Schools Provide Data, Talking Points for Budget Discussion

Falls Church City School officials have provided talking points and data for City Council in response to Mayor Robin Gardner’s proposal to reduce the 2010 school budget by $170,000 to restore two city government positions.

The City Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23, to hear public comment on proposed cuts to the schools and other programs.

At Monday night’s City Council session, Councilman David Snyder asked school officials to provide more information on the impact of a $170,000 budget reduction on school operations. He also asked school representatives to encourage residents to share their views.

The 2010 school budget will be among the lowest in years as a percentage of the overall City budget: 40.8 percent. The current year percentage is 39.3 percent, the first time in recent years it has dipped below 40 percent of the City budget. The school budget has generally remained around 41 percent of the City budget, with variations of up to 44.4 percent in 2002 and down to 40.4 percent in 2006.

The City and school budget figures for 2001-2010 are as follows:

Year             City Total Budget      Transfer to Schools             School Transfer as % of Total

FY2001        $37,517,267              $15,688,143                      41.8%

FY2002        $41,043,931              $18,209,736                      44.4%

FY2003        $45,722,529              $19,430,187                      42.5%

FY2004        $48,543,560              $21,159,675                      43.6%

FY2005        $55,444,555              $22,781,478                      41.1%

FY2006        $62,088,445              $25,107,302                       40.4%

FY2007         $67,036,258             $27,652,094                       41.2%

FY2008          $70,790,648            $29,076,300                        41.1%

FY2009          $76,621,966            $30,117,600                        39.3%

FY2010           $72,585,677           $29,624,825                        40.8%

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

In addition to the school budget data, Superintendent Lois Berlin provided the following talking points:

• In our last work session with City Council on the School Board’s budget (April 2, 2009), a request was made by Council members for background information that could help them explain why school employees could receive any improvement in compensation when general government employees will experience a salary freeze. Listed below in bulleted form are a number of reasons and data points to help explain why, in such tough times, school employees will receive a raise.

• The schools are a critical economic engine for the City’s economy.

• Because of our schools’ reputation, people pay 10-15% more for housing in the City than in the surrounding areas. This adds revenue to our City coffers.
• Hiring and keeping the best staff is key to our continued excellence and reputation. All of our staff members interface and are responsible for the health, safety and education of our children.

• For a number of years, we have been hampered in our efforts to hire the best staff in hard to hire areas such as math, science and special education and we have lost candidates for these positions because our pay scales are lower than our neighbors in Arlington and Alexandria and were lower than Fairfax and Loudoun with whom we compete.

• We have begun to make progress with our scales but continue to be behind at least two neighbors (Arlington and Alexandria) by significant amounts. The result is that a teacher who has worked with us for 10 years can leave us and go to Arlington and make $13,000 more a year or to Alexandria and make $10,000 more a year. Our turnover of 25-35 teachers each year is due, in part, to pursuit of higher salaries OR more affordable housing.

• In many cases, our pay is below average, not above average or the best. Our goal is to get our salaries to a fair rate and the modest amount proposed helps us minimally to do that and, more importantly, keeps us from sliding further back.

• The forecast for the economy could result in this being the last raise for school employees for years to come.

• Additional points can be made about general government employees and school employees:

• General government and school employees are paid differently and always have been because the jobs they do and their missions are different.

• General government employees are compensated similarly to their general government peers in Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria while school employees are paid similarly to their peers in our neighboring school divisions.
   
• There is a difference in how general government and school employees are paid salary and benefits. For example, school employees pay 5% more than general government employees for their health insurance. This is because the School Board pays 75% of employee health insurance costs for school employees whereas the City Council pays 80% of health insurance costs for general government employees. 

• There is precedent of paying general government and school employees differently. Both Arlington and Alexandria are giving raises to school staff but not to general government staff next year.

• The School Board reduced staffing by 8 full time positions for the 2008-2009 budget. Despite growth in enrollment numbers, additional staff has not been added. In fact, a .5 position was cut from the Superintendent’s proposed budget.

Thursday night’s Council meeting is at City Hall Council Chambers at 7:30 p.m. Information on contacting individual City Council members is available here.

(Gardner photo: Washington Post)