School Board Proposes 5 Percent Cut in Overall Budget
By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF
March 3, 2010
The Falls Church City School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to propose a budget for the 2011 fiscal year that is 5 percent lower than the current year’s. The FY 2011 proposal is for $37.7 million, compared with $39.8 million in FY 2010.
The budget request would require a City tax allocation of $28.3 million, with the remainder of funds coming from state and federal sources and fees such as food and day care services. Last year, City taxes totaling $29.6 million were transferred to the Schools budget. This year’s request for City tax is $1.3 million (4.5 percent) less than last year’s final budget.
In a significant change from Superintendent Lois Berlin’s “Tier 2″ recommendation, the Board restored the two teacher work days that were to have been cut to save $246,000. This means that teachers would not have their salaries reduced for not working those two days. And in a last-minute proposal by Berlin, one of the work days would be converted to a normal school day.
The FY 2011 Schools budget contains the following three main components. (Shown in parentheses are the amounts coming from City taxes.)
Operating Fund — $34,865,300 ($27,861,800)
Community Services (day care, etc.) — $1,861,400 ($425,800)
Food Service — $934,500 ($0)
For the Operating Fund, the Board voted for some $600,000 of cuts greater than the “Tier 2″ proposal from Superintendent Berlin. Doing so brought the total Operating Fund budget under $35 million, which Board members agreed was significant.
Board members emphasized that their decisions were strongly influenced by community input urging that cuts be kept “away from the classroom.” Staffing cuts were confined to one central office administrator, one full time and six part time professional and instructional support staff positions, and two full time and two part time support staff positions. In addition, three 12- month positions were reduced to 10 or 11 months, and some support staff positions lost up to four days in planning time.
The Board also moved to further consolidate services with the City government. This means the elimination of the position of communications director, held by Karen Acar. Remaining Schools communications staff will report to the City’s communications director, Barbara Gordon, and/or Superintendent Berlin.
Another issue discussed at length was whether to eliminate the elementary school predecessor to the IB Program, known as PYP (Primary Years Program). Ultimately the Board agreed to put PYP on “pause” but to continue to pay annual enrollment fees, thereby saving $14,000 and the ability to easily resume the program in the future.
The largest single budget cut was a reduction in retirement contributions of nearly $1 million. However, health insurance contributions increased by $227,000.
Not included in the Schools budget is the debt service for school bonds, which is part of the City’s general fund expense. Debt service for school bonds in FY 2010 was $3.5 million.
The ball is now in City Manager Wyatt Shields’ court, as he prepares an overall budget recommendation to submit to City Council on March 8. The recommendation will include a “transfer” amount to the Schools budget.
The final budget will be approved by City Council on April 26.
By Falls Church Times Staff
March 3, 2010
“Ultimately the Board agreed to put PYP on “pause” but to continue to pay annual enrollment fees, thereby saving $14,000 and the ability to easily resume the program in the future.”
WHAT? The annual enrollment fee for the IB PYP is currently $7,000. According to IBO rules:
http://www.ibo.org/become/guidance/documents/pyprules.PDF
Article 10: Termination by schools
A school may terminate its authorization to teach the PYP by giving six months’ notice, to take effect from the
beginning of the next school year. Fees remain payable to the IB Organization until the teaching has ended.
There is absolutely no clause regarding “not teaching IB” – but remaining “authorized”. You can’t do that. You’re either IB, or you’re not. Which means that this Board voted on a fallacy. If it wants to “re-establish” the IB PYP in future years, it will need to go through the entire application ($17,000) and IB teacher training process ($60,000+) to become “re-authorized”.
Just a clarification- the school is not “authorized” yet and has not even submitted the complete application. It is not teaching under the program. What the board did involves the payments required to remain an active applicant. The board decided to delay this process by one year. When the budget was approved a follow up item was already noted to confirm the numbers and that the school would have to pay the complete amount the following year when it starts the application process again.
One more clarification:
I have received some questions about the actual budget numbers. The amount listed in this article is correct as a total, but it includes the complete budget. The breakdown is:
$34,865,300 operating budget, requiring a transfer of $27,861.800 from the city
$934,500 food service budget, no transfer from the city involved
$1,861,400 community services budget, with a $425,800 city transfer
If you want to see the complete list of what was cut or added to the budget compared to last year, see
http://www.fccps.org/board/budget/fy11/AdjustmentstoFY11FCCPSBudget.pdf
(EDITORS’ RESPONSE: Thank you, Chairman Peppe, for confirming that the amount shown in the above report is correct. We would only note that the “breakdown” you list is identical to what also appears in the story above, beginning at the fourth paragraph.)
Ron,
Thank you for your clarification. The IBO authorization process generally takes two years and consists of Application A & B. Each section requires the remittance of $8,500 (total $17,000). If a district wishes to “extend” the authorization period, there is an additional $5,000 fee. During this 2-3 year process, the district agrees to provide its teachers with IB training. The cost to train an IB teacher averages $1,500, per teacher, per 3 day session. There are 3 levels of training. I still fail to see how the district is in any way “saving” $14,000.