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When Charlotte Underwood packs up the last contents of her room at G. James Gholson Middle School, the former parent liaison also will have to leave her first home.

Underwood, 50, put her Landover house on the market after learning her position at Gholson was among roughly 100 parent liaison jobs the school system cut in the coming fiscal year. She will be moving into her daughter's Upper Marlboro home in August to save money.

The system cut the liaison jobs to scale back spending in a down economy, school officials say. Overall 276 positions were eliminating and 169 employees were laid off. Some employees were placed in other jobs within the school system.

Underwood said she is concerned about her financial future.

"The first thing that came to mind was my son going to college," she said.

After Underwood told parents in an e-mail that she was being laid off, she received an overwhelming response of appreciation, some of which came from parents she had never met.

"It was kind of bittersweet," Underwood said. "At least I feel like I've done my job by empowering them to advocate."

The parent liaison position was created under former superintendent John E. Deasy as a way to increase parental involvement in schools. Underwood's responsibilities included organizing monthly parent workshops on topics such as navigating the system's administration and serving as a community resource for parents who were looking for work.

Citing personnel reasons, Tanzi West, a county schools' spokeswoman, said the system cannot release information on which schools will no longer have a full-time parent liaison in the coming year. Underwood began as a parent liaison at Gholson in December 2006. She said priority was given to liaisons who were in the school system the longest.

Tamika Childs of Landover, the mother of rising Gholson eighth-grader Mikah, 12, submitted a petition to the Board of Education and Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. asking that Underwood be allowed to continue. As of Monday the petition was signed by 76 people, Underwood said.

As a single mother it was hard to keep her son focused at school, Childs said, adding that after attending one of Underwood's parent workshops she saw why it was so important to stay involved in Mikah's classwork. Underwood's encouragement pushed her to push Mikah harder, who will be in all honors classes next fall, she said.

"I can't imagine not having her — or the parents who won't have that opportunity because she won't be there," Childs said.

West said the petition was submitted to the board as public comment during its June 29 meeting. West added that she was unaware if parents from other schools sought to keep their parent liaisons. The Board of Education reviews all public comment submitted during meetings and, if needed, asks the school system staff to follow up on concerns, she said.

Michael Robinson, the county schools' coordinating supervisor for parental engagement, said the system's new model might include one liaison for every two schools and liaisons visiting schools two to three times a week instead of one parent liaison stationed at each school five days a week. He also said the model will follow a "feeder" pattern allowing liaisons to follow students throughout elementary and middle school. He said the school system has not yet solidified which remaining parent liaisons will cover which schools.

Robinson said he does not expect parent participation to drop with the new configuration.

"We're shooting to increase parent involvement even with the loss of parent liaisons because we believe in this model," Robinson said. "Of course we're saddened by the loss of parent liaisons … our students have to remain engaged and our students have to achieve."

But Underwood is skeptical of the new model.

"Relationships take time to build and it's taken three years to get to this point where people trust you," Underwood said.

Underwood still would like to volunteer at the school but will not have the access and duties she once had, such as being able to look up a student's grade for inquiring parents or being the first buffer between a disgruntled parent and a teacher or administrator.

"Regardless of what's happened to me personally, I feel the work has not been in vain," she said.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.