The Fairfax County School Board has adopted the FY 2020 Advertised Budget of $3.0 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent, or $117.4 million, over the FY 2019 Approved Budget. The FY 2020 budget prioritizes employee compensation with a $55.2 million investment in teacher salary scales that includes a 1.0 percent market scale adjustment. The budget also includes $46.8 million for a step increase for eligible employees, and $8.2 million for a 1.0 percent market scale adjustment for non-teacher salary scale employees.
“The School Board’s Advertised Budget fulfills the Board’s commitment to bring teacher salaries to the market average,” said School Board Chair Karen Corbett Sanders. “The impact our teachers have on the lives of our students is immeasurable and we recognize that competitive compensation is a critical component in our effort to provide equity and excellence across our school division. Together with our energized recruiting strategy, offering competitive compensation should enable us to hire and retain the best teachers for our students. In doing so, we can keep the focus on our students, teachers, and classroom instruction.”
The School Board has scheduled two work sessions on April 29 and May 2 to further evaluate the budget amendments and follow-on motions.
The FY 2020 budget includes $46.8 million for a step increase for eligible employees; $8.2 million for non-teacher salary scale employees; $4.3 million to expand the FCPSOn program, providing one-to-one computing devices to high school students; an increase in substitute pay for retirees; and expansion of the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program at Key Middle, Herndon High, and a Title I elementary school to be named. The board also approved an additional $2.9 million for student mental health, student safety, and substance abuse prevention.
The budget assumes a slight decrease in student enrollment which will result in savings of $6.3 million. The Advertised Budget supports more than 188,000 students, nearly 200 schools and centers, and staffing of approximately 24,000 employees — with more than 93 percent of employees school-based.
The FCPS budget relies on the Fairfax County general fund transfer to provide the majority of the revenue needed; this year, FCPS is asking the county to provide 71.3 percent of the total revenue. This reliance on county funding is due to FCPS only receiving approximately half of the average state funding other Virginia jurisdictions receive. FCPS expects to receive 23.8 percent of its FY 2020 budget from the state in the form of state aid and sales tax revenue. Federal funding provides less than 2 percent of FCPS’ annual operating revenue.
The School Board will present its FY 2020 Advertised Budget to the Board of Supervisors on April 9, and is scheduled to take action on the FY 2020 Approved Budget at its May 23 meeting. FCPS’ FY 2020 begins July 1, 2019.
Information about relevant budget dates, along with updates and budget news, is available online at www.fcps.edu/about-fcpsbudget/budget-development-calendar.