The Wicomico County Board of Education at its meeting on Nov. 11, acting on the recommendation of Superintendent of Schools Dr. Micah Stauffer and his leadership team, approved the appointment of James P. Koutsos as the new Director of Facilities – Maintenance, Operations & Energy effective Nov. 17, 2025.
Mr. Koutsos is an experienced leader with more than 30 years of service in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in many different roles: math teacher, assistant principal, principal, area associate superintendent, and director. As principal, he dove deeply into the world of school facilities when he led the opening of a new high school, giving him a broad understanding of the role that a highly effective facilities team plays in supporting a high-performance learning environment.
Wicomico County Public Schools is pleased to have Mr. Koutsos’ expertise as he takes over from another experienced facilities leader, Robert Souza, who has served as the school system’s first Director of Facilities – Maintenance, Operations & Energy since 2015 and will retire at the end of November.
In 2024-2025, Mr. Koutsos served as the Acting Director, Department of Compliance & Investigations, MCPS Office of Human Resources. In 2023-2024 he was the Managing Director for District Partnerships for Lavinia Group, managing a team of instructional consultants to ensure the goals of the school partnership drive, coach school system leaders, and generate new business opportunities through professional relationships across public, private and charter school settings.
He was an area associate superintendent for MCPS from 2019-2022, supervising 72 schools including elementary, middle, high, special, and alternative schools. Mr. Koutsos led a team of directors of learning, achievement, and administration (DLAAs) and instructional specialists committed to supporting teaching, learning, and organizational excellence in schools. He was responsible for coordinating the many MCPS commencement ceremonies, and served on the Superintendent’s Senior Leadership Team. He retired from MCPS in 2022.
Mr. Koutsos served as the president of the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) for five years. He was also the founding principal of Clarksburg High School, serving from 2005–2014. He began his career as a middle school mathematics teacher.
Born and raised in Montgomery County, Mr. Koutsos earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from The College of William and Mary and a Master of Education degree from The George Washington University.
