APS Budget Process

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


Exemplary project teachers: are they typically additional staff that only deal with the exemplary project and absolutely nothing else? or are they other teachers/staff taking on the extra role?
Either way, they might as well save the costs of buying and administering exemplary projects. If it's an "extra" staff person, they could be reassigned.

At my school they teach science lessons
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm good with cutting extras like the aquatics program and outdoor lab. Cutting library assistants and making schools share vice principals are horrible.

I like outdoor lab but in a budget like this it needs to go

The Outdoor Lab was and still could be an asset for the county. It should cost less than half of what the current budget wastes. They have 2 Admins onsite that have no knowledge of and do zero amount of instruction.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple of years ago, Duran gave all of the central office staff (that don’t work in schools) paid vacation for Christmas break and Spring break, in addition to the leave they already accrue (about three weeks). No other school district in the area does this. I am curious as to why the cost of that is not included in this report.

Probably because it didn’t change their salaries and isn’t paid out when they leave.


But it absolutely costs us in terms of FTEs required to do the job or potential productivity lost.

It’s also a way to keep or attract people to work in some of the harder to fill HR jobs, the report notes that we have vacancies there. I understand why school-based staff is annoyed by it but cutting it makes us less competitive with other districts that allow more WFH than we do and doesn’t save any money (outside of whatever is paid out at retirement or annual leave when employment ends. It’s nothing but doesn’t close any gaps)

I strongly agree that this should be rolled back. We need to be competitive with comparable county and FCPS positions. As I understand it, neither of those offer this extra leave.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple of years ago, Duran gave all of the central office staff (that don’t work in schools) paid vacation for Christmas break and Spring break, in addition to the leave they already accrue (about three weeks). No other school district in the area does this. I am curious as to why the cost of that is not included in this report.

Probably because it didn’t change their salaries and isn’t paid out when they leave.


But it absolutely costs us in terms of FTEs required to do the job or potential productivity lost.

It’s also a way to keep or attract people to work in some of the harder to fill HR jobs, the report notes that we have vacancies there. I understand why school-based staff is annoyed by it but cutting it makes us less competitive with other districts that allow more WFH than we do and doesn’t save any money (outside of whatever is paid out at retirement or annual leave when employment ends. It’s nothing but doesn’t close any gaps)

I strongly agree that this should be rolled back. We need to be competitive with comparable county and FCPS positions. As I understand it, neither of those offer this extra leave.

Then we should probably let them WFH again since other counties offer that
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple of years ago, Duran gave all of the central office staff (that don’t work in schools) paid vacation for Christmas break and Spring break, in addition to the leave they already accrue (about three weeks). No other school district in the area does this. I am curious as to why the cost of that is not included in this report.

Probably because it didn’t change their salaries and isn’t paid out when they leave.


But it absolutely costs us in terms of FTEs required to do the job or potential productivity lost.

It’s also a way to keep or attract people to work in some of the harder to fill HR jobs, the report notes that we have vacancies there. I understand why school-based staff is annoyed by it but cutting it makes us less competitive with other districts that allow more WFH than we do and doesn’t save any money (outside of whatever is paid out at retirement or annual leave when employment ends. It’s nothing but doesn’t close any gaps)

*it’s not nothing


It irritates school based staff because they are never there.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


Exemplary project teachers: are they typically additional staff that only deal with the exemplary project and absolutely nothing else? or are they other teachers/staff taking on the extra role?
Either way, they might as well save the costs of buying and administering exemplary projects. If it's an "extra" staff person, they could be reassigned.

At my school they teach science lessons


But are they exemplary project teachers only, or are they a "regular" teacher taking on extra duties?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


Exemplary project teachers: are they typically additional staff that only deal with the exemplary project and absolutely nothing else? or are they other teachers/staff taking on the extra role?
Either way, they might as well save the costs of buying and administering exemplary projects. If it's an "extra" staff person, they could be reassigned.

At my school they teach science lessons


But are they exemplary project teachers only, or are they a "regular" teacher taking on extra duties?
they plan and teach lessons. They do not have recess duty because they are part-time.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


Exemplary project teachers: are they typically additional staff that only deal with the exemplary project and absolutely nothing else? or are they other teachers/staff taking on the extra role?
Either way, they might as well save the costs of buying and administering exemplary projects. If it's an "extra" staff person, they could be reassigned.

At my school they teach science lessons


But are they exemplary project teachers only, or are they a "regular" teacher taking on extra duties?
they plan and teach lessons. They do not have recess duty because they are part-time.


So then, they are an "extra" staff person who would otherwise not be employed by the school if not for the exemplary project.
I would support dropping the entire exemplary project program, or dropping the exemplary projects and making those teachers "regular" teachers or assistants or floaters who can fill-in as needed and give some teachers some planning time.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


Exemplary project teachers: are they typically additional staff that only deal with the exemplary project and absolutely nothing else? or are they other teachers/staff taking on the extra role?
Either way, they might as well save the costs of buying and administering exemplary projects. If it's an "extra" staff person, they could be reassigned.

