001Budget committee meeting is called to order at 6:40 p.m. in accordance with the changes to code of the code of Virginia section 2 dash or 2.2- 3708.3b which occurred on July 1st 2024. Members of a public body who have a disability or are caregiving for someone with a disability now count towards quorum as if the individual was physically present. In this case, Miss Seismarhiser has notified the the chair and the clerk of the board that she is using remote participation as she is caregiving for an individual with a disability. Thus, Miss Seismoreheiser will be counted as in person for the per for persons of quorum tonight and do not need to be voted in by the board. She is located in Boston, Massachusetts. Miss Seismarheiser, please check your audio and video. Hello. Good evening, everybody.
002Hi. Can you hear me? Okay. Yep. I now call on Dr. Reid for a presentation on the FY2026 budget. Thank you, Miss Anderson. And uh we have our budget team here um as well, but I'll walk through the slides, many of which I believe you've seen as a board. And just as a reminder and really a kickoff to a conversation this evening. So I want to share um just a a thought um about the purpose really of a quality education. I think that when communities are at a crossroads, we have to look at what grounds us and what centers us and what really is going to be that um how do I I would call it that uh propelling factor and I've been in a community and I've shared this story recently um outside the
003Seattle area and early on when um Boeing was uh in the actually even in the early8 80s when Boeing was experiencing um layoffs and so forth and other companies were, there was one thing that always set our communities apart and that was the quality of our schools and in particular um on the east side uh in Seattle and the Seattle schools, the quality of the schools were very attractive which inevitably led to a much more diverse um workforce because the focus was on how to maintain and support the most um exceptional quality education possible. So even as Boeing struggled, Microsoft, a new company, moved in, Amazon, a new company, HQ1 moved in. T-Mobile later moved in. um a number of other startups. Uh Starbucks became uh a household name and those companies settled in that
004area and when you got to have a opportunity to visit with leaders in those companies, the single reason they cited repeatedly for their move and to begin what became global enterprises was the quality of the schools. And so I think in referencing Tim Cook, our Apple CEO, I I think that we are at a crossroads here in Fairfax County. We have a community um that's impacted with federal contracts, federal workers, the impact of many decisions around us, and yet we still have a choice about the quality of our schools. And it's at a time such as this that it's most important to invest in that because it is the reason that we're going to attract more diverse companies and a more diverse um revenue uh sourced county because it's true we cannot continue to have
005a disproportionate impact on residential homeowners. There has to be a more balanced um commercial revenue stream. And the key to that is the school system. It's been that key whether it's been in the Silicon Valley area, the Seattle area, or here in Fairfax, Virginia. That's the economic engine that will drive our future in this county. And while it may be intuitive to cut back at such a time, it is the wrong decision. It's always been the wrong decision, and it always will be. It is time to invest in our schools. So, in thinking about that, Fairfax County's had a long tradition, a long line of uh taxpayers who've made that investment. And many of our community members no longer have children in schools. And it's as important for our community members without children in schools
006currently as it is for those with children because it is the quality of our community um that's improved when our schools maintain the tradition of excellence. When I think about again just sharing a couple slides, um Kevin please. Uh one of the things that I think we're very proud of here in Fairfax County is the ratio of central management. Again, very low compared to our pe our peers. Our class sizes currently are sort of in the middle. And when you think about that um third, sixth, and fourth uh class sizes are something that may become a topic depending on um the budget transfer decisions at this time. And currently, as I as you can see, we rank fifth out of eighth u when we look at all levels. comparing uh beginning teacher salaries. It's important
007to note that um 79% of our educators have a master's degree. So, we only have 21% of our teachers um that are a bachelor's degree. So, we did run those numbers for this evening, but the vast majority um 79% have a master's. We look at what excellence drives and this is a data slide that came recently out of our goal five report. In every single category, 79% overall of FCPS students enrolled in college within 16 months of graduating. We're not only exceeding the Commonwealth percentages, but every other division in Northern Virginia. Those are the results that happen when we invest in our schools. When we invest in our schools, we have welcoming schools in particular to our military families where we have almost 14,000 military connected youth and our military bases are part of the
008economic engine in this area as well as the contracts. And we continue this work since 2018. We've expanded our Purple Star schools significantly to in the next two years having 100% of our schools. This is work that happens when we invest in our schools. When we think about capital improvement and program planning, it's unfortunate right now as we look at our funding for these projects and often we have to dip into our operating fund to cover pro project costs that are emergent. I think of elevators, some projects around air conditioning and coolant because when we're at an over 40year um renovation cycle, systems break down and we don't have a choice. We can't open school with partial systems running. So, um the total 10-year requirement and five-year requirement are really significant in terms of unfunded
009uh needs exceeding a billion dollars. If we were actually to go back to a 25-year renovation cycle, it would total um the annual funding would need to be 1.4 billion to maintain the 25-year renovation cycle. That's what happens when we invest in schools. The capital funding per square foot that we shared in our CIP document. Um, again, of the eight public school systems above, we run ranked last with a funding per square foot of $8.54. The average funding per square foot of school divisions shown is $21.80. It would be an additional 195 million per two-year bond or referendum to have even a median um ranked system in this area with over 28 million square feet and over 8.7 billion in assets. That's a significant amount of money. And we have to recall as well that
010the Fairfax County government has 12 million square feet which is less than half of the square feet we're maintaining at the same ratio of funding. In thinking about the budget summary, I don't need to continue to repeat this. I know as a board and those watching, uh the document is posted and um these summary numbers are there. a reminder about the current county budget side uh Divi decisions that have been made on the county side that actually do impact our schools. And then the state budget update. We're still waiting uh to um hopefully have our governor sign the current general assembly conference report. Uh this did provide an additional 28.3 million including some monies toward a one-time $1,000 bonus. and these dollars. We're hopeful uh this 28.3 million uh will come and we're hopeful that
011the governor will sign that. A reminder about JARK and the state funding. I think um we continue to hope that the assembly will um see its responsibilities and make these right. Um, and then I just want to do a brief reminder of where we sit in the master's lane beginning salary and what's at stake in terms of the full funding of our transfer. If we were to be fully funded, it would clearly place us um in a tentative rank of number two. And I'm not sure, Miss Burden, if this would change because the surrounding regions have agreed to um salary increases and I believe have been fully funded by their counties. So, it may or may not land us in number two, I don't know. Miss Burton, do you have a an update on that?
012Yeah, I mean, at this point, what is presented here is the fiscal 26 proposed beginning salary is what they included in their budget. And to the best of my knowledge, at least Prince William and Louden, I think are completed and they're fully funded. Um, so it should stay here. Um, I mean, somebody could do something at the last minute. Um, because that's what Prince William did there. we were number one or had hoped to be number one for fiscal 26, but at the last minute, Prince William dropped in 6,000 and you can see that um on onto their beginning MA step one and that propelled them above us. Thank you, Miss Burton. So, just uh next slide. Uh the impact of the county and state budget and our projected gap continues to range anywhere between
013121 to 49 million. Um, and again, this funding gap does not include the 7.7 million in county agency reductions that also impact uh, Fairfax County Public Schools. So as we look at this list, um these are the areas that FCPS does in fact fund these uh topic areas at a greater rate than the SOQs or the standards of quality um or that are funded at all in some cases uh by the Commonwealth. So indeed we are at a crossroads and I think that this evening's conversation um go ahead and pop to the next one. This evening's conversation really is um probably the last major conversation we're going to have on the budget prior to hearing what our transfer will be and prior to finalizing our budget uh for FY26. So the next steps are on
014the screen. I believe the board of supervisors is in the middle of a public hearing this evening and the following dates are on the screen and have been uh consistent. So um at this point that is the presentation this evening Mrs. Anderson and uh the team here or I are happy to take questions um and know that as a board maybe there are comments you have to make as well. Thank you Dr. Reid. At this time, we're going to go ahead and kick things off with Miss Seismarhiser. Great. Thank you and good evening everybody. Thank you for the presentation and for your time. I I just wanted to start my remarks by first thanking staff for all of your hard work. Dr. Reed Lee and the and the budget team. Um Matthew and um Alice
015and and Marty of course for all your hard work on the budget on answering the budget questions and um just really in these very challenging times um working to maximize what we can do for our schools and students and teachers and staff and keeping the students at the center. So I appreciate all your hard work. Um the reality is that we are at I agree with your statement Dr. We're at a crossroads here, right? our county has not only come to expect excellent schools, but really our county's economy and our state's economy are dependent on having excellent schools. Um, and for the long-term health of our economy and our democracy and society, we've got to continue funding that. So, I I really know that our board of supervisors have been strong partners um in education.
