Fairfax County supervisors, reeling from $24 million in school board add-ons to the superintendent’s $2.3 billion budget request, are warning officials to look harder for big cuts.
“My first reaction is that I need to run out really quickly and plant a bunch of money trees,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay, D-Lee District.
Superintendent Jack Dale’s budget request, released in early January, eliminated freshman sports, raised class sizes by an average of one student, cut about 600 positions and an elementary foreign language program, and instituted a handful of new student fees. In addition, he asked for $58 million from the Board of Supervisors on top of last year’s budget to accommodate higher projected enrollments and increasing costs of benefits and retiree pensions.
The school board adopted an altered form of Dale’s budget, in which they held class size stable and restored most of the program cuts, but asked for an additional $82 million, instead of Dale’s $58 million. The budget is now the Board of Supervisors’ to finalize by the spring.
“It would be extremely difficult for our board to close a gap of that size,” said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova. “When we have our public meetings, we’ll hear from school advocates, but also from taxpayers concerned about staying in their homes, and members of our community who receive various human services and are in need of help more than ever, people concerned with public safety and quality of life programs like libraries and parks. It’s a difficult balancing act.”
School board member Martina Hone conceded that the board is in for an uphill battle to receive the funding.
“But the signal from the community has been crystal clear,” Hone said. “When given a choice between higher taxes or not being able to maintain a world-class school system, people want a world-class school system.
McKay recommended looking outside of the classroom for more cuts before raising taxes. Rebidding the school system’s solid waste contract could save millions, he said, or altering school start times to increase transportation efficiency, or asking for more from student fees, or deeper cuts from Dale’s central office.
