For Immediate Release: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Education and Culture Committee will meet to review Montgomery County Public Schools revised Code of Conduct and an update on the Restorative Justice Program; Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee will review draft Spending Affordability Guidelines
The Education and Culture (EC) Committee will meet on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 9 a.m. and vote on conducting a proposed closed session. The topics of the closed session are County security planning, emergency communications and legal advice concerning public safety matters. The committee will meet in a public session to review the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) revised Student Code of Conduct and receive an update on the implementation of the MCPS Restorative Justice Program.
The members of the EC Committee include Chair and Council Vice President Will Jawando and Councilmembers Gabe Albornoz and Kristin Mink.
The Government Operations and Fiscal Planning (GO) Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. to review the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Capital Budget and FY27-32 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Spending Affordability Guidelines.
The members of the GO Committee include Chair and Council President Kate Stewart and Councilmembers Andrew Friedson and Sidney Katz.
More detail on each agenda item is provided below.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Revised Student Code of Conduct
Review: The EC Committee will review the MCPS revised Student Code of Conduct, which has been updated for the 2025–2026 school year. This document outlines expectations for student behavior and the consequences for violating various policies, regulations and rules. The focus of the Student Code of Conduct is on helping students learn from mistakes, repair harm and rebuild trust. Changes to the code include making behavior rules easier to understand and establishing a standard process across the district to investigate incidents.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Restorative Justice Program
Update: The EC Committee will receive an update on the implementation of the MCPS Restorative Justice Program. MCPS identifies restorative justice as a mindset and philosophy toward school climate and relationship building which involves proactively and intentionally developing relationships and building community and restoring, repairing or healing the school community when harm has occurred. The focus is on education, learning from mistakes, identifying and working on the root of the behavior, making deep-level change, repairing relationships and restoring students and staff to the environment. Restorative justice practices are incorporated into several initiatives going into the 2026-2027 school year and are expected to be embedded into the revised Student Code of Conduct.
The committee previously discussed data on how staff, students and families are experiencing restorative justice practices in MCPS at a meeting held on Jan. 30, 2025. The committee also discussed the implementation of restorative justice at MCPS at a meeting held on Nov. 30, 2023.
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Review: The GO Committee will review draft Spending Affordability Guidelines for the FY27 and FY28 aggregate Capital Budgets and the FY27-32 CIP. These guidelines limit certain types of debt that may be programmed for expenditures in the CIP and set the Council’s voting thresholds for the capital budget each year. The Council must adopt these guidelines by resolution by the first Tuesday in October in each odd-numbered calendar year.
The Council also has an opportunity to revise its CIP Spending Affordability Guideline by the first Tuesday in February. According to County Code, revisions to the Spending Affordability Guidelines should reflect a significant change in conditions regarding affordability and not consider need. After the February deadline, the Council can adopt an aggregate capital budget and six-year CIP that has expenditures that exceed the guidelines, but only with eight or more affirmative votes.
The Committee meeting schedule may change from time to time. View the current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review on the Council website.
Council and committee meetings are streamed live on the Council’s web page via YouTube and on Facebook Live and can be watched on County Cable Montgomery on Xfinity/RCN 6 HD 996/1056, Fios 30, and on the CCM live stream.
Release ID: 25-316
Media Contact: Sonya Healy 240-777-7926, Benjamin Sky Brandt 240-777-7884
Read the original article at mccouncil