016I know our state delegation from Fairfax are strong partners in education and I hope that they will see that um if in these federal government times where we're not sure what's going to happen with the federal government, we're not sure what has federal contracting, we've got to do what it takes to bring other businesses here and diversify our economy. And we do that by having giving our businesses a reason to come to Fairfax and that's often the excellent schools. Um, so I really hope that we can do that because at this point you walk through how efficient we already are. And um, I think it's going to be difficult to find more efficiencies in the numbers that we need to make up these gaps without really potentially impacting programs that make Fairfax what Fairfax is.
017Um, all of the extras that we do behind the state minimum requirements, um, including our music and arts and and everything that we do here. And I think our community, whether you have kids in the school or not, really benefit from our schools. they benefit from um the 500,000 events that we have, community events that take place in our schools, which truly the community centers. Um when you look at the ratio of our central office staff to building staff at 1.1%, it's the next closest is Arlington at 2.2%. Um, we've worked very hard to reduce our educator turnover, but if we can't maintain competitive salaries, those starting jurisdictions, I think that's going to be hard to continue to maintain and we really cannot continue with our facilities at a 42-year renovation cycle and um major
018maintenance backlog. So, um I I hope that we'll find a way for the state to truly address the shortcomings from JARG and the underfunding of special education. I hope we'll continue to get our traditional share of the county budget to keep our schools excellent to drive that economy and bring businesses here. And I'm hopeful that our board of supervisors are strong partners with us and public education and and recognize that our teachers need that competitive salary um because without our excellent teachers, we can't have excellent schools. So, thank you everybody and I look forward to the conversation. Thank you, Cher. Thank you. Um, I had the pleasure of speaking at the board of supervisors uh this afternoon about the budget during the public hearing. And while there, I did get to hear some members of
019the community complaining about FCPS. So, when we say that excellence is at a crossroads, I think it's worth defining what that excellence is. And so, we've talked a little bit about the lack of support from our state partners that is the same average of other states. Um despite that lack of sufficient support, in the past two years, the school division has increased the number of students in preschool programs so much that the number of kids in our school system without preschool has dropped by almost 10%. Over the last year, multilingual students have progressed year-over-year by an even more impressive number with the percentage of those meeting the state standard for progress toward English language proficiency increasing by 11%. reading reading by third grade. In the last year, our numbers are up algebra by eighth grade.
020We've increased again by almost 10% in the last year to 58%. 85% of our students are taking advanced coursework in high school and passing their AP exams. Our AP scores are higher than the state average. They're higher than the national average. Our ACT scores are higher than the state average and the national average. college enrollment. We lead the state and the nation again, especially in critical demographics like uh economically disadvantaged students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities. We romp the numbers of other school divisions. And so I think it's worth pointing out that we need resources to continue this great work, this focused work. Anybody who tunes in to our schoolboard meetings week after week, month after month, sees that we are methodically measuring the progress towards our strategic plan goals. That's what we're focused
021on, meeting the needs of these students. And those needs are more complicated every single year. And they are deserving of the resources to meet those needs. because if we don't, we know that there are all sorts of tertiary expenses that come along with not meeting those needs. Societal expenses that are far more costly than the $3,100 per student that we're asking for in additional funds from the state just to be average. So, I want to thank our budget team for the work that they've done to get us this far. Thank my colleagues for ext, you know, engaging in this extended conversation and thank all of our educators out there who deserve the 7% raise that the collective bargaining uh agreement uh stipulates and uh just how much we appreciate the work they've done to allow
022us to talk about the progress that we've made over the last several years. Thank you. I see no other placards. Mr. Dunn, thank you. Well, I I appreciate all the work that's been done by the budget team and and our schoolboard budget leads. Um I think we we face uh a critical uh crossroads for all the reasons that were uh articulated on the slides. Um and I think uh we have to face the fact that the federal government right now uh may be reducing support rather than increasing support. And we also have to be realistic about um the increased state support we can expect. Um with the current tax structure of the Commonwealth, we're not going to get $568 million in this year or next year. Um but we can certainly advocate strongly and we
023should continue to advocate strongly for uh the state to pay its fair share because when it doesn't, when the federal and state government underfund education, then we pay higher property taxes as a result. And so if the federal and state governments actually paid their fair share, we would have lower property taxes and thus uh likely more more affordable housing. But we also have to uh look at look at our own operations and say how can we act strategically to uh to transform this dynamic, right? We're in we're in facing a Gordian knot and we can try to untie it or we can take a sword and slice through it. And when I look at, for example, the capital assets, um, we have to look at available, uh, office space in our county. Uh, we we
024established a new school, Bailey's Upper, and it's been operated successfully for 20 years, I believe, um, in a converted office building. Um, we have to not be attached to the sites of our existing schools, but say where can we locate schools that in partnership with developers or with the county or both, uh, we might achieve efficiencies and be able to get um, you know, assets at at at discounts, right? We can do exchanges. We can do other things to, um, to further um, address our capital asset requirements. In the same way um with the whatever funding we receive add additional from the county and the state which right now we're anticipated to receive uh up to 175 million um that that's not nothing that's that's a lot of um money coming out of the pockets
025of Fairfax County taxpayers who pay 70% of our school budget. And in this uh in this scenario, we have to be strategic and say where should we invest that money? And we have teachers and support staff who the data shows and the data is not perfect, but the data shows that our teachers and support staff are underpaid relative to market. And that's where we should be investing our money because it's great teachers, great support staff in our daily in our public schools who provide the daily excellence, the difference in educational outcomes. And that's what I will be advocating for where we should invest the dollars we receive which may not be every dollar we want but will be every dollar we have. And so we have to be strategic how we make those investments to
026make the most difference and being able to attract and retain uh great teachers, talented educators and support staff who make all the difference and are the people who interact on a daily basis with our students and our families. Thank you Dr. Anderson. [Music] Thank you. Um, just very quickly, I just had one question. Can you put up slide 16? Back up, please. Thank you. Miss Burden, would you be able to share the comparative data for teachers who have bachelor's degrees? What is the current ranking and then the potential ranking if everything works out as proposed? Yes. Um, we can get that for you. And the reason we don't concentrate on the bachelors is I know. Yeah. I mean, 78% of our staff have better than masters. We do fare better at the bachelor's lane. I
027think we're up near the top. I don't know if we're at the top. We might be with the 7%. Um we're second as right now. So that would probably propel us to first with a bachelor's degree. Okay. Um but everybody kind of compares masters and and you know part of it too is all of the education programs in the Commonwealth have moved to a five-year masters. So many graduates come out with a masters. So that's why this is the one that we use. Oh, I definitely understand that. I I I want us to have the most prepared teachers possible. Well, respectfully, we have 21% of teachers without bach with bachelor's degrees and um you know, we're inviting more with TFAs who have a bachelor's degrees, teacher trainees who don't have necessarily the master's degree. So,
028while I know this is, you know, the the gold standard, um, we still have a number of teachers who fall into the bachelor's category and that information is important to also disclose. So, thank you. And just to reiterate, you we're second currently. Does that also work for beginning, middle, and end of career or because I know we have a little bit of a a dissonance between where a teacher on the master's scale may be on the mass at a master's level may be on the scale. Is that similar with the probably similar in that I think we're seventh of eight at the midpoint and the max for the masters and Matthew may know where we are in bachelors. Yeah, I I just want to clarify that the quote that we gave for second right now
029is it the starting teacher salary for someone with a bachelor's. So we don't have the midpoint data handy for bachelor's degree because it's just again since it's such a lower number of teachers that we have it's not a focal point that we do when we do those compensation studies but we can certainly get it for you. So I I can only give you the answer for the starting part not the midpoint or the max. Okay, if we could just get that because 21% is still a good number of people. Um I know I saw Mr. Solomon. What What is that 21% of our teaching force? What does that mean in terms of actual numbers? 350 people. 4,000. Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. Miss Marin. Yes. I just came from the county government center where
030there was the first day of public hearings. Um there was first a public hearing about the meals tax, one about the tax rate and then the general public budget hearing which was expected to continue on for several hours. So, it was not a set end time, which is tough because I know some teachers raced there to be there right after school when things started at 4:00 and that didn't even start till 5:00. Um, and students, but it was good to see people there and lots of people supporting one another. I I have I have two buckets of questions and things I'd love for us to discuss and I'd love to hear from Dr. Reid. Um, one of them is this question about how much facilities cost us in our general fund and operating budget. Um,
031so that's one bucket. The second, actually this three. The second thing is about the collective bargaining process. With the 7% agreement, there's really only two options. Either it's funded or it's not. I think the board needs to understand what the not version is. So, I'm not asking for what would you reduce or whatnot, but does that collective bargaining agreement just go back to the table? um is the budget passable? Do we have a staffing issue? Like that is something I think this board and the public need to understand just the process of that. And then um also the federal funding, what's really coming at us at this point and what are we planning for? And then the rest of my stuff I'll I'll save about the tenor of this point in time. So again, questions
