Montgomery County Public Schools is advertising three new communications positions paying up to $171,348, less than three months after the school board voted to eliminate 255 staff jobs to close a $36 million budget gap.

The postings for "Regions Support Team Leader" roles went live Aug. 5, with an application deadline of Friday, Aug. 14, according to the MCPS job listing. Each pays between $120,412 and $171,348. A fourth posting, a social media marketing specialist role being refilled after a resignation, pays $34.30 to $50.60 per hour.

Parents have pushed back on social media. Dawn Marie Iannaco-Hahn, who flagged the postings online, called the hiring "really tone deaf and insensitive" in an Aug. 11 Bethesda Magazine report, saying the district was advertising "social media storytellers, whatever they want to disguise it as" while student-facing employees lost their jobs.

Among the 255 positions cut in the fiscal year 2027 budget were social workers, family engagement specialists and pupil personnel workers who work directly with students and families. The budget also included a $13.7 million reduction in special education funding and a $9 million cut to student personnel services, the Washington Jewish Week reported.

MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram said the four postings do not represent new additions to the communications division. The positions come from existing budgeted staffing that has been "realigned," Cram said, and the department was actually reduced by two positions cut from the MCPS-TV unit. No new funding is being added.

Cram called the restructuring "a realignment of existing resources so that the communications staff we already have are organized around the work MCPS most needs them to do right now."

The job description calls for "talented storytellers" who will visit schools, capture photos and videos, write stories and celebrate student and staff achievements. Each team leader would cover two of MCPS's six regions, part of a regional model the board approved in March.

For Bethesda families, the contrast with counseling shortages is hard to ignore. Stacey Rosenberg, parent of a rising sophomore at Walt Whitman High School, told the Washington Jewish Week on July 30 that counselor caseloads were already unmanageable before the cuts.

"Their caseload is so high, I think even with the budget they have, [school counselors] don't have the time to really dig into each case and help, so to cut it even further is kind of ridiculous," Rosenberg said.

MCPS currently has one school psychologist for every 1,100 students, more than double the recommended ratio of one per 500.

The school board voted 7-1 in May to approve the FY2027 budget after the Montgomery County Council adopted a $7.9 billion operating budget that left MCPS $36 million short. The district serves more than 150,000 students across more than 200 schools.

School starts Tuesday, Aug. 25. The next Board of Education business meeting is Thursday, Aug. 20, at 15 W. Gude Drive in Rockville, with public comment sign-up opening one week prior.