How would you cut the budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eliminate free education for Illegal alien students (repeal the law that necessitates it).

I believe that was a court ruling and would be a federal decision either way.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't.
I'd raise taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't.
I'd raise taxes.

Sure. Psst...what part of "its not your money" do you not understand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't.
I'd raise taxes.

both will have to happen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

Congrats, you've cut 1% of the budget. What's next?

The reality is that the only way to substantially cut costs is to reduce the biggest part of the pie, which is in-school staff. Since nobody really wants to do that, we should just raise taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

Congrats, you've cut 1% of the budget. What's next?

The reality is that the only way to substantially cut costs is to reduce the biggest part of the pie, which is in-school staff. Since nobody really wants to do that, we should just raise taxes.

Is it even 1%?

[Anonymous]

- ES AAP centers (including the buses)
- get rid of AARTs in ES, replace them with a part time math specialist. Save on the other half salary.
- redundant warehouse staff who sit around and do little
- Get2Green department, “learning innovations” department, the crazy large ESOL office... get them back into schools. All nice to haves but not essential.
- everything DEI
- take a look at the crazy amounts of IT admins who haven’t set foot in a school in 30 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- ES AAP centers (including the buses)
- get rid of AARTs in ES, replace them with a part time math specialist. Save on the other half salary.
- redundant warehouse staff who sit around and do little
- Get2Green department, “learning innovations” department, the crazy large ESOL office... get them back into schools. All nice to haves but not essential.
- everything DEI
- take a look at the crazy amounts of IT admins who haven’t set foot in a school in 30 years

Forgot to add, and then raise taxes to get our frontline teachers and admins the salaries they deserve. The work gets harder every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eliminate transportation to AAP centers.

+1 million (and I'd add, cut AAP centers. Local Level IV at every school.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

Congrats, you've cut 1% of the budget. What's next?

The reality is that the only way to substantially cut costs is to reduce the biggest part of the pie, which is in-school staff. Since nobody really wants to do that, we should just raise taxes.

Is it even 1%?

Probably, if you truly Elon'd them. General support and facilities management (Gatehouse!) is 5.4% of the budget. There are 26,000 FTEs in FCPS, 1895 of which are non-school based. Teachers and IAs make up ~19,000 total.

The 1895 can be broken down here on page 176 of the .pdf (164 of the document) https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY-2026-Proposed-Budget.pdf

[Anonymous]

I would cut all sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut all DEI personnel and programs immediately.

So you mean to cut special education?

They're already doing this by pushing for more inclusion and fewer self contained classes. It will be piloted at a couple schools next year and then will probably expand. The consultants who are shilling for the idea aren't free but they're selling it well and Reid is fully on board.

[Anonymous]

1. Cut the number of administrative staff at Gatehouse and at each school. Too many vice-principals who each have a myriad of staff.

2. Cut the amount of tech in schools - kids should not have a one-to-one laptop. Kids who need it can take laptop home but no need to give one to each kid and no laptops or ipads at the elementary age at all. That will reduce number of tech staff as well.

3. Cut the edtech programming subscriptions. Lexia, Prodigy, IXL, ST Math ... I could go on and on. Each subscriptions costs money every year. Buy textbooks that you can reuse year after year.

4. Cut DEI - I know what you are thinking. I'm super liberal but I don't believe in jobs that don't have any metrics that you can pinpoint to - what does the head of DEI do actually on a day to day basis? If there is an actual thing that will help disadvantaged kids, I'm all for it. I just don't see that happening anywhere in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Also, agree with cutting transportation to AAP centers and specialized schools - if you want to go to TJ, get yourself there.

And no need to hire specialized math teachers for the 4 kids that are taking invariant calculus. If your kid wants to take advanced math, she can take it online or at the local community college.

[Anonymous]

Quit paying contractors for studies like BRAC. It will cost milllions by the time they are finished. They've likely spent at least $1million already.

Adjust the boundaries of schools that really need it--like Coates. This is not rocket science and could be adjusted with surrounding schools that share boundaries with little change.
This could easily be done in house with small adjustments.

Stop the idiotic county wide boundary study which has likely already cost FVCPS $1million.

Greatly reduce top tier executives at Gatehouse. Check out the top salaries.

Get rid of IB. It is more expensive than AP and less flexible. I don't see how they can consider any high school boundary changes while we have two very different programs in high schools. It allows for unnecessary Pupil placement.

Do a deep dive on how much is being spent on unnecessary materials.
Ask the teachers--not the specialists--what they need in the classroom.