Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Teacher pay and foreign language cutbacks are also concerns as Fairfax County School Board looks for another $30 million in reductions for next year's budget.
If push came to shove, Jane Lipp would give her right kidney to keep an instructional coach at her school. The principal of South County High School, which has a 49 percent minority population, said that's the kind of sacrifice she'd make, drama aside, to keep a position that's been 'instrumental" in helping her teachers push the school's diverse student body to succeed. More than a dozen of the 40 speakers who addressed the school board Tuesday night in a public hearing about Fairfax County Public Schools' budget spoke about the role coaches play in the day to day lives of teachers and students, including their help toward narrowing student achievement gaps. The public hearing comes as the school board prepares to adopt a $2.5 billion …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
As Fairfax County School Board prepares to move FY 2014 budget forward, start times and issues with planning and policy also highlighted by community members Tuesday.
Kevin Hickerson has taught in Fairfax County Public Schools for a decade, but this year is the first he's realized he may need to change careers if he wants to continue to live here and make ends meet. The special education teacher at Chantilly High School was one of 11 speakers at a school board budget hearing Tuesday, many of whom asked board members to better compensate teachers and other employees before the system loses its edge — and their educators — to other jurisdictions. The issue is one Superintendent Jack Dale highlighted earlier this month in his $2.5 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2014, a spending plan $62.7 million larger than last year's budget but one that also hinges on a 5.5 percent increase ($92.4 million) in …
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
As the Fairfax County School board stares down $162 million deficit, midyear review funds will help boost next year's beginning balance.
Fairfax County Public Schools has found an extra $9.7 million in its Fiscal Year 2013 budget, much of which school board members voted Thursday night to set aside for its FY 2014 beginning balance — a budget year in which the system faces a $162 million deficit. The money will increase next year's beginning balance from $41.6 million to $51.1 million. School board members have been waiting for the outcome of a midyear budget review since the fall, as it began to grapple with a projected deficit of $93.7 million in FY 2014, a number that doesn't include another $68.4 million shortfall in "significant program needs." At a joint meeting in November, Fairfax County Executive Ed Long said the county anticipates being able to give the school …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Board members explore new budget strategies, prepare for season at work session Monday
Fairfax County Public Schools will face a projected $147.9 million deficit in fiscal year 2014 — a gap that would require an 8.8 percent increase in the annual transfer it receives from the county. That amount does not include $90.8 million in identified program needs, such as restoring class size reductions, extended teacher contracts and textbooks — in all, the system would need $238.7 million to meet projected costs. The county's school board got an early look at the structural gap it faces over the next five years during a fiscal forecast presented during Monday's work session, created largely by the board's use of one-time money to meet ongoing needs, said FCPS Chief Financial Officer Susan Quinn, who gave the presentation, noting the…
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Fairfax County School Board disagrees on whether slight changes or drastic shift necessary for system's method
A review of how schools are ranked on Fairfax County Public Schools' building renovation queue will be done through a combination of community input and staff review rather than a task force or independent consultant, board members decided at a work session Monday. The board develops its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) every five years, which includes new schools, renovations, capacity enhancements, additions and infrastructure management. Schools receive improvements in the order in which they're ranked on the system's renovation queue, driven by a list of weighted criteria ranging from how the buildings serve "Fundamental Educational Requirements (FER)," including whether they are under or over capacity, to their age and physical …
Monday, July 16, 2012
Because of school board action on VRS shift, new teachers will earn less than those hired in 2009; administrators say lower scale is necessary to prevent inequity across the system
Leaders of Fairfax County teachers unions say new teachers hired at the lowest pay step this school year will be earning $1,129 less than their counterparts in 2009 as part of pay scale adjustments expected to take effect next month. The adjustments were a response to Fairfax County School Board action on new state legislation requiring public school employees who participate in the Virginia Retirement System to pay a 5 percent employee contribution, which school systems currently pay. To offset the increased contribution, the legislation requires school systems to in turn pay a 5 percent salary increase to employees. School systems have the choice of implementing the change all at once or over the course of five years, but all new …
Friday, May 25, 2012
In 7-5 vote, Fairfax County school board members praise increased compensation but worry about how state retirement system plan will affect future
The Fairfax County School board narrowly approved a $2.4 billion budget Thursday night that will give teachers a 1.25 percent market-scale adjustment, add positions to handle unprecedented student growth and add $2.5 million more for extended learning time for at-risk students while phasing in the beginning of costly new state retirement system requirements. The fiscal year 2013 spending plan, which takes effect July 1, did not include earlier pledges to give larger market scale adjustments, step increases and extended time for teachers — items high on school board members' priority lists at the beginning of the budget cycle that were later compromised because of new state retirement system demands. New legislation requires public school …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Fairfax County Public Schools staff is looking into possibility of deferring budget approval
The Fairfax County School Board continued to debate how to implement changes to the Virginia Retirement System into the fiscal 2013 budget during a work session Thursday, with most of the members leaning toward phasing in the required shift to 5 percent employee contributions. Susan Quinn, chief financial officer for Fairfax County Public Schools, presented six of the hundreds of options for how to adjust VRS and Educational Employees' Supplementary Retirement System of Fairfax County (ERFC) contributions, market-scale adjustments and STEP increases. [See the options in a PDF included with this article.] Option A showed Superintendent Jack Dale's proposal, which would have FCPS complete the 5 percent shift in fiscal year 2013 and eliminate…
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Superintendent Jack Dale proposes eliminating compensation adjustments in favor of meeting five-year state requirement within the next year
Though Superintendent Jack Dale presented his recommendation for adjustments to Fairfax County Public Schools' $2.4 billion advertised budget at a work session Monday, some school board members said they weren't satisfied his proposed changes fully met their priorities or produced a budget that best met the needs of the system. Dale returned to the board after the system's $1.68 billion transfer from the county Board of Supervisors, an amount 4.5 percent higher than what schools received last year but still short of the 8.4 percent increase board members asked for when they moved forward the approved advertised budget. Despite the school board's approval of the advertised budget in February, Dale and School Board Chairwoman Janie Strauss…
Thursday, April 12, 2012
First two days of public hearings bring more than 100 people to Government Center.
Editor's Note: Patch has been live blogging the budget public hearings this week. Read full coverage from Tuesday and Wednesday for details about each speaker and their comments. Thursday's live blog will start at 3 p.m., so come back to this site to follow along. -------- School funding, affordable housing and support for the arts were among the issues Fairfax County residents and employees brought before the Board of Supervisors this week during public hearings on the Fiscal Year 2013 budget. After eight combined hours and more than 100 speakers, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is through two of this week’s three public hearings. The hearings began with a Fairfax County School Board presentation on Tuesday night. School Board …
Gail Ritchie
9:08 am on Thursday, May 16, 2013
The best way to counter ignorant, hateful, inaccurate information is to provide accurate information. So: 1. Instructional coaches are 11-month employees, so their salaries reflect an additional month of salary. Many of us are long-time employees, so some of that salary reflects longevity and years of experience (from which all the teachers and students at our schools benefit). And FCPS … more ›