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Cutting half of the 33 educational facilities officer positions in Montgomery County public schools doesn't make sense to Susan Burkinshaw.

If the County Council adopts County Executive Isiah Leggett's (D) proposed fiscal 2011 budget on May 20, the EFOs could see a tremendous reduction in manpower. County spokesman Patrick K. Lacefield said the move would save the county $2 million.

Burkinshaw doesn't think a price should be put on the safety of children.

"I think it would be terrible if they cut the EFOs," said Burkinshaw, mother of a freshman at Northwest High and a seventh-grader at Kingsview Middle. "To pull [EFOs] out because you think you can't afford them doesn't make sense to me."

The proposed fiscal 2011 budget for police is $9.6 million less than the $246,648,400 approved for fiscal 2010. County police will wait until the budget is finalized before deciding how to distribute EFOs, Montgomery County Police Department spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said.

County officers in the EFO program earn between $70,000 and $95,000 in base annual salary each and also receive a benefits package that includes health, vision and dental plans, county police spokesman Cpl. Dan Friz said.

Police and Montgomery County Public Schools must identify the schools in which the EFOs would have the most impact, Lacefield said. MCPS officials are waiting to see what happens to the EFO program before they make security plans for their schools.

At least one EFO is safe. Officer Bobby Blackmon at Gaithersburg High School is with the Gaithersburg City Police. His position is not threatened by the prospect of county budget cuts.

"The City believes these officers play an important role in our schools and community and fully support [Blackmon's] work at GHS," Gaithersburg City Council member Cathy Drzyzgula wrote in a March 29 e-mail to PTA members.

Burkinshaw, a coordinator for the Northwest Cluster, a group of Germantown schools, testified before the County Council April 6. She told the council the EFOs remind students that security at school matters.

"The kids take security more seriously because of the relationships they have developed with the EFOs," Burkinshaw said. "It is a big problem if they cut them. To not have that resource in the school would be a big loss to the school and the community."

The county is going through a tough financial time, County Council President Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park said. The council has yet to address the issue of cutting the number of EFOs.

"We don't have a lot of options," she said. "It's a rough year for us. It's not just the EFOs that we may have to cut back on, we're looking at everything."

Dennis Queen and Carole Goodman do not want to think about no longer having EFOs in their schools.

"The presence does make a difference in our building," said Queen, principal at Seneca Valley High in Germantown. "The EFO program works so well for us here and it bothers me to think we may lose ours."

Goodman, principal at James H. Blake High in Silver Spring, said EFOs do more than patrol the halls at the school. The officers sometimes help wayward students divert their paths to positive endings.

"I think it's horrible they are talking about cutting the officers, but I also think the EFOs are needed in so many ways," Goodman said. "They have the ability to help the students see that there is a positive side to law enforcement."

EFOs not only serve as liaisons between MCPS and MCPD, they also provide information about local teens to patrol officers in communities around the schools, Starks said. Although the bulk of the officers' responsibilities are within the high schools, Starks said, they are not limited to the confines of one building.

"The emphasis is for them to be in the school, but they are supposed to be in contact with staff and administrators at the elementary and middle schools that feed into the high schools the officers are in," Starks said.

"The process isn't complete," he added. "The budget happens once a year and we won't know anything definite until we have a final budget."

Getting to see the other side of the students is why officer Steve Smugeresky applied for the EFO program. He applied and interviewed for the position before school started in August 2009, he said. After more than seven years on patrol, Smugeresky said he looked forward to interacting with students.

"When you're in patrol, you see a lot of negativity in the streets," Smugeresky said. "But being in the schools, you get to see the positive side of the students, not what you see on patrol."

It's unclear how the police will structure the EFO program in the schools if they cut the number of officers , MCPS spokesman Dana Tofig said. Also unclear is whether the police will eliminate the EFOs altogether.

At any cost, Tofig said, MCPS will work with the police to come up with a plan.