032about facilities and funding. So, for instance, and I we have a budget question, question number 45, I believe, that asks um about the purchase of this building, the lease, and uh it says, you know, the board of supervisors paid 45.8 million on January 27, 2005. And as I understand it, it seems that we are being funded from the board of supervisors to then pay the board of supervisors the debt service. And so can you explain about how the debt service figures in? Are we paying that out of general funds or things like when we approve a playground like we did last week or a new track? Is that from operating funds or is that from capital funds? Because the thing I want to distinguish is are we using our annual operating budget which is supposed
033to be focused on instruction on these capital projects. Thank you. Thank you. So, Miss Burton, um since 2005, the Gate House debt service funds are are those coming from a debt service fund here or operating fund or capital dollars? It comes from the operating fund but it's transferred into the construction the the annual payments. I think it originates with us and not capital bonds, right? Yes. Okay. So that would be the answer for Gate House. It comes out of our general operating fund budget which otherwise could be expended towards instruction, teaching and learning and so forth. Wow. So that's a big deal. Yes. Even with a fantastic interest rate that was previously refinanced as recently as 2022, we are using instructional dollars to pay the board of supervisors back on debt service. That seems like
034a big problem and something that we must figure out, but now at least we know that. Can you share about the playgrounds, the tracks, things we approve not part of the capital improvement plan, Miss Burton? Playgrounds and tracks. I know. Yeah. Go ahead. You know, I going to tell you the truth. I have all of your questions that you sent answered, but it is an eight-page document with a really small font, so I can't go over that here tonight, but we'll be glad to answer all of those in writing. If I would like us to to know I'd like everyone to know this is a question and I'd like for other board members to be able to talk too. Can we make That's very impressive. I only asked yesterday. So, thank you. Go ahead. And
035I just got it like an hour ago. So, yeah. So, to to touch on some of your questions, I mean, I really think it's a mixture of the two, right? And so when we think about things like um you know recently we've been bl bringing nonADA compliant playgrounds up to ADA compliance with year-end funds right when the board votes to do that that's money coming from the operating fund. Um but in other instances you know we may be using construction fund money for you know something similar to that. It it just kind of depends on the the process by which we go about voting on it and and bringing it to you. So again, that's one example where the operating fund is being used. Um but but certainly that's not the only way that it
036can be done. Um I again I I think that because it's kind of a a mixed nature, it's hard to talk about each specific instance without kind of, you know, going through the whole document. Um but but we can certainly kind of give you an an idea, you know, one way or the other on some specific things if you want without kind of necessarily, you know, plowing through the whole whole thing and taking the full two hours of this meeting to do. Well, let me let me summarize a minute, Matthew. I think in general, Matthew's right. I mean, the money kind of comes from multiple sources. when it's planned and part of the CIP, when something's part of a formal renovation project, then capital dollars are used for playgrounds or equipment and that type of
037thing. But we have such a long renovation cycle at over 40 years that there are times students enroll in schools that don't have an ADA accessible playground. We can't not support that student or um that school. So then we'll have to dip in at that time often to operating fund dollars to remedy a situation that's in a more immediate form because it's not going to be a school that's going to be eligible for a renovation um for quite a little while. Right? So it's really been I think um the operating fund often gets tapped for emergent issues that are not part of a formal um recycle or not recycle but a formal renovation. a lot of our elevator issues recently. Um they're in schools that are not slated for renovation for quite a while, but
038we can't wait to not have the elevator work until the renovation comes. So um this elongated renovation cycle has created um more of a need to dip into dollars whether it's at year end um or during the year that otherwise could go to teacher salary, classroom um instruction and so forth. So, Matthew, did you have something to add? Um, yeah, and and maybe this helps in some way. Um, so on our on our construction fund statement, you can also see the funds coming to the construction fund from the school operating fund. And so, like I can tell you, you know, over the years, you know, back in FY20, the actual amount that the school operating fund contributed to the construction fund was $12.4 million, for instance. Um, that number as of the FY25 revised budget
039is 20.2 2 million. Um, and so, you know, you can see the magnitude kind of from that way. Um, it was actually higher in FY23 at $25.5 million. Um, but again, when you think about, you know, the $230 million in bond sales and then, you know, the roughly $20 million that we have there that that just helps give you a kind of an order of magnitude. You like me to put you want to go back? Well, I'd love if the superintendent could answer my other two questions, please. and and it would be great if we could have iterative discussions. I know we're all for timing and I'll stop after that, but it would be great. My other two questions though were about the um if the 7% is not met, what is the logistical process
040of that and really what's happening to prepare for any kind of federal funding sessation? So, we're watching the federal funding um accounts. Um and again, we have federal funding that comes in the form of grants that are competitive and grants that are not. And um but we're keeping a close eye on those and making sure that um we're thoughtfully planning as thoughtfully as we can. I think what Miss Burton has said several times is it's very difficult to have a clear plan with the federal uh dollars because there's so little detail and really almost no one answering the phone that has any information um when you call for clarification. So we're planning based on you know what we read in the news primarily. Um so having said that the funding that we've expected in our
041major three uh grants title one IDA in our food nutrition have continued as we would expect so without interruption um with regard to uh collective bargaining at this point until we know what the county transfer is I'm not going to speculate on what we may or may not uh consider because if we're not fully funded then We there is a clause within the original board resolution to authorize collective bargaining as well as um in the bargain itself that uh there is a reopener and we would go back to the table to discuss um wages and salary at that time and I don't want to speculate about what that could lead to. That was another one of my questions. How does that impact the budget, the passing of our budget if we have to go back
042and bargain? Well, we'll have a very short time to bargain. We've already have tenative meetings scheduled should they be required. And we'll have to go to the table with whatever information about whatever money is transferred and whatever monies the governor does or doesn't sign. There are a lot of variables still. And then I'll need to have a pretty quick turnaround to bring a budget to you on Thursday night, I believe May 8th. Mr. Moon. Uh just one comment on what you know Dr. we had just stated that's uh that's an area of my grave concern is just such short period of time you know we have uh that in as much as we need to be hopeful for full funding by county board of supervisors at the same time we need to be prepared for
043the a a potential huge cuts that we have to deal with and you know board not having that opportunity after this until until you propose your final budget and then we have a public hearing and we have just one work session and by that time it may be too late for the board to provide the meaningful input uh into adopting next year's budget. So that's one comment. Second, I thinking about what Miss Maran asked about gate house administration building purchase that was what back in 2005 time frame long ago long ago uh that my recollection is this at the time we wanted to you know school board wanted to get out a burke holder building which was in the Fairfax city it was a small very old building and at the time we're looking at
044both we're looking at you know initially we're looking at a a renting leasing a space somewhere. Then this money came up and then we we we we compared rental cost versus p acquisition cost for to be able for us to acquire this outright. We need to have a capital funding which we didn't have which we didn't have. The only way to acquire this, it was through EDA bond with the help from the counties, you know, county board of supervisors at the time. And when you talk about money coming out of instructional budget, we were if we were to lease a building, the money was going to come out of instructional funding anyway. So we you know bold compared all those numbers and at the time you know the board decided it was wiser to purchase
045through then means then leasing a space somewhere. Hopefully that helps a bit. Okay. So we're going to move to gobacks. I I think Mr. Jackson, I think we're going to keep it at 3 minutes for now and then we'll tighten up if we need to to do that. Um, Mr. Dunn, um, Dr. Reid, I I heard you uh say something about class sizes. Um, uh, can you please elaborate on your comments during your opening remarks? Sure, we can. Um, Kevin, do you want to go back to the class size slide, please? So, I was essentially referring to uh the fact that FCPS ranks fifth of eight um and that at elementary school third, middle school sixth, and high school fourth. Uh but did you imply that if we don't receive full funding then class sizes
046will necessarily increase in size? It's one of the things that could if you go back to the SOQ chart on I believe slide 16 18 sorry it's one of the topics um class sizes on the left side they're alphabetical um examples where FCPS exceeds minimum state standards so any one of these topics as we've discussed multiple times um are plausible or possible um topic areas where we're going to have to make some budget decisions. And in what scenario would you choose larger class sizes versus uh for example reduction in school-based office staff or technical business and educational specialists? I don't have a scenario currently. I'm just saying all of these are possible or at play. All right. I would just like to register that I I will oppose under any circumstances an increase in class
047sizes. I think our our classes are are large enough as is and I think there are other options on the table. Um I I appreciate your your emphasis Dr. agreed on, you know, balancing commercial and residential revenue because we we face a situation where some of our neighboring counties have a large number of data centers and so they have significant revenue they generate from that and uh Arlington County has significant commercial office space so it can uh you know derive significant revenue from that source. Unfortunately, Fairfax County is a largely a residential county. So, we do need to explore as a county. Um, and that's not a schoolboard issue, but certainly we can support any projects that seek to provide new revenue uh to the county outside of higher property taxes. Um, in terms of,
048you know, budget decisions, I'd just like to understand, uh, if we do not receive full funding and you receive, let's say the the current amount is $175 million additional from the from the county and the state, um, you have proposed an across the board pay raise. um what would uh make you decide an across the board pay raise of below 7% versus fulfilling the terms of the CBA which call for a 7% uh pay raise just for teachers and support staff who are bargaining unit members. So I want to be clear that I haven't proposed a plan. I've proposed a budget. Um, and it's a statutory requirement that I provide a needs-based budget that this board then approved, which became the advertised budget. And it's that budget that includes a 7% across the board raise.
