FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand revealed the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 for the tenth-largest school district in the nation on Jan. 11, outlining $2.9 billion in spending. The amount of money in the proposed budget reflects a 4.3 percent increase from the fiscal year 2018 budget, with the increases being driven by a renewed effort to increase teacher compensation and rising health care costs.

“His [The superintendent’s] number one priority is teacher pay,” school board chair Jane Strauss said. “Quality of your instruction is absolutely dependent on the quality of teaching in your classroom. Being able to pay people more, being able to treat people as professionals [is necessary.]”

Brabrand emphasized the need for community stakeholders to be active participants in this year’s budget discussions.

“I believe our community is willing to pay more for great teachers…I think our community can and will step up because they recognize what the value of good teaching is,” Brabrand said in a student journalist press conference on Oct. 24.

Teachers with Masters’ degrees and five to 15 years of experience are particularly vulnerable to leaving FCPS for other counties, since their pay is below the market average for the region. The proposed budget aims to increase compensation for these teachers to market average, while also implementing pay scales for non-teacher employees.

“Classroom to classroom, there are more great teachers in Fairfax County than anywhere else. And to get great teachers and keep them, we’ve got to pay them well,” Brabrand said at the October press conference.

In addition, the proposed FY 2019 budget makes no cuts to programs, instead utilizing efficiencies and reorganization to reduce spending.

“I’m not adding other programs. I’m not looking to add or cut any other programs,” Brabrand said.

Though the proposed budget provides a general outline of the school system’s priorities for the next fiscal year, the document must go through many revisions, public hearings and school board work sessions before it is finally approved in May. One complicating factor that may affect the budget is the new federal tax bill signed in December.

“We’re still trying to figure out the impacts of the federal budget just passed. We believe there will be negative impacts on funding to schools,” Strauss said.

FCPS receives over 70 percent of its funding from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. In other Virginia subdivisions, over 50 percent of funding comes from the state itself. Strauss said that the state outlook will also complicate the budgetary process. 

“Our primary ask of the state is more money for education,” Strauss said. “We hope the budget for next year will be a little bit better and meet all of our needs.”