Area schools officials gird for tightened 2010 budgets

With a bruising 2009 budget season barely behind them, school officials around the Washington region are spending their summers bracing for 2010 numbers that could put even more jobs on the line and more students at risk of larger classes and fewer special programs.

“The revenue projections are bleak,” said Kristen Michael, budget director for Fairfax County, where in fiscal 2009 the maximum class size will be bumped up and teachers will earn a meager 2 percent cost of living increase. In Fairfax, as in its Maryland twin, Montgomery County, local revenue supplies about three-quarters of the entire budget, making the school system especially responsive to the crumbling housing market.