049There isn't some other plan. It's the budget as it's currently written. So, I want to be clear about that. Secondly, I am not this evening going to bargain outside the bargaining process to discuss what I may or may not do with the bargaining agreement. that would not be um a prudent decision on my part. So, at this point, I'm going to wait till I see what the county transfer is and then abide by the collective bargaining agreements and the board's resolution. Um and then make a decision about whether we're going to need to go back to the table or not depending on that funding. Having said that, I also want to acknowledge for the board and for all those watching, this is a first for this board, the school division, and this community to be
050engaged in collective bargaining. And it's not something that we have great joint collaborative experience with. And it's something we're learning as we move through it. So, we're going to have these moments where um we want to do X, but then we are like, oof, we're in this new space and we're going to have to move in a Y direction. So, I just I want to also make sure that I am true to the process and we all I know every one of us, the board, the staff, um and the union leadership want to make sure we have integrity in that collective bargaining process. So, um, anyhow, I think that's the best answer I can provide at this point on that. Well, thank you. Um, I I I do think given, um, you know, a needs-based
051budget, looking at where are the needs in terms of employees who are paid below market, the data we have shows that's in our school-based employees, our teachers and support staff. And so I would strongly uh encourage and taking whatever funding we receive additional from the county and the state and investing in in those employees uh to make sure they're paid at least at market. And if they can be paid above market, all the better because we want to make sure that Fairfax County is the destination of choice among all the employers in this region uh for the the best and brightest, whether they're school counselors or teachers or cafeteria workers. We want to make sure those people are coming here, staying here, and supporting our students in the classroom every day of the week. I
052appreciate hearing that and I think we all agree that we want exemplary educators. I also want to make sure that as I look at other school-based staff who are not part of FEU such as our principles, our assistant principles, DSS's, DSAs, we need excellent school-based leadership across the board as well. And I would argue as we've looked that there are um as principles move through the arc of their career, there are other divisions in the region that pay better. Um and that's why we've lost some of our experienced principles. So I want to always think about and balance the needs of all of our employees as we meet the needs of all of our students. So, um, it's a complex task right now and anytime we have fewer resources than we have needs, I think
053we're going to find ourselves in a situation that requires really some critical and thoughtful problem solving. So, I appreciate the dilemma we're in. Yeah, I I agree. We need to be strategic and certainly we don't want to leave everyone out, but we can't solve every problem in every year. Just as with the school boundary review, we're not going to solve every problem that exists. We're going to focus on the ones that are most critical now and then later on uh at a future year address the other uh problems that may exist and with principles we can address that next year and focus on teachers and support staff this year. Miss Dixit thank you Dr. read for just the your your opening uh session was very impressive to hear all about the um the the all
054the companies who are the part of the uh silicon I should say the silicon value of the the Pacific. I I wanted to um address couple of things. I hear I my colleague also said that Fifes County is not generating enough commercial revenue and this is this has to change uh uh with we're comp competing with neighboring counties which have for more uh commercial space and uh revenue and we are struggling uh and we cannot keep increasing the rate or the taxes on our our citizens or property tax. Um so it's definitely it's something as a county we have to think about how we can increase the revenue and I'm not saying um you know that we have to build a casino uh but I'm just saying there has to be other other ways to
055do it and uh also we really wanted to uh see if we can you know get some of the meal tax funds over to school which um you know hopefully that's going to come through um you know uh we'll see but I I do see that every single employee who's working with FCPS contribute to our students and their success. And even if it's a bus driver who takes them to school or a teacher in the classroom, assistant IA principal, assistant principal, uh I I know they're the more very hardworking uh group as well. So I feel like they all deserve this um race and anybody who works for FCPS um should should be um we are honored to have them. So I want to support each and every uh employee of FCPS and their commitment
056to the school and the county um the request for the county would be to really reconsider this because um like you said we we are in a very uncertain situ environment right now. uh there's a lot of impact happening on households um we they have the funds um and they definitely can you know put it to the use for school um and I definitely want to advocate for our middle school after school programs and other program which are being uh proposed to cut because uh that is not okay that's those programs need to run so I'll stop here and uh probably I'll talk later with my other thoughts thanks Dr. Anderson, thank you. Matthew, just a little while ago, you talked about um moving funds from the um from the operating budget in order to
057cover some construction or not construction, but renovation, some of that work. Can you speak a little bit to in recent years when we've engaged in that practice, what have we not taken care of? If we're moving funds out of the operating budget in order to take care of the elevator, what has not happened? I don't know that I could name a thing, but I will say that over the last number of years, I don't know if it's decade maybe or last number of years, I guess I'll leave that there. I think There have been years we haven't done step increases for staff. There have been years we haven't done a percentage across the board increase. Um I I don't think that's my question because where did we not when we make these changes? Let's take
058the elevator question for an example. We already had the budget. It was already made and then it was found out over the summer that we had elevators. I know it was a Justice. It was at Addendale and it was one more school that's escaping me that their elevators were not working. So you had to pivot and deal with that emergency and so you use funding for that. Where did that funding come from? It had to have come from someplace because the budget was already determined at that point. So I'd have to refer to Miss Burton in terms of where uh dollars I think much of these came at your end. Yeah. So it's probably exactly the uh unfilled positions which isn't ideal because we want to fill our teaching positions. Okay. Um, but I think
059the dollars, for example, being paid to pay off Gate House would be in the budget. So those would be um in as an alternative to other things that would be um ongoing funds. So then when we're dealing with emergencies, that typically just comes out of year end. Okay. So, and I think I know the answer to this question, but I would love for you to put a finer point on it. What flexibility do we have with year end funding in terms of earmarking them for I I guess I'm trying to say how can we hold on to them as a savings I don't think we are able to generally speaking all of the urine funds or surplus funds have to be allocated to a specific purpose um and we we do everything we can to
060make sure that those year-end funds are primarily going to items that are one-time costs. So that's why at year end a lot of times you'll see safety and security items, you'll see facilities items because we we can't use those funds to to do positions because that has a recurring cost in the next year. So then we have a a a funding shortfall from the from the start uh in the next year. So we just that's why you see with year end a lot of things that are one-time things because that's really all we can spend those funds on. So then the question is if we were to have already expended year-end funds, we've earmarked them for a certain purpose and and this usually happens in September because we've moved that from July to September and
061let's say in December we have I don't know 20 elevators go down and we had to deal with them. Where would those funds come from to deal with them? Or are we just unable to? Well, something like that that I assume would be really expensive. We would in the past what we would do is we would come back to the school board and ask to access the schoolboard flexibility reserve because that's what that 8 million is for to address any unanticipated items or emergencies that occurred during the year that we don't have a funding source for. Thank you for that reminder. I completely did forget about that flexibility reserve. Um my la my next question I guess it's more of a comment and I'm looking for a confirmation from you looking at this list that
062is on slide 18. One of the things that you've said many many many many times is um given how we're structured in order to raise significant amounts of dollars the quickest and best place to do that is class sizes. Not best. That's not the right word. Just the place where Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've never said best. No, definitely not best. Definitely not best. Um, but but you know, any any laborintensive industry, which K12 is always very labor intensive with 90 90% of our budget being salaries and benefits only, 10% everything else. When you have a labor intensive budget like that, you you know, you can tweak around the edges a little bit. If you need to find, you know, $10 million, I mean, the budget's, you know, four billion, you can, you know, work
063around the edges a little bit and get 10, 20 million, that kind of thing. But 150 million, it's got to be compensation or um your class sizes because that's the only way you get big dollars. Okay. Thank you. And the last point that I wanted to make, you know, we just had this conversation in CPDC just last week, it feels like a hundred years ago where staff was presenting about projects and a question that I had raised um was in the replacement of um HVAC systems like major systems outside of the um outside of the renovation cycle which we have to do because the cycle is so lengthy. It also creates almost the a double expenditure because once the school does get up to renovation, if they're a little bit outside, then that system again
064has to be redone or re or um or updated or changed. So, we're not having any um benefit by not um contracting the renovation cycle. And I just thought I wanted to offer that as one more issue that speaks to the slide that was that was offered earlier. Miss Maron. Yeah. So I think it'd be an interesting uh piece of data to have over how much money we've spent from the general fund. General fund and operating fund are synonymous. Is that that's true? General fund, operating fund. Um, m municipalities use general fund to talk about their main budget. School divisions use operating fund. Thank you. So, I think it would be helpful to have a chart that shows what we've been paying including um, you know, the 12 million and FY20 and not right the
065second, but I think like that kind of data is really helpful for us to know. Um, so from what I've been learning especially around facilities is there's really four fiduciary entities in the county. There's the county board of supervisors, the school board, the park authority, and the economic development association. And it seems like there's different processes or ownership. And I don't know if that's the exhaustive list, but it does seem like they have places at the table that impact how we're able to do work. So, that's something that I would like to learn more about. Um, I also wanted to Let me just, you know, I've been trying to share publicly and just one or two conversations with the county leadership that if we could get more efficiencies as one system, we could find money.
