How would you cut the budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS teacher here.

Here are my top things to be cut.

1)Instructional Coaches. The SB asked how much this would save two years ago at it was about 28 million dollars.
2) Cut Equity Department. I believe it still should exist but does not need 60 or so people working there.
3) AAP Centers - not needed if all schools offer.
4) AP/IB- stop paying for these tests for kids unless FRM. Also go to AP only at all high schools.
5) Cut down on leadership positions.
6) Would cut the 6th grade Art field trips cause they are not very good. Not sure that will save a ton.
7) Reid’s security and SB assistants- self explanatory.
8) Cut FLES unless immersion programming.

I would keep the following:
Special Ed Leads, AARTS, SBTS These positions work directly with kids and make workload more manageable for teachers.

Things we can do to raise revenue/decrease spending.

Minimal fees for sports in high school. Increase parking at high school level minimally. Get rid if paying AP/IB tests. Community Use fees(again minimal).
Cut down ACE programming.

I would start there and then see how much of a shortfall we are in.

This is a good list. I'd also cut "Dean of Students" positions.

There are also a lot of people whose jobs are justified by curriculum changing every few years. When a curriculum works, stick with it. That would eliminate the need for several positions at Gatehouse or Willow Oaks. While that might only save $500,000 to $2 million, every little bit helps when there is such a huge budget shortfall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS teacher here.

Here are my top things to be cut.

1)Instructional Coaches. The SB asked how much this would save two years ago at it was about 28 million dollars.
2) Cut Equity Department. I believe it still should exist but does not need 60 or so people working there.
3) AAP Centers - not needed if all schools offer.
4) AP/IB- stop paying for these tests for kids unless FRM. Also go to AP only at all high schools.
5) Cut down on leadership positions.
6) Would cut the 6th grade Art field trips cause they are not very good. Not sure that will save a ton.
7) Reid’s security and SB assistants- self explanatory.
8) Cut FLES unless immersion programming.

I would keep the following:
Special Ed Leads, AARTS, SBTS These positions work directly with kids and make workload more manageable for teachers.

Things we can do to raise revenue/decrease spending.

Minimal fees for sports in high school. Increase parking at high school level minimally. Get rid if paying AP/IB tests. Community Use fees(again minimal).
Cut down ACE programming.

I would start there and then see how much of a shortfall we are in.

This is a good list. I'd also cut "Dean of Students" positions.

There are also a lot of people whose jobs are justified by curriculum changing every few years. When a curriculum works, stick with it. That would eliminate the need for several positions at Gatehouse or Willow Oaks. While that might only save $500,000 to $2 million, every little bit helps when there is such a huge budget shortfall.

Good ideas.

[Anonymous]

I think the State of Virginia needs to intervene and appropriate staff accordingly.

I’m about done dealing with Reid getting away with whatever she wants or fantasizes over.

If she leaves and we get a superintendent and staff who care less about money and more about students, I would love nothing less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Gatehouse” is code for central office.
The general public doesn’t know about Willow Oaks.

They do have a sweet break/get away room (or whatever they call it). Does FCPS rent or own their space at Willow Oaks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make good decisions up front and save a lot of money on legal fees.

Cut gatehouse staff precipitously.

Stop wasting money on trend of the day curriculums.

Don’t survey if you are not going to listen.

Stop wasting money on consultants and boundary studies that won’t solve real problems.

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Gatehouse” is code for central office.
The general public doesn’t know about Willow Oaks.

They do have a sweet break/get away room (or whatever they call it). Does FCPS rent or own their space at Willow Oaks?

I know nothing about Willow Oaks. What is its function? Who works there?

[Anonymous]

I'd prefer that we collectively pay more local Fairfax County taxes than that we cut funding for our public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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%?

We don’t know because they are not transparent about the budget and manipulate the numbers to hide how much admin is really costing. Admin costs a lot more than FCPS is making it out to be, all kinds of costs are getting lumped in with costs that are actually for students in the classroom. Before anyone can make suggestions about cuts, the public needs real transparency about what the taxpayer money is currently being spent on, not a bunch of manipulated numbers and data on costs lumped into categories where those costs don’t belong.

