Fairfax County schools Superintendent Jack Dale has recommended borrowing from financial reserves to provide teachers with a promised raise and parents with a promised full-day kindergarten program at every elementary school.
Dale’s plan for the final fiscal 2012 budget, to be presented before the county school board Monday night, would take $3.5 million from a $5 million pot set aside to bolster the fiscal 2013 budget. In addition, it would reduce by about $14 million the amount in the Virginia Retirement System reserve fund, available to cover cost increases in coming years.
Another $18 million would come from reducing to 1 percent a teacher salary raise initially pegged at 2 percent.
Dale’s proposed savings would cover a $40 million deficit between what the school board requested from the county supervisors (and holders of the county purse strings), and what the county actually provided. In all, the school system’s operating budget is about $2.3 billion.
The school board will hear two other options for finding the required savings, both likely to be less popular with parents and teachers. The first would require implementing full-day kindergarten programs over two years, instead of one, and the second would provide teachers a one-time bonus instead of a raise.
The savings come as the schools continue to see cuts – though not to the extent faced in past years. For example, about $400,000 would be saved by cutting back on the length of contracts with some 12-month school employees.