066And today when I was at the public hearing, there were a lot of residents there opposing the real estate tax increase. And I don't support the increase either because I do believe that there is money available on the county side. It might not be readily available, but I think some of it could be. And when I look at this um presentation that I believe it was Mr. Seismarhiser and Mr. um Dunn attended with the planning commission of the county about this process called 2232. So this is how you projects get reviewed by the county and it used to be that a project up until 2022 a project would take 30 to 90 days for the county to approve it. So something so this propo this process changed and instead of 30 to 90 days now
067the time takes 220 days and you cannot tell me that that's saving money. Time is money and we know that construction costs are constantly escalating. So it's an over 250% increase in improve in approval times. So, what I don't understand is why offer a tax increase when it's clear that there's money to be saved here based on this change that happened 3 years ago. So, that's something that I want to put out there and I would love if our board tonight could come up with some agreement about what statement and information we want to say because at the end of the day, our executive has given her professional opinion on what it takes to run this school system. And for whatever reasons, the funders do not accept that and have not offered to help us
068find a solution. And that's incredibly sad, but unless we figure out what the plan is to fill that gap, I don't think we're going to be able to do anything. So, I have more thoughts on that, but I'd really like a statement. Can we do that, Mr. Moon? Uh, I'm sorry, Miss Maron. not responding to uh your call for statement. So I'm not being helpful in that regard. But since a couple of board members, you know, mentioned about class size, let me ask you a couple of questions. A when we want to step teacher position, let's say that teachers since class is related to teaching position, teacher positions. Uh what's the amount we allocate budget for one teaching position? Is it 120,000 or 100? About 110. 110 about 110 salaries and benefits. Correct. Okay. So
069uh if the gap is potentially anticipated potentially 121 to$150 billion dollars I mean we don't know what the federal government will do. We don't know what the governor or general ministry actually will do. But let's say that if it is 215 million divided by 110 that's like more than a thousand positions. more than a thousand positions out of 16,000 teachers which is 7% 78% of the teaching force that's very alarming that's very alarming I just want my colleagues know the magnitude of that and also as we are hiring maybe this goes to Dr. Reed or Mr. Smith as we are hiring teachers right now. Can we even not hire thousand teachers? Can we not hire hire thousand teachers at this point? Because we are making commitment to people who are applying for jobs unless we
070are laying off teachers. Currently, we are not fully staffed for next fall. Okay. How many how many are we not I didn't bring that data this evening because I'm just trying to see a as we go further further into late spring summer we'll be hiring more and more filling those positions so don't even know whether we have a luxury of letting go of a thousand positions yeah and before that thousand position number gets out in the ether I'm just saying because class size been mentioned It it would be very unusual if we tried to handle the entire $150 million cut with class size. I'm confident that it will be a variety of strategies that protect the classroom as much as possible. That is exactly what I'm trying to say is that's something unfathomable to uh
071think that it can be handled with a class size while letting teachers positions go. And if we tried to do it all on class size, we would be outside of the state SOQ compliance. So that Yeah, I want to be really clear too that this conversation, if someone only listens to part of it, we are not this evening making any decision or any plan to um move in a direction of eliminating a thousand teaching positions at this time. So I just I want to be very clear about that. So, uh, I think the danger in speculation is that bits of conversations get taken potentially out of context and I want to be very clear that that and I think Mr. Moon, you're also trying to make sure that's part of the statement. Absolutely. Because that
072cannot be a part of discussion. That's what I'm saying at that magnitude that magnitude. Yes. Thank you, Miss Seismarheiser. Thank you. and I I appreciate the discussion and listening to my colleagues and I do think um Hold on one second for us. I'm sorry I couldn't miss Anderson. I think I heard you pause as me to pause, but I cut out for a second. So, I want to make sure I heard you. One second for us. We're just turning your volume up. Got it. Thank you. Miss Eismore, can you just hold on a second? We're having volume issues. Absolutely. [Music] Miss Morheiser, can you try again? Yeah, absolutely. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah, we were having feedback issues with another mic, so we had to lower things. Apologies for that. That's okay. No worries.
073Is everything good? May I May I start? Yes, go ahead. Okay, thank you. Um, I I appreciate the conversation and the thoughtful um conversation from my colleagues and from staff as well. And I I wanted to ask um Dr. Reid, I think you had said something earlier about, you know, depending on what our funding we get, we may have to go back to the bargaining table. Um and I if I recall the um collective bargaining agreement we originally signed had that contemplated that if um that the you know that if we needed to we go back to the bargaining table and one of the things that I'm wondering about is that because when we um are going to talk to our staff we need to talk to you know kind of make sure their voices
074are represented as we're making our budget decisions. I think we need to do everything we can for our staff to and I talked about earlier, we can't have excellent schools without excellent staff. But um Dr. E, is that kind of what you're getting at earlier about needing to make sure that the the staff's voices are part of this process, which is why a lot of us, I think, supported collective bargaining in the first place is to give our staff a table. That's a seat at the table. Excuse me. Thank you, Miss Seismore. I think what I was attempting to clarify was that uh if there is a clause within the collective bargaining agreement or an agreement that if we're not fully funded that there would be a uh there's potentially an opener um that's within
075the wage section of the bargaining agreement that we've currently signed. It's a limited opener to wages uh but that there is that opener if we're not fully funded. So, my comment was depending on what the county transfer ultimately is determined to be, that may necessitate um a return to the bargaining table for that limited opener um to discuss how to resolve that. Okay. I I understand what you're saying and I think what I'm hearing my colleagues is the importance of our employees. I also want to make sure that our employees voices are part of this process as we're grappling with the realities of what may be a pretty significant budget shortfall from what um we were hoping from the state and from the county. So, um I think at this point what I heard from
076the presentation and please correct me if I'm wrong is that a lot of things above the SOQS are potentially on the table. Right? The state SOQ's are the minimum that they expect schools to be able to staff to run schools. And and my understanding, Dr. Reid, is that um most school systems spend a few billion dollars more than the SOQ's would fund to, you know, to actually staff schools at levels that schools feel are necessary to function for the education of the students. Is that correct? I don't know if most schools spent billions more, but most schools in the Commonwealth spend more than the Commonwealth provides based on the SOQ for sure. Um, and I think, uh, each school's context is unique and here in Fairfax County, as it's been mentioned, our county actually, um,
077supports, I believe, 70% of our budget here locally. Uh, that's an incredible investment in our schools for sure. Yeah. And that's what I think it's important to to lift up that it is really appreciated that this that when the state part of the issues of the state funding is how low it sets the number. If most of the school systems in the state are spending more than what the state um says is sufficient to operate a school system, then we really do have to count on our locality to um to make up that difference. And it shows where the lacking of the state funding is. But we also, I think, need to recognize that the schools bring a lot of value to our county as well. And so, how do we um really make sure
078we're operating this in the the spirit of one Fairfax where we are working with our county partners to do what's best for the county in a lot of areas. And part of that is making sure our schools are strong to big bring businesses and uh people to our county to keep it an economic powerhouse in Virginia. So, thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate it. Miss St. John Cunning. Thank you. Um, so first of all, I want to say that um, thank you to everyone that's done this work and I really want to respect the colle the collective bargaining unit and not speculate about what we can or can't do here today because I know that there are legal implications for us about discussing any of that. And I respect what the work that they
079are doing. Um, one thing that I do want to say is that I do support the 7% raise for all staff members. As someone that's worked in the school, there's a lot of people that are not considered uh school-based staff, but they spent a large amount of time in our schools. Uh we have our behavior intervention teachers, our applied behavior analysts, coaches, and these are supports that are called to assist when schools have used a number of strategies to support students with behavior, communication or other skills and have had limited success. These coaches come and work with the teachers and they support the students until they get to where they can with a student. Some of our centrally connected staff like physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech language providers provide services directly to schools on
080a daily basis and may be itinerants because they support more than one school. Um while the staff above work with students and teachers, we also have various educational specialists from central office that come out directly to the schools. of particular importance to me are our multilingual specialists that help support and build capacity to serve our students in the most uh effective ma um matters. Parent liaison, language interpreters, equity leads, these are all central office positions. And so I think there's a misnomer that because you're in central office, you're not in schools. The majority of our central office people are in schools or are providing immense support to our schools. Our HR department is hiring and vetting all of these teachers to make sure that we have great teachers and great staff. So although I cannot