At my school they teach science lessons


But are they exemplary project teachers only, or are they a "regular" teacher taking on extra duties?
they plan and teach lessons. They do not have recess duty because they are part-time.


So then, they are an "extra" staff person who would otherwise not be employed by the school if not for the exemplary project.
I would support dropping the entire exemplary project program, or dropping the exemplary projects and making those teachers "regular" teachers or assistants or floaters who can fill-in as needed and give some teachers some planning time.

Yes, though technically ours does provide planning time
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm good with cutting extras like the aquatics program and outdoor lab. Cutting library assistants and making schools share vice principals are horrible.

I like outdoor lab but in a budget like this it needs to go

The Outdoor Lab was and still could be an asset for the county. It should cost less than half of what the current budget wastes. They have 2 Admins onsite that have no knowledge of and do zero amount of instruction.


and those positions should be cut.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple of years ago, Duran gave all of the central office staff (that don’t work in schools) paid vacation for Christmas break and Spring break, in addition to the leave they already accrue (about three weeks). No other school district in the area does this. I am curious as to why the cost of that is not included in this report.

Probably because it didn’t change their salaries and isn’t paid out when they leave.


But it absolutely costs us in terms of FTEs required to do the job or potential productivity lost.

It’s also a way to keep or attract people to work in some of the harder to fill HR jobs, the report notes that we have vacancies there. I understand why school-based staff is annoyed by it but cutting it makes us less competitive with other districts that allow more WFH than we do and doesn’t save any money (outside of whatever is paid out at retirement or annual leave when employment ends. It’s nothing but doesn’t close any gaps)

I strongly agree that this should be rolled back. We need to be competitive with comparable county and FCPS positions. As I understand it, neither of those offer this extra leave.

Then we should probably let them WFH again since other counties offer that


Syphax absolutely WFH.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


Exemplary project teachers: are they typically additional staff that only deal with the exemplary project and absolutely nothing else? or are they other teachers/staff taking on the extra role?
Either way, they might as well save the costs of buying and administering exemplary projects. If it's an "extra" staff person, they could be reassigned.

At my school they teach science lessons


But are they exemplary project teachers only, or are they a "regular" teacher taking on extra duties?
they plan and teach lessons. They do not have recess duty because they are part-time.


So then, they are an "extra" staff person who would otherwise not be employed by the school if not for the exemplary project.
I would support dropping the entire exemplary project program, or dropping the exemplary projects and making those teachers "regular" teachers or assistants or floaters who can fill-in as needed and give some teachers some planning time.


Penny wise, pound foolish.

Why are we dropping science teachers when we should be pushing for better funding from the county and state?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple of years ago, Duran gave all of the central office staff (that don’t work in schools) paid vacation for Christmas break and Spring break, in addition to the leave they already accrue (about three weeks). No other school district in the area does this. I am curious as to why the cost of that is not included in this report.

Probably because it didn’t change their salaries and isn’t paid out when they leave.


But it absolutely costs us in terms of FTEs required to do the job or potential productivity lost.

It’s also a way to keep or attract people to work in some of the harder to fill HR jobs, the report notes that we have vacancies there. I understand why school-based staff is annoyed by it but cutting it makes us less competitive with other districts that allow more WFH than we do and doesn’t save any money (outside of whatever is paid out at retirement or annual leave when employment ends. It’s nothing but doesn’t close any gaps)

I strongly agree that this should be rolled back. We need to be competitive with comparable county and FCPS positions. As I understand it, neither of those offer this extra leave.

Then we should probably let them WFH again since other counties offer that


Syphax absolutely WFH.


Right?!
Anonymous
Article from ArlNow about the school board meeting https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/28/looming-aps...y1aqZrshwxI4Vwflowxg
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am fine with APS security rather than SROs. Though I agree police would have been much more highly trained, I would expect they were costing Arlington tax payers more on the whole while staffing our schools. Regardless of how we got here, it's frustrating that cost of security is now falling on the schools and contributing to APS budget strain since ACPD is so understaffed. SROs wouldn't come back even if the community was 100% unified behind it.

As for the Baker-Tilly report, I've read the whole thing and there may be a handful of savings opportunities. That said, most of those cuts are not actionable due to preexisting pips or a gross misunderstanding of how schools operate. They have charts showing how bloated APS is at the top, but none of the recommendations touch on the top-heaviness of the organization. On top of that, the administrators have a much better union than the teachers, custodians, and bus drivers, so TLDR the most vulnerable staff are most vulnerable to painful cuts. I expect those are cuts that are also likely to affect students' experience.


Yes, student-facing roles like library assistants and exemplary projects teachers being cut also means that lost planning time will need to be made up somehow.


I don't think library assistants and exemplary project coordinators are supervising classes.
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