All that DRAMA and now a $34M slush fund at FCPS

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why class sizes must be increased but now FCPS reports that there is $33.9M "left-over" at the end of the year (June 30). I also don't understand how FCPS can retain these funds as per VA law it must return unused funds to the County for them to be reallocated. So, as usual, we have FCPS crying about their need for more money and then we find they are simply hoarding cash to spend without oversight or public attention. It's particularly bad this year as they decided to increase class sizes, ostensibly to save money.

To see the document go to: http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto? and look in the agenda for the Final Budget Review - see Kristen Michael's comments or open the pdf (at the bottom) for the full variance report.

There is a full day work session of the School Board tomorrow at Gatehouse and this subject is scheduled from 11 - 1pm..

[Anonymous]

I thought they recently spent a good amount of time the slush fund. So rebuilding it isn't a bad thing.

Fairfax county has very low property taxes and no meals tax. Still.

[Anonymous]

Frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Every year this happens and every year the school board cries wolf and makes baseless threats. The BOS doesn't need to raise taxes because they know exactly what the school board is up to. And the false claims of poverty are why there won't be a meals tax either. Voters aren't that dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every year this happens and every year the school board cries wolf and makes baseless threats. The BOS doesn't need to raise taxes because they know exactly what the school board is up to. And the false claims of poverty are why there won't be a meals tax either. Voters aren't that dumb.

No Virginia county has a meals tax. All of the incorporated areas do. It doesn't mean that voters are smart or dumb. It means that unless Fairfax incorporates (which isn't going to happen for external reasons), a meals tax won't pass.

[Anonymous]

OP, you're an idiot. Get your calculator out.
The FY2017 budget was $2,665,000,000. At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, there was $33,000,000 left over. That was due to things like energy costs not being what they predicted they might be.

So let's see by what percentage of the total budget did FCPS miss the mark? Type in 33,000,000. Now hit the divide button because you're trying to figure out what part of the entire budget was not spent. Now type in 2,665,000,000.

Multiple that answer by 100. That is the percentage of the budget that FCPS has leftover and will carry forward to future budgets. That is the percentage by which FCPS missed the mark.

For those playing along at home without a calculator, the grand total is a whopping ONE PERCENT.

In layman's terms, that would be the same as if you budgeted $1000 to go on your family vacation, and at the end of the trip, you laid out all your receipts and realized you'd actually underspent by $10. TEN DOLLARS. That is ONE PERCENT of your total vacation budget that was leftover.

[Anonymous]

It would be nice if some of that were used so my kids didn't have to be in 31-student classes for 5th and 6th grade.... both kids... two different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why class sizes must be increased but now FCPS reports that there is $33.9M "left-over" at the end of the year (June 30). I also don't understand how FCPS can retain these funds as per VA law it must return unused funds to the County for them to be reallocated. So, as usual, we have FCPS crying about their need for more money and then we find they are simply hoarding cash to spend without oversight or public attention. It's particularly bad this year as they decided to increase class sizes, ostensibly to save money.

To see the document go to: http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto? and look in the agenda for the Final Budget Review - see Kristen Michael's comments or open the pdf (at the bottom) for the full variance report.

There is a full day work session of the School Board tomorrow at Gatehouse and this subject is scheduled from 11 - 1pm..

And, three hours of the day is being devoted to renaming Stuart High.

Tom Davis had an opinion piece in the WAPO today. He gave some good reasons for the Board to vote against it--but, I suspect that our Board members will vote for the change.

Here is some more information: www.stuartfacts.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're an idiot. Get your calculator out.
The FY2017 budget was $2,665,000,000. At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, there was $33,000,000 left over. That was due to things like energy costs not being what they predicted they might be.

So let's see by what percentage of the total budget did FCPS miss the mark? Type in 33,000,000. Now hit the divide button because you're trying to figure out what part of the entire budget was not spent. Now type in 2,665,000,000.

Multiple that answer by 100. That is the percentage of the budget that FCPS has leftover and will carry forward to future budgets. That is the percentage by which FCPS missed the mark.

For those playing along at home without a calculator, the grand total is a whopping ONE PERCENT.

In layman's terms, that would be the same as if you budgeted $1000 to go on your family vacation, and at the end of the trip, you laid out all your receipts and realized you'd actually underspent by $10. TEN DOLLARS. That is ONE PERCENT of your total vacation budget that was leftover.

That's nice, but FCPS continually whines that they are underfunded.

They clearly aren't.

In fact, it appears they are very good at estimating.

So, they should stop crying wolf, because they end the year with surpluses year after year.

[Anonymous]

The reason this happens is that they are appropriately conservative on where our money is going. $34M is within appropriate parameters to make sure you are on target for budget without over spending. It makes me feel good that they can get it that close and not be in the hole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why class sizes must be increased but now FCPS reports that there is $33.9M "left-over" at the end of the year (June 30). I also don't understand how FCPS can retain these funds as per VA law it must return unused funds to the County for them to be reallocated. So, as usual, we have FCPS crying about their need for more money and then we find they are simply hoarding cash to spend without oversight or public attention. It's particularly bad this year as they decided to increase class sizes, ostensibly to save money.

To see the document go to: http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto? and look in the agenda for the Final Budget Review - see Kristen Michael's comments or open the pdf (at the bottom) for the full variance report.

There is a full day work session of the School Board tomorrow at Gatehouse and this subject is scheduled from 11 - 1pm..

And, three hours of the day is being devoted to renaming Stuart High.

Tom Davis had an opinion piece in the WAPO today. He gave some good reasons for the Board to vote against it--but, I suspect that our Board members will vote for the change.

Here is some more information: www.stuartfacts.com

Well, if they do the name change, there's $1M of the surplus wasted on a pointless exercise.