081talk about collective bargaining, I can say that all of these people are doing the hard work every day and deserve those raises. Um the other thing that I would like to say is that again I said this before and I'm going to use the same language. We can speak dollars and cents all we want, but during this climate, the issue of a free and inclusive public education becomes a moral imperative that addresses the very foundation of our democracy. We all know an investment in the education of our children is a promise and hope for a better future. It is an investment in our community and demonstrates that we value the importance that education plays as a cornerstone of democracy. And it is time for one Fairfax to be more than just lip service. Mr. FR,
082thank you. Um, wanted to circle back to something Miss Marin raised just for clarification. Uh, there was a discussion about Gate House as the example of the fees that we pay for the loan that was structured over time. And I think Mr. Moon was trying to explain the history there. But I think, and Miss Marin can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what Miss Marin was getting at is why on earth are we paying fees for something to the people who are facilitating, you know, that work. It's similar to the conversations that the board has had about the extended time for um zoning changes and permitting um uh in our school system knowing that the delays only end up costing us money, which is the money that they've provided us. So it's, you
083know, anything we can do to mitigate those types of fees. And that's not to say that there wouldn't be a fee associated facilitating work for us, right? They still have staff who have to do things, but we should be minimizing those things at if at all possible, eliminating them. Um, so I I support uh any efforts that we can do to uh address that, especially in the work that we're going to be doing uh with the joint committees in the year ahead. Um, on the collective bargaining front, uh, I want to be very clear that, um, I support the budget that the board adopted. I support the resolution that the board adopted allowing for collective bargaining, which basically said we empower the superintendent to engage a process of collective bargaining, interestbased bargaining with our uh,
084certified associations, certified unions. um and that they will hopefully come to agreement on a on a bargaining agreement. The board will vote yes or no on that. That is where we weigh in in that process. We say yes, we say no. We said yes. And now we are committed to that path. And as part of that path, if we get to a point where we are not able to meet the obligations of that agreement, we have also given direction. The superintendent will initiate bargaining through her team with the bargaining units to try and find an alternate path to agreement. That is on them. Our next step in the process there is to say yes or no to the solution that they come up with. If we have an issue with the solution that they've come
085up with, you can vote no. You can also in the executive limitations conversations we have throughout the year, you can say, "I did not like the approach uh to reaching consensus here and the superintendent can say well here's why we had to do it that way." Right? That's how we engage in this. And it's different than we've done in the past. But collective bargaining is a different world for everybody in the system, not just the employees who benefit from it. It's different for us as well as policy makers. Thank you. Okay, we're going to the next round of gobacks. So, we're going to go to two minutes for this one. Mr. done. Um, Miss Burton, how how uh how much funding would it require to provide the 7% RA raise to pay raise to uh
086FU members about 190 million of 210 and uh and I see that the the gap from between the 297 million that was requested uh in the proposed budget and uh what we anticipate receiving from the county and state is 122. So that means we're receiving 175. Is that right? I don't know. I'd have to look at my numbers. Okay, it sounds right. assumes. Yeah, that assumes that we will get the 28 million if this governor signs off on the budget. And the governor came back with the budget amendments already, right? Yes. But the general assembly overrode him and he's got 30 days to decide. Okay. I don't think he's said he's not going to give the 28 million to us though, has he? Any public indication? No, but he vetoed or amended the support cap
087piece, which is the bulk of the 28 million. 20 million of it, I think, was the support cap. And he pulled that down um to seven or eight million, I think. He reduced he reduced it by 12 million. So, yeah. So, assuming we get the 28 million, we're at we're at 175. So 175 difference between that and 190 is 15 million or so. Um so I was really happy to hear that you said earlier that uh if you needed to find 10 or 20 million in a $4 billion budget, you probably could. So has has that happened in the past where you've had to find 10 or 20 million in a $4 billion budget for other priorities in previous budget years? No. I mean, we the I've only been here seven years, and the first
088five years we got essentially full funding for all of those years. It's only this year um that, you know, the number is really large compared to other years. You But last year you proposed $300 million. We didn't get $300 million extra last year, right? But last year, God, that seems like so long ago. Um, I think we took 2% right off the I think we had to cut like 60 70 million, but we took 2% right off the top and that so that provided about 60 million. All right. Thank you, Miss Marin. Okay. So, again, I'm trying to get to like what are we doing? And um here's where I'm at. You know, the facts of the matter are that the transfer amount that the county has provided has gone down percentage-wise over years, and
089that chart is somewhere. Um, the county does not show an appetite for helping to figure out a solution for the problem that is a shortfall. I don't I'm perplexed at why the county board is gambling with the best thing there is about this county and its economic engine. So, can we say that, you know, we need to have the same amount of transfer? Okay, that's one thing. Is there something we can say about, you know, we did our bargaining and so that's got to stick just like they did theirs. And any quips about, well, the school board didn't include the county board. Well, we're our own authority and we could spend our money and bargain as we see fit and we welcome their help at this point now um since we are where we are.
090So, the the wasted time and money that happens with some of our our projects and I guess I'm just distracted because I'm looking at this list of the crossing guards to be cut from high schools and Oakton High School is on this list. And in 2022, three students were plowed down by a high school student with a learner's permit. And now the county is proposing to remove the crossing guard that serves Oakton High School because quote this is the justification given. Um only it's Fairfax is the only neighboring jurisdiction where crossing guards are placed at high schools. That's the justification. So, I'm trying I say this because I'm trying to understand how do we try and partner when this is just so far from like what's really happening in our community and the um responsibility
091that our school system carries. How do we in the next few weeks, I'm holding out hope until May 6th. How do we get somewhere that funds the budget that our professional executive has proposed? Can we talk about that, please? I'd love to hear input. Dr. Anderson. Okay. Thank you. Um, one of the questions that I had, and this really kind of piggybacks on some of the things that Miss Marin has said is kind of asking for our position. What is our intention? Um, clearly I I'd like to think we had a hand in resurging the mills tax conversation and now that it's literally knocking on the door, potentially becoming a re becoming a reality. I I would love to get a better understanding and that part of the question is not for us. Just just
092generally, I'd like to get a better understanding of whether or not we could benefit in any way. Current conversations have not led me to believe that. So I'm wondering this is the part that's for us. What will be our collective position on that matter? I would love to hear about that because I think there's a space for us to articulate some percentage some amount. Um again not wanting to take the credit for bringing the conversation back up but we did have a substantial role in that. Um so that's one. Um just to make sure that I understand clearly the needs-based staffing that was also on page 16 that is primarily from title one funds correct or do we have that coming out of other um of other funds? No, that's operating fund because the our
093staffing formulas, our staffing standards for classroom teachers at elementary, middle, and high have a um free and reduced uh factor that's that's weighted in. So that schools with high levels of free and reduced receive additional classroom teachers. Uh and that's not just title one schools per se, but there's still some and that's in addition to the title one schools that's separate from that. Thank you. And my last question just because I don't remember and Mr. Smith not wanting to put you on the spot but putting you on the spot. Can you just kind of share again the FEU covers which employee roles? Because I know we had long discussions about parent leaison. So I I remember that one but what other roles does it cover or employee types? So good evening everyone. So FEU uh
094represents our licensed instructional employees as well as our operational employees. And I do remember the board having uh conversations around family liaison. And so there are a portion of our family liaison who are represented by FEU and then there are a portion around 116 I believe and Mr. Solomon helped me out with those numbers earlier tonight. Uh who are uh hourly employees and they are not represented by FEU. So that that's the breakdown for those employees. Thank you. Um is that the same case for any other positions where we have people sitting in two buckets? I'd have to check on that and uh phone a friend, but I don't believe that we have any other category of employee. I think it's um not so much categories of employees, but it's the um wage bands and
095salary scales that we have. That's my understanding, Miss Burden, that are both in FEU and in I can't remember Marty, the other name of the other FCF FCFPSA. FCFPSA. Yes. and then the um even uh non-represented group. So they're all I'm so sorry. I need for you to unpack that a little bit for me. Wage bands. I'm not following this burden, please. Our salary scales. Yeah. Yeah. air salary scales. If you look at the unions and what salary scale people are in, the FEU instructional has people in it that are on scale B and the teacher scale, but the operational has people in it from the IIA scale, instructional aid, the A scale, the B scale, the C scale, the H scale. H scale is uh food services and transportation um and parent leaison that
096are FTEES. And then you have the hourly group which is um the people that are on the hourly hourly pay scale. They're not FTEES. They're not they're not a full-time equivalent like a 1.0. I'm sorry. So you said they're not fe. So would those individuals be covered by FEU or not covered the hourly people? No. Okay. Yes, hourly employees are not covered by FEU. Thank you, Miss St. John. So, as we're talking about all of this and you I'm I just want you to repeat for the the general public uh Dr. agreed about the fact that the school division has been intentional in reducing cost over the past 10 years and you had offered that information before and I'm just asking you to repeat it because it's not as if those efforts haven't been made.
097Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. Over the last decade um through cost avoidance and efficiencies, the school division has saved, I believe it's 858 million dollars over the last 10 years, over the last decade. Mr. Moon, uh, thinking about a and Mr. Don's question about finding 10 to$150 million in order to be able to in order for us to be able to fully support 7%. Uh if he did that, does that mean that other necessary maybe it's not even necessary then at that point increases that are contained in our advertised budget will not be able to be supported such as construction increases, additional needs for special education and I was Just going through some of these, you know, transportation, food service, contract adjustments. There there seem to be quite a few the items with increased
098cost expenditure that were being expected and there was a part of the a the budget advertised budget the board passed back in back in February time frame. I'm asking whether it's not just 10 to 15 million dollars, but they have to be frozen rather than being increased. I'm I'm not understanding your question. I think what Mr. Moon's asking is going back to Mr. Dunn's question originally, and I'm not sure that the transfer number was accurate in that question. Uh, but I think the underlying question is if everything that the county transfers is used to just fund the FEU contract and we have to still find more money because that won't be enough if it stays at the current level. Am I still tracking here? Yes. Yes, you're correct. And also there are additional expenditure increase
099that we were expecting and put into our advertised budget and and those increased expenditures would not be able to happen. So I think to that scenario that we're speculating about if all of the monies transferred from the county and whatever other monies we would have to find the other 20 million I think was and that would all go to the FEU contract then you're correct. There would be no other funds to either pay any contractual increases or salary increases for any other staff member, principles, assistant principles, etc. in the FCF PSA group or the non-represented group as well as the contract adjustments you're looking at, Mr. Moon, we'd still likely have to go back to slide 18 and still make cuts. Um, I think to answer your question, because we did have contractual increases, there
100is a cost escalation uh to certain expenditures that we have to budget for and enrollment. Well, that's what Mr. Moon's talking about. I think he's got the special education. I think that was twice. special education and we're legally I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna rethink the question I just asked but just you know Mr. Mr. Dun's question you know prompting me to well start thinking about those items. So uh thank you. Okay so we are going to a third round of gobacks and so can we make sure that we're at two minutes please and Okay, Mr. Dunn. Uh, thank you. Uh, I I know that uh I I appreciate the the figure $858 million. Um, I have not seen that in any Friday letters or public communications. I searched the website. I couldn't find it.
101Um, where where can I find information? Where can the public find information about the $858 million in uh in cost avoidance that you referenced? Thank you, Mr. Dunn. It's been in several powerpoints. So, I know that um it's a chart and perhaps Miss Burton has its current location. We could certainly include it in this Friday letter. That's a that's a chart that we developed. Um but all of the items that have been reduced, efficiencies found, cost avoidance, those kinds of things are all detailed in every single approved budget document in the appendix. and it's probably 50 60 pages and there's a paragraph for every cut, the number of positions that were cut, the number of dollars that were cut over the last I think it actually has more than 10 years in the appendix 2009.
102It goes back to 2009, but if I search on the website and I type in $858 million, that doesn't come up. So is there is there so if it's in 50 or 60 pages of the budget is there somewhere where someone does them where it it you know a single year in the appendix it's by year so you could add up all 10 years 2024 2023 and it would equal the 850 that's the basis for that chart. Miss Burton I think what Mr. are done is asking um and I think it's a good idea is for us to put that slide on the budget page by itself, right? So that people don't have to search for it and the explanation for it to be there. I think some of the really good work we've done
103has not been as transparent to our community. And I think putting that on the page with an explanation is what you're requesting. We can do that. That's exactly right. Yeah. just I mean uh I I' I've said before and I'll say again FCPS is a fantastic school system but historically has done a poor job of marketing the daily excellence of our schools and to the extent that FCPS has been achieving cost efficiencies year-over-year uh if I'm not aware of it I doubt anyone else in my community is um and you know to the extent I can definitely dig through the budget but consolidating making it easy to understand and referencing maybe supporting material just like footnotes. So if people you trust but verify want to go and dig into the budget and just understand the
104pages and the citations so they can do the math on their own even though you make it easy for them. I think that would build public trust and then help us to make the case that hey, we deserve the Baldrich Award, you know, and which we're up for, right? Um because we're making that case and 25 page submissions, which I've read and are are good, but um but something simpler for those of us without a lot of free time and running around as a parent, you know, being a dad taxi or mom taxi at various uh soccer games or other athletic events. Um, thank you, Miss Marin. Okay. So, I'm wondering, can we have a statement that says, can, you know, the school board asks that one, a portion of the meals tax be dedicated
105to FCPS, ideally perhaps an amount matching the percent transfer. We have not said that as a board publicly. And remember in 2016, I believe it was 75% was going to go to the schools, 70%. So, that's one ask. Can we agree to a statement that says we ask that a portion of the meals tax be dedicated to the schools? The second thing that the proposed 7.7 million in county reductions not be included in their budget. Um the data the facts are is that February 18th the county executive presented the proposed budget. The county did not yet have our request because we made it 2 days later. So Brian Hill presented the proposed budget with the money he already intended to give us on February 18th and then on February 20th our school board our school
106board approved the superintendent's proposal to send that over to the board of supervisors. So it would really be I think a reparation of faith and a sign of continued collaboration if they not cut what we weren't even given the courtesy of knowing about in advance. I think that's a pretty basic level of a working partnership. And then finally, you know, I would like to put something in a statement that says we ask the super the board of supervisors to do whatever they can do to find the money on their side to fund our proposed budget because we have done the valuation work. Um, we have seen the data about our central office costs, about our place and the competitive salaries. I have not seen that valuation from the county. Like I just looked at my
107Fairfax Park and Recreck magazine over over the weekend and there's concerts all summer. I love a free concert. Do we need to have them in nine locations this year? Maybe not. What's the data about who goes to those concerts? How often they are? Could we have a few central? There are things that are going to have to be cut and our teachers and staff are not on the chopping block. So again, I would love to hear people's thoughts about a statement that includes any one or all three of those things. Mr. Moon, did you have another? I was support saying something about me mirror tax. Uh since since I have a [Music] microphone, I may even venture to uh uh request the board of supervisors give us whatever the percentage that they think is the
108right percentage in terms of our transfer. That's a 51.5%. Uh so 51 if it is a 51.5%. 51.5% of surplus at the end of the year they yeah their surplus urine funding urine share with us they used to share with us Dr. Anderson, just one question and I I guess maybe this didn't dawn on me regarding the timetable as to when our budget was presented which was after that is not normal practice. Well, is this what we've done every year where our pres our um budget is our proposed budget is completed after the county executive presents his budget? Is that our normal practice or was this year some sort of anomaly? It it it depends. It it depends. I mean, it's usually around the same time. Um, sometimes it's we're right after, sometimes we're right
109before, but either way, they don't use, you know, the superintendent proposes her budget in January, but they don't use our number for anything. They use their number and we react to it. So whether or not we know, so pretty much what I think I'm hearing is once we have our proposed budget, whatever is presented, it's immaterial to what they're going to do. True. But you have to remember that last year they told us that they were going to give us 75 million and then by the time it was all said and done we got 90 million more. But when did they do that? Did they What the reason why I'm asking is I'm trying to figure out the utility of us completing our budget in the time frame that we provided if it is in
110no way being utilized to inform what the county does. And the reason why I'm asking this, it's because I've been, to be honest, a little bit more than annoyed with the middle school afterchool programming because the ripple effect of not having those individuals in place now has impacted VIP camp and so many other things that a reasonable person would think that a conversation would have revealed some of those things and it would have been a more informed decision. But what I think I'm hearing is none of that matters. Is that what I'm hearing? Dr. Reed, jump in, please. Well, I I can't again I I don't know it what does or doesn't matter to um the county board of supervisors or county executive in terms of middle school after school activities. What I can say
111is you're accurate that uh we found out about that recommendation when that budget was made public and not before. And I think that um Kevin, could you put up the county cut slide, please? I think that it's I think it's very difficult because those programs were created for very specific reasons and those reasons still exist today. The other piece I want the board to note is the one two three four fifth line down actually also cancels the VIP camp program. That was one of the board of supervisor that's one of the county budget decisions to cut and they the conversation has been very difficult to ascertain that it actually was cut, right? Because there's some discussion that says we're going to provide the money and it's like but you aren't. You you canceled it and
