School board District Representative Jane Strauss and McLean principal Ellen Reilly spoke to parents about the future of McLean High School and the state of Fairfax County Public Schools on Wednesday, March 25, focusing on FCPS’s budget and the Capital Improvement Plan.

Strauss said that the power to determine FCPS’s budget each year is dependent upon the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (BOS), whom does not guarantee increased funding to match increased needs.

“We do not get an automatic escalator each year in our budget [to match growth in student enrollment],” Strauss said. “We have to put forth a needs-based budget, and then it’s up to the Board of Supervisors to determine how much money we’re gonna get.”

Strauss additionally discussed the role of the state of Virginia in funding schools.

“The state is funding below levels they funded before the recession,” she said. “Virginia traditionally does not contribute a lot to its education systems.”

Strauss said that the state is required to fund 55 percent of the “true cost of education,” but there is uncertainty about whether the state fully recognizes what that cost is. Overall, Strauss said that FCPS receives 73 percent of its budget from real estate taxes, less than 20 percent from the state, and a very small amount from the federal government.

“It is basically from the local revenue source,” she said.

Funding difficulties caused by the recession have forced FCPS to make a number of changes.

“Since the beginning of the recession, we have grown by about 22,000 students. We have cut half a billion dollars, and we have cut 2,100 positions. We have raised class sizes three times,” Strauss said.

Additionally, she said there have been challenges in maintaining teacher salaries, which, especially for FCPS’s experienced teachers, are no longer competitive.

“We have frozen salaries — our teacher salaries we are very, very concerned about,” she sad. “A teacher here at McLean can go teach at Yorktown and earn $15,000 more to do the same thing.”

Reilly also expressed concern about the impacts of low salaries.

“I’ve had five [McLean teachers] come to me in two weeks telling me they’re moving away because they cannot afford to stay and teach in this area..I’ve never had this [many] leave,” she said. “They’re just saying that they can’t do this anymore, and it’s impacting us, it’s a huge impact.”

Both Strauss and Reilly stressed the importance of good teachers to FCPS students.

“In Fairfax County, the quality of the classroom is dependent on the quality of the teachers, period,” Strauss said. “And we cannot afford to let our salaries get as low as [they are].”

Although teachers are expected to receive a 3.5 percent pay increase next year, Strauss said that this amount is not nearly enough.

“It will not put us where we need to be competitively with the surrounding districts,” she said. “We need to fund this pay increase, and the year after that and [so forth].”

Next year, $5 million will be allotted to adjusting to later start times, and between $3 and $4 million will go to keeping elementary school class sizes under 30 students.

“We’ve got about 58 of our elementary schools that we just simply don’t have enough teachers..to keep those class sizes at a more manageable place,” Strauss said.

The Capital Improvement Plan, updated annually, outlines upcoming construction and renovation projects within the county. Strauss said that projects that increase the capacity of schools reduce the funding needed for trailers.

“Trailers come from the operating budget and it’s competing with teacher positions,” she said.

Currently, FCPS is working to add classrooms to schools without renovating when possible, and is pursuing projects such as building a new elementary school and developing an Advanced Academic Program at Cooper Middle School to mitigate overcrowding at Longfellow, which is an AAP magnet school.

With over 90 percent of school age children in Fairfax County attending public school, Strauss and Reilly emphasized goals of continuing to offer high quality education to students.

“Truthfully, class size doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters for your child’s education is excellent teachers,” Reilly said.

Strauss said that everyone should be committed to helping fund public education.

“Regardless of how many families currently have children in schools, they all went to school,” she said. “Somebody paid for you, it’s time to pay [back].”

Strauss said that she encourages the community to get involved through methods such as writing letters to the BOS and attending the Invest in Fairfax Rally, Wednesday, April 8 prior to a public hearing on the the BOS’s Budget Hearing.

“I think they can fund us this time,” Strauss said. “But it’s gonna depend on a lot of community support.”