All the GAC admins have an AA and staff, it has to be more than 1%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd prefer that we collectively pay more local Fairfax County taxes than that we cut funding for our public schools.

Yes, let's throw more money at a dying and dysfunctional enterprise!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Gatehouse” is code for central office.
The general public doesn’t know about Willow Oaks.

They do have a sweet break/get away room (or whatever they call it). Does FCPS rent or own their space at Willow Oaks?

I know nothing about Willow Oaks. What is its function? Who works there?

It’s an administrative center. I’m not sure which departments are located there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd prefer that we collectively pay more local Fairfax County taxes than that we cut funding for our public schools.

Oh, you'll be doing that anyway. This is just an effort to keep those property tax increases a little lower.

[Anonymous]

Cut the following school based positions:

- Instructional coaches
- Literacy coaches (keep reading teachers who do intervention)
- Math coaches
- Dean of Students

So now allow principals to buy these positions (which create a level of middle management below admin) by trading SpED or specialist staffing money

One AP per elementary school

NO MORE TEXtBOOk CONTRACTS that don’t actually involve textbooks. Literally no one uses electronic textbooks and that’s millions of dollars.

Look into our huge contracts for Schoology and other platforms. (Blackboard years ago was straight up robbery.) 90% of what we use Schoology for could be Google Classroom.

Middle middle management: get rid of School Board member staff, 20% of Gatehosue staff, and all executive principals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cut the following school based positions:

- Instructional coaches
- Literacy coaches (keep reading teachers who do intervention)
- Math coaches
- Dean of Students

So now allow principals to buy these positions (which create a level of middle management below admin) by trading SpED or specialist staffing money

One AP per elementary school

NO MORE TEXtBOOk CONTRACTS that don’t actually involve textbooks. Literally no one uses electronic textbooks and that’s millions of dollars.

Look into our huge contracts for Schoology and other platforms. (Blackboard years ago was straight up robbery.) 90% of what we use Schoology for could be Google Classroom.

Middle middle management: get rid of School Board member staff, 20% of Gatehosue staff, and all executive principals.

Sorry for typos…I meant DO NOT ALLOW principals to buy those positions by reducing SpED or specialist staffing. Admin just want middle managers to do their jobs. And some grade levels are dependent on coaches to prep for weekly CLT meetings but if we stop changing the entire curriculum for a year or two that shouldn’t be necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS teacher here. This is what I would cut:

1) Reid’s security detail & School Board staff - sets the tone that these cuts are necessary and affecting everyone
2) 75% reduction in needs based extra staffing for low income / high esol schools.
3) All support positions on teacher contracts that do not have classes of students (examples are academic coaches, SOSA and dean positions, special ed department chairs, testing coordinators)
4) DO NOT OPEN A NEW HS that will have additional operating and staffing costs in a terrible budget year
5) Decrease the length of the teacher contract by 1 or 2 days and make all AP positions 11 month instead of 12

I think the whole of FCPS has become one self -serving mess.

I think the SB makes decisions that are almost completely self serving and political in nature, doing things that will help them move up in the political system (moving to local and state gov't positions), these usually do not align with putting children first. I think Reid is the tool that they use to do these things.

I think gatehouse is full of people trying to justify their high pay and job titles. They are constantly reinventing school policies to keep themselves employed, which usually does not align with putting children first.

I think the schools are full of Principals that want to move up the FCPS hierarchy, and create local policies that will make themselves look good so that they can beef up their resume to move on to gatehouse.

And I think there are teachers that are tired of all of the self serving, politicized nonsense that is being put in place by the people who are in charge and have checked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd prefer that we collectively pay more local Fairfax County taxes than that we cut funding for our public schools.

If that money were allocated to actually help the students and school-based teachers, I'd agree. However, money is being used for upper management and non-school- based positions that have minimal impact on bettering students' education or helping teachers.

Having an entire department of people whose job is to train teachers how to run meetings with other teachers is a complete waste of money. Having an entire department whose job is to visit schools and tell teachers how to write better goals on their whiteboard is a complete waste of money.