Falls Church School Board
Approves FY09 Budget

Plan Reflects Innovative Programming and Reduction in Force

POSTED: 5:59 p.m. EDT, February 27, 2008
By: FCCPS Communications

At its regular meeting last night, the Falls Church City School Board approved its FY09 budget.  The board’s plan is about $600,000 less than the proposed budget Superintendent Lois Berlin recommended in January, largely because of slowed growth in the local economy.  The board’s budget requests a city transfer of 3.7 percent above the current year’s budget.

“This is the lowest figure it’s been in ages,” said school board chairman Craig Cheney.  “On an inflation-adjusted basis, it’s basically zero, which is the lowest we could go and continue operating with the same class sizes that we have now.”

The $40.2 million school budget reflects initiatives to support priorities in the school board’s strategic plan including teacher retention, data-driven instruction, responsive guidance and counseling programs, and instructional programs to meet the needs of all students.  The budget includes a 3 percent pay raise for all eligible employees to ensure the school division’s salaries remain competitive in the region, and it redirects existing resources to support implementing the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (PYP) in the school division’s two elementary schools.

“This is for absolutely every elementary student in our school system,” Cheney said.  “It provides them with the kinds of things that the strategic plan talks about, including more of an international focus, and I think that’s quite an accomplishment in a year when we don’t have any additional resources.”

This year’s budget process also involved some tough staffing choices for the board.

 “We made some difficult decisions about eliminating some positions,” Cheney said.  “These are not easy decisions and we didn’t make them lightly, but it all came down to facing fiscal realities.”

The board cut the equivalent of about eight full time positions from the central office and all schools.  However, the board went to great lengths to ensure the staffing cuts would not have an impact on class size or on the instructional program.

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