Fairfax County budget cuts for 2010-2011

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Great points. What is the cost for an IB student vs. and AP student?

http://www.ibo.org/diploma/services/

this powerpoint found via google explains some of the extra costs. It's more complex than AP:

http://www.edwatch.org/ppts/Eaton-IB-10-14-06.ppt

Thanks for the links. It looks like the major costs are for training teachers. So if the IB program were reduced, wouldn't all these already-trained IB teachers have to be retrained for AP anyway, so it would almost be a wash?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Great points. What is the cost for an IB student vs. and AP student?

http://www.ibo.org/diploma/services/

this powerpoint found via google explains some of the extra costs. It's more complex than AP:

http://www.edwatch.org/ppts/Eaton-IB-10-14-06.ppt

Thanks for the links. It looks like the major costs are for training teachers. So if the IB program were reduced, wouldn't all these already-trained IB teachers have to be retrained for AP anyway, so it would almost be a wash?

No. One can assume the teacher should be trained pre-IB or AP in specific content areas. This is high school. IB teacher training is not always local - no class at UVA in Falls Church nor in-house training done by existing MCPS or FCPS staff . It is a junket with hotels and flights. AP has no school annual fee, no course fee, no huge mailing fees, no extra staff requirement, etc. Plus AP costs per exam are lower .

[Anonymous]

don't cut band and strings. thats just horrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

don't cut band and strings. thats just horrible

The general consensus at Saturday's community budget meeting is that something has to be cut -- the question centered on what. It pitted band and strings parents against FLES parents against Full Day K parents.

[Anonymous]

Maybe people should talk to the County Board of Supervisors to allocate additional funds from the total budget (high pct. of the total) or to increase taxes or fees to cover the shortfall (increase the total). The school board works with the allocation provided by the Supervisors.

If these things are that important to us as parents, wouldn't we want to pay for it some how? If not taxes, then let's add fees to cover a portion or all of the costs. Growing up in the Midwest (Chicagoland) the concept that the school district pays for student's testing fees for IB /AP/etc. is, for me, a little crazy. Parents paid those. My school district there charged a base transportation fee if you elected to use the bus to go to school (income adjusted of course).

Again, these opportunities we want for our children are not free, if it is so important then those who have the means should step up to the plate for all student's families. Otherwise we'll turn into those DCPS schools in NW with PTA's running big budgets to make up for the difference in lost services.

[Anonymous]

Budget woes frustrate foreign language goals
In Fairfax schools, the debate becomes fundamentals vs. frills

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111603611.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Budget woes frustrate foreign language goals
In Fairfax schools, the debate becomes fundamentals vs. frills

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111603611.html

i saw in a prior post that the FX meeting pitted band & strings parents V full day kindergarten V foreign language. One year the county saved about 500,000 but spent more than 5 million more when it converted several schools [10?] from SACC to full day kindergarten. FX has about 31 Title 1 schools and about 50 to 53 schools classified as Virginia K through 3 reduced ratio schools. That means the state has had in place for years a specific demographic formula allocating extra funds to specific schools for smaller class sizes in grades kindergarten through third.

Unless a school had a big infusion of gifted that distorted the numbers for demographics this state formula works well as a identifier for schools that NEED full day kindergarten. FCPS did internal studies that showed full day only benefited specific groups academically. But many want a full day for child care purposes.

Don't bother arguing with me on the studies since they were valid. So many schools now have full day that the facilities are in place to have expanded SACC which is based on ability to pay.

There is no public information on per school music funding or programs. FLES and Immersion actual costs might be more than appear on the program budget. There also is no good public information on class sizes. Oddly I see NO strawman cuts on Focus schools.

[Anonymous]

I think they should cut out after-school sports, or charge students fees for them. I see no reason why I should fund football when I have to pay for my girls to take gymnastics and ballet. Those fields cost a lot to maintain. I would be happy to pay for soccer, football, lacrosse, etc. if my kids wanted to play a sport, but since they don't offer everything, then I think its unfair to offer some things for free, and not others. And yes, I realize this is probably inflamatory. God forbid our schools shouldn't have football! If the parents don't want to pay, let them join a biking club.

