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Fairfax County Supervisors weigh tax increase for school funding request
School officials fear that drastic cost-saving measures, such as increasing class sizes or cutting specialized programs, could begin to drive some higher-income families out of the public school system, School Board budget chairman Phil Niedzielski-Eichner said Friday.“We're successful because all classes, if you will, recognize the value of the service we provide,” he said. “We're worried about our ability to keep all of our student population in our schools.”
Niedzielski-Eichner and school budget staff met with the county Board of Supervisors last week to try and make the case for fully funding the schools' full $2.3 billion proposed budget. About 73 percent of that, $1.65 billion, would come from the county.
Supervisors would have to increase the county's real estate tax rate to come up with the $64 million the school system is asking for, above what is already allocated in the draft county budget, to fund teacher pay raises, cover the costs of unexpected growth in the student population, and continue to expand full-day kindergarten and the Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools program.
Superintendent Jack Dale had proposed a slightly leaner budget, but his proposals to raise more revenue, such as implementing testing and activities fees and cutting instructional assistant positions, proved extremely unpopular with parents and teachers. The school board reached a consensus that the cuts went too far, Niedzielski-Eichner said.
While county board chairman Gerry Connolly (D-At Large) incredulously pointed out that the school board only left $35 million in cuts in the $2.3 billion budget, Niedzielski-Eichner argued that Fairfax is a more efficient operation than other neighboring jurisdictions and there is little fat to cut.
Some supervisors seemed concerned that the cuts proposed now could affect students and noted that the county benefits economically from its strong school system.
“The investments we make [in education] are critical. They matter more than any other investment,” Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said. “My hope is that ... you make those adjustments with that in mind.”
Although the school board restored funding for about 130 positions that Dale proposed eliminating, “There are about 80 fewer employee positions than last year, which means that fewer school employees are serving more students than last year,” Niedzielski-Eichner said.
Also at Friday's work session, the board heard a report on the challenges and costs of maintaining the county's aging infrastructure.
More than half of the 170 county-owned buildings are over 20 years old and about one third are more than 30 years old, said Deputy County Executive Ed Long Jr. The county should be spending $22-25 million a year on major maintenance and repairs on these buildings, Long said, and has budgeted less than $7 million in the next fiscal year.
“We are significantly behind in the upkeep of our facilities,” Long said. As a result, projects that get funding tend to be “emergency” projects, such as when aging wiring led to a small electrical fire at the Joseph Willard Center, or significant leaks in roofs at the Franconia Governmental Center and the Centreville Library.
In addition, the county must begin operating and maintaining the five new facilities scheduled to open in the next three fiscal years alone.
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