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Fairfax City school budget up 3 percent
SubHed: Board to transfer $2.25M back to Fairfax City general fund
School costs for the upcoming year represent the single largest expenditure category in the proposed $116.1 million city general fund budget that Fairfax City Manager Robert Sisson presented last week. The proposed school budget total is a $1.4-million or 3.1-percent increase over last year.
Fairfax City owns four public schools buildings (two elementary schools, a middle school and one high school). Under a longstanding per-student tuition agreement, the city pays Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to provide teachers, administration and facilities staff and academic curriculum.
"As you know, most of the budget goes to pay Fairfax County's tuition bill," Monday told the council on March 17 at City Hall.
Roughly $39 million or about 82 percent of the proposed FY2009 city school budget would go to FCPS as compensation to educate students who live inside the city limits.
In her budget, Monday estimates that the city would wind up paying $13,826 per student in tuition fees for FY2009. Last year's tuition was $13,295 (also an estimate) and $12,030 for 2007.
About 2,800 students who reside in Fairfax City and about 2,000 students who live outside the city are expected to attend all four city schools next year.
"Our cost per student is what should be expected in this region," said Monday, whose budget presentation also included details of the three revenue streams that fund the city schools. "Our funding is almost entirely local."
About $41.3 million of the proposed school budget is expected to come from the city's general fund. According to FY2008 figures, about 86 percent of school funding revenue came from the city, another 8 percent from direct state aid and the final 6 percent from state distributions of collected sales taxes.
The average funding for all Virginia public schools, based on current budget year figures, shows that 50 percent comes from localities, about 34 percent from state aid, about 9 percent from sales taxes and 7 percent from the federal government.
In an effort to close a projected $8-9 million gap in the overall city budget, some council members are requesting that the school board transfer money left over from renovation work at both Lanier Middle School and Fairfax High School to the city's general fund.
Fairfax City School Board Chairwoman Janice Miller estimates that $2.75 million remains unspent from the Lanier project and about $1 million from Fairfax High School.
In November 2004, city residents passed a bond referendum totaling more than $86 million for renovation work at both schools. Prior to passage of the bond, the city council approved a bank loan valued at about $8 million taken out to finance engineering and architectural designs for both school projects.
Miller said the school board previously agreed to transfer about $2.25 million of the leftover money to the city's general fund on April 7, one day before the council will vote on a final budget for the entire city.
Because $11 million in renovation work was eliminated from the Fairfax High School project because of higher-than-expected construction estimates, Miller said, the school board would like to retain at least $750,000 of the unspent funds to improve the grounds at the high school.
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