Alexandria schools facing stiff budget cuts
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
October 29, 2009
Deep cuts to teachers and classrooms are expected next year in Alexandria public schools, the latest local district to warn of dire budget shortfalls.
"I have only bad news for you tonight," Alexandria schools financial chief Jean Sina told the school board before rattling off sobering figures.
Projections put the next year's shortfall between $11 million and $17 million, Sina said. That's as much as 9 percent of the school district's current $198 million budget.
In Arlington County schools, the combined shortfall for this year and next is more than $44 million, or about 6 percent of the current budget. And in Fairfax, the state's largest school system, next year's gap is about $176 million, or 8 percent of this year's already lean budget.
Each district is expecting less money even as classrooms fill with more students, especially at the elementary level. Alexandria expects about 900 additional students between this year and next, bringing its total population to nearly 12,000. Arlington expects nearly 1,600 more students, bringing its total more than 20,000 students. And in Fairfax, an additional 7,000 students between this year and next will push the district near 180,000 students.
Alexandria's optimistic $11 million gap represents an amount equal to not paying for any utility bills, leases, supplies or textbooks for the entire year. It also would cover the salaries of 9 percent of all teachers, or 79 percent of all administrators, according to numbers shared with the school board.
"We have no specifics at this point, but we do have plenty of angst," Alexandria Superintendent Morton Sherman wrote on his blog this week.
In Fairfax, proposals have included ending summer school, increasing class size and returning full-day kindergarten to half-day programs. In Arlington, first-year Superintendent Pat Murphy brought up the possibility of increasing class size by up to three students, most likely in the upper grades.
In each school system, superintendents' proposed budgets are due to city and county supervisors by early 2010. Between now and budget approval next spring, districts likely will put forth the best tool at their disposal: students.
"Throughout this upcoming budget process, which will unavoidably include cuts, we must always ask what's best for kids," Sherman said.