[Anonymous]

Here is additional information from the county: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/government/budget/

If you scroll down the page, you can find various briefings regarding the county's and schools' budgets.

I find some of their assumptions unusual. For example, they project that the school's population will increase by more than 5,000 students, although from FY00 to FY10 the student population only increased by 19,000 students. I am curious where this population increase is coming from.

I would like to see an analysis of the county and school budgets for the last 10 years. Where did the increase in revenues go every year when property values were skyrocketing? What new programs were funded and are they really necessary? Look at the actual expenditure and not just the titles. Are things being done in the most cost effective manner? For example, is it really necessary and cost effective to have a fleet of school security vehicles in addition to the resource officers already on site? How many vehicles does the county own and how are they used? How much does it cost to maintain them?

Budget cuts are tough, but I do think many of the proposed cuts seem to hit a lot of inflammatory subjects, with little benefit. For a deficit this big, I think they are going to have to close some schools. I also agree with instituting fees for transportation, testing, etc. Make them income adjusted and also work with the PTA's to help out those families with true needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they should cut out after-school sports, or charge students fees for them. I see no reason why I should fund football when I have to pay for my girls to take gymnastics and ballet. Those fields cost a lot to maintain. I would be happy to pay for soccer, football, lacrosse, etc. if my kids wanted to play a sport, but since they don't offer everything, then I think its unfair to offer some things for free, and not others. And yes, I realize this is probably inflamatory. God forbid our schools shouldn't have football! If the parents don't want to pay, let them join a biking club.

Football does have income from gate receipts. At some schools you will principals at the gate. I don't know where the cash goes or if it properly counted or if it is split between home and away teams. I think lacrosse also charges. By the time girls are in high school participation in gymnastics and dance really drops off.

I see nothing wrong with charging activity & athletic & exam fees on a sliding scale based on income. Also it might be possible to charge text book fees under Virginia law. A budget full fee problem in FCPS is IB since they put it in at schools primarily with lower socioeconomic groups. However it was also a way to keep higher income families in those schools and not pupil place out to AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I see nothing wrong with charging activity & athletic & exam fees on a sliding scale based on income. Also it might be possible to charge text book fees under Virginia law. A budget full fee problem in FCPS is IB since they put it in at schools primarily with lower socioeconomic groups. However it was also a way to keep higher income families in those schools and not pupil place out to AP.

If these schools didn't have IB, they'd have AP programs. The original idea was that the parents would think IB was better than the existing AP curriculum.

[Anonymous]

To fully fund the budget deficit, the real estate property tax rate would need to increase by $0.27 per $100 over the $1.04 existing rate.

The "average" bill would be roughly the same as last year if the tax rate increased $0.11 per $100.

[Anonymous]

It seems that the budget cuts are coming out of programs that directly affect our kids and not coming out of the administration or the Instructional Services Department.

Many of the School Board budget discusssion documents can be found on the School Board's website. Google FCPS School Board, scroll down to Board Doc's. Each of the meetings are listed on the left. If you click on the meeting, the agenda will show. When you click on the agenda, the documents will show on the right-hand side. Most of the detailed information is on the Work Session meetings, not the regular board meetings.

Many cuts that were being considered have fallen off the list such as busing, blackberry's, class size increase at TJ to bring it up to standard HS class size, etc.

FCPS did a slanted survey of the teachers but even then it is telling- less gadgets and support staff (instructional coaches) vs. increasing class size.

[Anonymous]

The school budget info is based on the transfer from the county being zero. It states that $23 million is being lost in state funding and that a portion is needed for an increase in students. What is the additional $70 million that they need for the pension plan?

[Anonymous]

Of the $162 million that FCPS is the deficit: $23 million is loss in state funding, $?? for additional students, $33 million due to various cost increases (not listed anywhere in detail) and $70 is for additional funding of the pensions.