Marcus Jones will be the next security chief for Montgomery schools

The board also officially approved the hiring of Thomas Taylor as the new superintendent of the Montgomery School District on Tuesday. Taylor, whose impending appointment was announced last week, said at a At a press conference on June 17, he announced his decision that school safety would be one of his priorities.

The school district does not have traditional security guards, but they can come into schools at designated work stations. In recent years, parents and students have raised concerns about potential violence, vaping, fentanyl-related overdoses and false bomb threats.

The position of chief of security was most recently held by Michelle Ezeofor-Andrews, who was hired on an interim basis in October, according to the school system’s website.

In an interview Tuesday, Jones said he was recruited for the position by the district and was interested in the role because it matched his expertise.

“I think bringing that experience will be helpful. And I really want to work with them — especially the superintendent and the community — to alleviate a lot of the fears,” Jones said, adding that his focus will be on building relationships.

After his appointment was announced, the audience clapped and cheered.

Jones will report directly to the superintendent. During an interview with a reporter, Taylor shook Jones’ hand and congratulated him on his appointment.

Jones is about to resign as police chief in July after working for The Montgomery County with the police force for nearly 40 years. The South Boston, Virginia native joined the force in 1985 and worked as a patrol officer and detective before becoming a sergeant in 2000. He rose through the ranks and later served as chief of narcotics, headed the major crimes unit, and commanded the department’s Silver Spring division. In 2018, he attained the rank of deputy chief, overseeing all investigative divisions.

Following the resignation of Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger In 2019, Jones served as acting chief for a time. When County Executive Marc Elrich (D) was looking for a permanent successor for Manger, He passed over Jones in favor of three candidates who did not prove themselves. Elrich, who wanted to hire an outside candidate to lead the force, eventually turned to Jones, who later became chief in 2019.

During his time as supervisor of a staff of about 1,300 sworn officers and 650 support staff, Jones led a department that grappled with the rise of ghost guns in schools, conducted policing during a pandemic and restored public trust amid nationwide calls for law enforcement reform following the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis in 2020.

Jones also led the department as it overhauled its relationship with the county’s public school system. In 2021, Elrich decided to end the county’s school resource officer program amid nationwide protests over police misconduct and racial discrimination. Elrich turned it into a community resource officer program, which originally pulled police out of high schools to patrol the areas around schools instead.

After a 2022 shooting at Magruder High School that left a student hospitalized, the school system and police worked on a memorandum of understanding to to bring police back into schools in certain workplaces. The agreement was signed by Jones and other district officials. Several student activists opposed the decision, saying the agreement was negotiated privately and without public input.

The school system has also been the target of fake bomb threats that disrupted school life. Seven of these threats, called “swatting,” were attributed by police to a 12-year-old in October. Most recently, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School was the target of a swatting threat that led to the deployment of SWAT teams and the lockdown of the school for hours in May.

Montgomery County schools have also overhauled their security protocols in recent years. Some high schools require ID checks to gain entry to the building. The school system also used money it received from a legal settlement with Juul to purchase vaping detectors.

Jones said he would like to see changes to the school system’s safety protocols, but “that’s a conversation I need to have with Dr. Taylor and the school administration.”

“I think that’s exactly what we want to explore: How can we become more efficient?” he said. “That will be one of my top priorities.”

Jones starts on July 29, he said.

Lynh Bui contributed to this report.