Not even a hip new hashtag (#saveFCPS) can make budget cuts cool.
Superintendent Karen Garza, however, is trying to make the budget process more user-friendly. Last week she pledged to reduce class sizes, increase teacher pay and basically avoid drastic budget cuts.
Garza’s promise came after she commissioned a committee earlier this year to propose just those kinds of cuts. Garza’s committee introduced two new budget plans for the 2016-17 school year, each making significant cuts.
Garza, after seeing the carnage that would result from either proposal, apparently had a change of heart.
“I can no longer propose cuts,” Garza said at a news conference, “because by doing so, the implication is that I believe that cuts are appropriate, and they are simply not,” Garza said at a news conference
Just because Garza has switched gears and decided to pursue a budget without cuts, part or all of the budget-cut scenarios outlined by her committee could still take effect, changing FCPS as we now know it.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which ultimately will decide FCPS’s budget for next year, will make its decision later this spring.
While some proposals such as an increase in community use fees, won’t affect most FCPS students, the committee suggests some major proposals that will likely perturb students and parents. For example, both plans contain an increase in student parking fees from $200 to $300.
Cuts and additional fees that Garza rejected but which could still become part of FCPS’s budget for next year include charging fees for playing a high school sport and even eliminating all freshmen sports teams.
For athletes, playing one sport would carry a fee of $200. So for a three-season athlete, this adds up to $600 dollars, not to mention any additional costs.
FCPS did charge athletes $100 per sport during the 2004-2005 school year. The charges didn’t go over very well with the FCPS community; proposing to charge student athletes twice as much is, predictably, unpopular as well.
“I wouldn’t like that. You shouldn’t have to pay for sports,” said freshman Ben Hettle.
Both plans proposed by Garza’s committee also would include the elimination of freshman athletic teams. These can offer critical opportunities to acclimate new students to a different atmosphere and may discourage students from trying out a new sport.
“That puts a disadvantage for the sports teams because they can’t train students to be on junior varsity or varsity teams,” said freshman Carmen Tran.
Even more dramatically, one of the committee’s proposals would eliminate of one high school sport for both boys and girls entirely. Committee members estimated that these proposals would save FCPS $ 5.3 million.
Furthermore, the committee suggests that students pay for all of their AP exams, which are now free. Since each exam costs $92, taking a challenging course load could soon entail a challenging financial load as well.
“If they’re encouraging us to take APs and that’s what college admissions want to see, they should cover it,” said senior Jessica Rhee.
Another committee proposal suggests cutting late bus service, leaving those who need after-school assistance on their own to get home.
Obviously, there is a reason for these drastic measures and not-so-fun hashtags. The number of students enrolled in FCPS and the number of students receiving free and reduced price meals has grown. As a result, Virginia is ranked only 41 out of 50 for K-12 funding.
Currently, the FCPS budget only allows for renovations every 34 years, while the national average is nearly 10 years lower.
Garza, however, after reading the committee’s proposals, had a change of heart, and now believes FCPS can get by next year without budget cuts.
“Any of these next round of cuts, if necessary, will change the face of our school system, the very school system that is considered the foundation of Fairfax County and the very reason many families and businesses are here in this county,” Garza told those attending the news conference.