Another example wants vs needs. If they didn't have the surplus, the name change wouldn't even be a discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're an idiot. Get your calculator out.
The FY2017 budget was $2,665,000,000. At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, there was $33,000,000 left over. That was due to things like energy costs not being what they predicted they might be.

So let's see by what percentage of the total budget did FCPS miss the mark? Type in 33,000,000. Now hit the divide button because you're trying to figure out what part of the entire budget was not spent. Now type in 2,665,000,000.

Multiple that answer by 100. That is the percentage of the budget that FCPS has leftover and will carry forward to future budgets. That is the percentage by which FCPS missed the mark.

For those playing along at home without a calculator, the grand total is a whopping ONE PERCENT.

In layman's terms, that would be the same as if you budgeted $1000 to go on your family vacation, and at the end of the trip, you laid out all your receipts and realized you'd actually underspent by $10. TEN DOLLARS. That is ONE PERCENT of your total vacation budget that was leftover.

That's nice, but FCPS continually whines that they are underfunded.

They clearly aren't.

In fact, it appears they are very good at estimating.

So, they should stop crying wolf, because they end the year with surpluses year after year.

You want them to budget the money they have this way. We want them to have a very small surplus like this. It shows excellent money management. We are underfunded because they have cut in places that I and many others feel need to be funded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why class sizes must be increased but now FCPS reports that there is $33.9M "left-over" at the end of the year (June 30). I also don't understand how FCPS can retain these funds as per VA law it must return unused funds to the County for them to be reallocated. So, as usual, we have FCPS crying about their need for more money and then we find they are simply hoarding cash to spend without oversight or public attention. It's particularly bad this year as they decided to increase class sizes, ostensibly to save money.

To see the document go to: http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto? and look in the agenda for the Final Budget Review - see Kristen Michael's comments or open the pdf (at the bottom) for the full variance report.

There is a full day work session of the School Board tomorrow at Gatehouse and this subject is scheduled from 11 - 1pm..

And, three hours of the day is being devoted to renaming Stuart High.

Tom Davis had an opinion piece in the WAPO today. He gave some good reasons for the Board to vote against it--but, I suspect that our Board members will vote for the change.

Here is some more information: www.stuartfacts.com

There have been many other budget-related work sessions leading up to the adoption of the FY 2018 budget.

I hope they change the Stuart name. It's embarrassing in 2017 to have one of our high schools named after a Confederate general who did nothing in his life to promote reconciliation.

I haven't paid much attention to Tom Davis since he hooked up with Jeanmarie Devolites, a "family values" politician who left behind her own husband and family to marry Davis.

The "Stuartfacts.com" web is Daily Caller/Brietbart-quality nonsense, full of ridiculous claims, such as the suggestion that Stuart was a "Union Army" hero. Really? And I really could care less if he wrote poems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're an idiot. Get your calculator out.
The FY2017 budget was $2,665,000,000. At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, there was $33,000,000 left over. That was due to things like energy costs not being what they predicted they might be.

So let's see by what percentage of the total budget did FCPS miss the mark? Type in 33,000,000. Now hit the divide button because you're trying to figure out what part of the entire budget was not spent. Now type in 2,665,000,000.

Multiple that answer by 100. That is the percentage of the budget that FCPS has leftover and will carry forward to future budgets. That is the percentage by which FCPS missed the mark.

For those playing along at home without a calculator, the grand total is a whopping ONE PERCENT.

In layman's terms, that would be the same as if you budgeted $1000 to go on your family vacation, and at the end of the trip, you laid out all your receipts and realized you'd actually underspent by $10. TEN DOLLARS. That is ONE PERCENT of your total vacation budget that was leftover.

That's nice, but FCPS continually whines that they are underfunded.

They clearly aren't.

In fact, it appears they are very good at estimating.

So, they should stop crying wolf, because they end the year with surpluses year after year.

You want them to budget the money they have this way. We want them to have a very small surplus like this. It shows excellent money management. We are underfunded because they have cut in places that I and many others feel need to be funded.

So, fund them. Send in your check right now, they will happily spend it.

Send it to the Fairfax County Treasurer or the link below. Put your money where your mouth is.

https://fcpsfoundation.z2systems.com/np/clients/fcpsfoundation/donation.jsp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're an idiot. Get your calculator out.
The FY2017 budget was $2,665,000,000. At the end of the fiscal year on June 30, there was $33,000,000 left over. That was due to things like energy costs not being what they predicted they might be.

So let's see by what percentage of the total budget did FCPS miss the mark? Type in 33,000,000. Now hit the divide button because you're trying to figure out what part of the entire budget was not spent. Now type in 2,665,000,000.

Multiple that answer by 100. That is the percentage of the budget that FCPS has leftover and will carry forward to future budgets. That is the percentage by which FCPS missed the mark.

For those playing along at home without a calculator, the grand total is a whopping ONE PERCENT.

In layman's terms, that would be the same as if you budgeted $1000 to go on your family vacation, and at the end of the trip, you laid out all your receipts and realized you'd actually underspent by $10. TEN DOLLARS. That is ONE PERCENT of your total vacation budget that was leftover.

That's nice, but FCPS continually whines that they are underfunded.

They clearly aren't.

In fact, it appears they are very good at estimating.

So, they should stop crying wolf, because they end the year with surpluses year after year.

You want them to budget the money they have this way. We want them to have a very small surplus like this. It shows excellent money management. We are underfunded because they have cut in places that I and many others feel need to be funded.

So, fund them. Send in your check right now, they will happily spend it.

Send it to the Fairfax County Treasurer or the link below. Put your money where your mouth is.

https://fcpsfoundation.z2systems.com/np/clients/fcpsfoundation/donation.jsp

I already have in other ways.