112you canled the collaboration with our staff to plan it in February I believe prior to even the budget coming out. So it is a little bit hard to be honest when I think Miss Marin was talking about the partnership. Um I do think we have some work to do to um better partner because our students and families and staff are counting on that and ultimately our community expects it. So two quick points. I think the VIP camp has created a lot of chaos because we had it funded for this year but when you don't have the personnel to make it happen essentially doesn't matter. this, you know, would impact next year's budget. Having said that, just moving forward, I would love for us to get a better sense of what does that collaboration look like
113because it is something that is thrown around every table that I've been when we've had that joint disc when we have the joint discussions with the board of supervisors. But clearly, I I think I could articulate something that I would like to be a little bit more specific. So it may be in our list of asks that we really specify what does that collaboration look like so we can walk away feeling heard as part of the budget process because as one of the people who they fund it's important for us to have that space because I'd like to think that's what we do here when you're pro when you're getting your budget you talk to this department that department this other department to get a really good sense I'd like to know that they're capturing
114our things as well in a manner in which it could actually have input into what they convey eventually. Yes, ma'am. And I I I would also add that actually this year and last year we didn't go to the departments and say what would you like to spend. I think I've got our chiefs here. We said we're not going to uh initiate new programs other than those that connect directly to our strategic plan because we're going to commit our resources to improving salary because we've honestly neglected that for several years. and we have ground to make up. Uh so we've really tried to stay laser focused on that. Um Miss Dixit, I'm I'm going to just uh continue this conversation about middle school after school programs. And uh in our budget town hall um um Miss
115Lee Burden, you were there too. uh there was a lot of students asking for it, advocating for it and um and the supervisor Smith was just taking you know she said I'm going to take the information and discuss with other supervisors and and and make an informed decision. So that was uh kind of nice that she was there to listen. Um but then um in one of the emails I read uh from the super supervisor's office that they're actually uh being asked by the neighborhood program that the middle school after school programming uh should be cut the funding should be cut and the reason was cited is because now we have sports after school sports. Now after middle school after school sports program is a very um you know feuded sports program. It's not as
116comprehensive as the middle school other programmings we offer in speech and debate and programming and uh robotics and so so much more students have so green um you know projects. So I I don't know how that compared and what what was the why this reasoning was given. So I I just wanted to share that um with the community members that that middle school sports program does not equate to uh the after school programming and supervisors are uh we are requesting them to reconsidered reconsider this because it's affecting lot of students who need this. Um, and as much as we are advocating for teachers, we would like to advocate for our students and their families who are really counting on us. Thank you. Okay, we are in our final round of gobacks, so we're going to
117give everybody a minute because we're going to get staff out of here on time tonight. So, Mr. FR, thank you. I just want to um kind of add on to what Dr. Anderson was talking about with the middle school after school programs just for some clarity for people may may not understand how the timing impacts that discussion as well. Dr. Reed, can you talk about the timing that's required for the placement of staff for those programs and where that falls in the budget timeline which precluded the school division from being able to hold off on that until budgets were finalized. Secondarily, um how um finding an alternative way of funding, etc., is complicated by the fact that because we're in such a tight budget situation, we would have difficulty finding the money if a prediction
118of student enrollment in say a needs-based program did not bear out what we committed in funding. In other words, if it was a million dollars uh more than we anticipated, we'd have no money to pay for that. Thank you, Mr. FR. I we right now we really are in a very tight financial situation any which way you look. I think Mr. Moon, Mr. Dunn, each of you have raised issues. You know, it there are competing needs um and we're not going to be able to meet all of them if the transfer isn't fully funded. to the point around the middle school after school activities program. We have 26 full-time staff that that program on the county side funds. If we're not going to be able to receive those funds, which the county budget has stated,
119then we have a responsibility to those staff to give them time uh to select other positions while they're still open positions. A number of our 26 staff are actually longtime Fairfax County employees and have rights back to positions that will then potentially create a domino effect because they would have a right back to a divi a position that someone might be in today who then would have a right to a position. So it creates a divisionwide domino effect which we can't wait till the first week in May to initiate because the school year ends in June. So, as we reviewed the human resources timeline, we have to give those people that notice prior to a formal budget decision by the board of supervisors. Just as uh Brian Hill stated that a number of positions in
120the county that were cut or um re um I don't know rehomed isn't the right word, but a number of positions that where staff were moved uh and the open positions closed that they stated they'd already been engaged in that work, which is the same work we're talking about. It can't wait um till after May. Uh the question about funding for an alternative approach. Oh, it the idea that we're going to find money to pay for the middle school after school program when we're really still looking at being able to fund collective bargaining agreements is not likely. Miss Seismarheiser, thank you. And I appreciate the conversation and I'm glad to um that this conversation has come up around some of the additional funding um that the county provides to things such as the middle school
121after school programming, crossing guards, transition support personnel, and others to the tune about 7.7 million, which is in addition to um the funding request that Fairfax County Public Schools had. Um I think this is a great conversation about what can we do? Do we write it? Do we have a joint statement? How do we bring up, you know, specific ideas, specific ways to have better collaboration along the way so we don't get to this point where we are putting out a budget perhaps after the other budget is well or approving a budget after um the county's budget is approved. And I think that's really to we need to start a project plan for the budget process in the summer to really help educate our community about the importance of the schools, the realities of our
122budget. Um I think the years of fully funding budgets have sort of made everybody sort of used to that's what it's going to be. So I would say that starting next year's process, we need to start much earlier with sort of a plan um around how to lift up what our needs are. So I know my time is up. I'll stop there. Miss Mayor. Okay. So, for a statement, so far the input I've heard is a portion of the meals tax be dedicated to FCPS. Um, and then relatedly, the surplus could also be dedicated um proportionally to the transfer rate, which also then could even lead to us just having a set percentage rate. Who knows? But anyway, um the proposed 7.7 million reduction from the county goes back in. Um, and I want to
123also say, I mean, I've seen communication from the county talking about some sliding scale being proposed. That is not that is not happening. Um, that's been tried in the past and it didn't work. And again, we're trying to pay teachers. So again, so a statement that says portion of the meals tax we dedicated the 7.7 million in reductions not remain in their budget. Um, a surplus, we could talk about that as well. I can't wait to start collaborating better. I don't think we have the time right now to do that, but we could certainly put that in the letter here. But can we somehow get some consensus on this? I'd be happy to to draft a letter for everyone, but this would be an action step. This doesn't get at the big 150 million piece,
124but at least it gets us a little bit of something to defend what we are charged with defending. Meron, I think there's maybe hesitancy to sign on to something that's not yet written, but I think we could probably nail down something in the next 24 hours that we could turn into a letter and get out to the board of supervisors. Happy to partner with you and the budget team on that. Um, and then we can go from there. We can ask colleagues to provide comments and feedback uh like we do on other statements. Is that something you're open to? All right. Well, consider your phone lighting up tomorrow for me. Um and obviously board members will chime in on uh various elements of it in that process. It'll give them more time to think about
125those things as well. Just 30 seconds. Um Miss Anderson, thank you so much. As far as uh you know sharing a surplus funding is concerned. Scoreboard used to use the funding for one-time purposes. It could be a major maintenance. Uh could it be a prayground something like that that we are able to do it and then when somebody left the chair's position and somebody else came in that stopped. Miss Seismore, do you have your hand up again? Yeah, just very quickly I wanted to comment on um Miss Marin and Mr. Fcher's statement about the joint statement. Um, I'm happy to help coordinate that as well and I'm happy to reach out to Miss Mary and Mr. Fresh. That's just part of the um the budget team here. I'm happy to do that. So, I'll be
126um reaching out to you both tomorrow. I will make sure staff is teed up to review any data or provide any data that uh you request. And with that, this meeting of the budget committee is adjourned as of 8:30 exactly p.m.