnucco.
In an unusual letter to the county’s elected officials, MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor is establishing some boundaries in how they visit schools and communicate with students and staff. These statements in the letter will get some attention:
Outside individuals or organizations are not authorized to provide legal or operational advice or guidance to MCPS employees…
In summary, I am writing to ask you very directly and respectfully: Please support our school system community by staying in communication with us and by respecting our processes, protocols, and policies for school grounds, school events, and employee guidance. Please do not attempt to be an agent of the school system in providing information or direction to our students or employees.
It’s not clear what specific actions prompted this letter but it clearly relates to immigration enforcement. Taylor and Board of Education President Grace Rivera-Oven released a statement about that issue the day before his letter was written. At the same time, Council Member Kristin Mink has released guidance to residents about immigration rules and hosted a meeting for MCPS parents titled “ICE Response & Organizing Tools for PTAs, Parents & Guardians” earlier this month.
Taylor’s position is this: visit our schools but follow our rules. His letter is reprinted below.
*****
February 20, 2026
Dear Elected Leaders of Montgomery County,
First, I would like to thank you for your dedicated service during a really difficult and dangerous time in our country’s history. If today’s press event on the Montgomery County Trust Act is any indication of our future, I remain optimistic about our ongoing work together. It was an honor to stand with so many of you to support our students and our families. Thank you for having the courage to do the hard but necessary work to guard Montgomery County well.
All of us are keenly aware that we are in a time of heightened anxiety across all parts of our shared community. And I know you know this-our students and school staff are feeling the stress in a significant way. For many, even turning on the news can be overwhelming, and for some, traumatic events are landing very close to home and heart.
In Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), each of our staff members, students, and families – together a community of more than 200,000 people – are experiencing these traumatic events through their own individual circumstances and views. Our responsibility as MCPS leadership, and my responsibility as superintendent, is to create and maintain a safe learning environment in which all students, staff, and families feel welcome, cared for, and valued.
I am writing for two reasons, because I need your help: (1) – I want to share information about what the school system is doing about immigration enforcement, and (2) – to update you on guidance the school system shared with elected officials about school visits in February 2023 (before I came back to MCPS). Please take a few moments to review both of these items.
(1) – You already may have seen the community message that Board of Education President Grace Rivera-Oven and I sent out on Thursday. If so, great! Additionally, I sent a message to school district staff with more information and details about our response. This letter is linked here along with a one-page reference document of “dos” and “don’ts”. I want you to be in the loop with what we are doing and I know it would be helpful for you to have a good understanding of what we are doing and why.
We sent the message to staff yesterday that is linked above because it is critically important that our staff hear directly from us as to their responsibilities and rights as MCPS employees and in their official capacity. Outside individuals or organizations are not authorized to provide legal or operational advice or guidance to MCPS employees. This is for all of our protection, and especially for the protection of MCPS staff.
(2) – The former MCPS chief of staff sent this memo to County Council chiefs of staff on February 9, 2023, about protocols while visiting MCPS sites. We have made a few updates to account for the world as it is today. Linked here are our updated protocols for school visits and tours, which include a Google form to ensure full awareness and documentation of visitors in our schools or on school grounds. While informal visits may have become commonplace, it is particularly imperative now that we reiterate and reinforce this standing policy.
Let me emphasize a couple of critical highlights:
- Principals are not obligated to accept requests for outside visitors. Student invitations to people outside of the school must be approved through school leadership, specifically the principal or their designee.
- Student-led demonstrations are not intended or permitted to become rallies or assemblies that members of the public can attend.
- Visitors to schools must check in at the front office and will be subject to a Raptor screening. Visitors will be required to sign in.
- Visitors without an MCPS-issued badge, will be expected to wear a visitor badge and be escorted by school staff.
It is essential that principals know who to expect so that they can make these arrangements for everyone’s safety. Unplanned visits make principals’ lives and workload difficult, as they have to adjust in the moment and may not have the resources to accommodate every request. We want you in our schools, and we want you to visit regularly. That said, it is imperative that you follow these protocols when you visit so we can keep everyone safe and keep the school’s leadership informed. School leadership ultimately is accountable for what happens at their campus and they need to be in the loop. If a principal respectfully declines your visit, please be understanding and respectful of the awesome responsibility they carry and the challenges they face.
We appreciate the impetus to help in these deeply unsettling times, and we always appreciate the interest in and support of our schools. This truly is how you can best help and support: by helping us maintain a calm and safe learning environment that minimizes unnecessary disruption for every staff member, student, and family in Montgomery County Public Schools.
In summary, I am writing to ask you very directly and respectfully: Please support our school system community by staying in communication with us and by respecting our processes, protocols, and policies for school grounds, school events, and employee guidance. Please do not attempt to be an agent of the school system in providing information or direction to our students or employees.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support of MCPS.
Sincerely,
Thomas W. Taylor, EdD MBA
Superintendent of Schools