Freshman sports, Pimmit Hills would be axed under proposed budget
Freshman sports would be benched in Fairfax County and class sizes would grow even larger as part of the public school system’s grimmest budget proposal in decades.
Almost 600 staff and teaching positions would be cut, general education summer school wouldn’t be an option, and students at 32 elementary schools no longer would participate in a program that verses them in languages from Arabic to Chinese and Latin.
“There is no doubt that many programs which parents have come to expect will be gone,” said Superintendent Jack Dale, who released his proposal Thursday. Dale blamed the $105 million in cuts on “dismal local and state economic conditions.” His total proposal asks for about $2.3 billion. The budget marks the third year in a row of cuts and class size increases.
In another hit to athletics, participants would pay a $100 fee per sport next year — except for the winter cheerleadering and indoor track teams, whose programs would no longer exist. Swimmers and divers would see their practice time cut in half.
Pimmit Hills, one of the district’s three alternative high schools, would shut down.
Fairfax County Public Schools are in their third consecutive year of major budget cuts. And early projections for 2012 hint that this year’s cuts won’t be the last. Here’s a rundown of some cost-saving moves that have already been made:School year 2010-11 (proposed changes)- Elimination of about 600 staff and teaching positions- No salary raises- Elimination of freshman sports teams- Class size increase of one studentSchool year 2009-10- Elimination of about 800 staff and teaching positions- No salary raises- Increased high school parking fees from $150 to $200- Class size increase of 0.5 studentsSchool year 2008-09- Reduction in cost-of-living salary increase- Reduction in some summer school sites- Class size increase of 0.5 students
“This is a game-changing budget, and I worry it will change Fairfax County schools,” said School Board member Martina Hone. “It’s like Jenga — I don’t know which piece is going to topple the tower.”
Hone’s colleague, Jane Strauss, who served on the School Board during the recession of the early 1990s, called this year “the worst budget situation that any of us have seen.”
Spoken like an educator, Strauss stressed the need now more than ever for parents to brush up on how local and state governments operate so they can lobby for changes to the Board of Supervisors and to state lawmakers.
The public will have a chance to voice its opinions on the budget on Jan. 25 and 26. After approval by the School Board, the Board of Supervisors will take up the request in April.
Michele Menapace, president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs, said she has a wealth of parents eager to fight for the schools — if the School Board can give them some guidance on what to fight for.
“We want a unified approach,” Menapace said. “I don’t want to be standing with parents rallying for an emergency meals tax to raise revenue if the School Board doesn’t think that’d raise enough money to make a difference.”
Rising costs for expenditures like health benefits and a projected increase of about 1,800 students mean the overall request is about $58 million more than last year’s budget.
If the schools do not receive that money, Dale said, it would put at risk full-day kindergarten, elementary band and orchestra, and language immersion programs.
