December 2024 School Board Update
Sorry for the long delay in updates. It’s been a busy first few months of the school year, and the board is tackling several large items. We have held several town halls and board meetings discussing personal technology use in school, and we started the search process for a new superintendent since Dr. Noonan (who is in his 9th year of service to the district) announced his retirement. But to start, I want to dedicate most of this installment to an update on the budget process.
Budget
The school board met with the city council last Monday to discuss the city and schools budget forecast. Here are the links to the video presentations, the slides for the schools’ budget forecast (including a break of students receiving special services on slide 12 and enrollment projections on slide 24), the summary of the schools’ budget forecast (this provides a summary of that Dr. Noonan is proposing in the budget), and the city’s revenue projection presentation. You can find the “student by dwelling place” document here. Below is a quick summary of the current situation, noting that the projected revenue are uncertain best guesses.
Current forecast is for Falls Church City to bring in $5.9 million in new revenue for FY 2026.
With the revenue sharing agreement this would mean a projected transfer of ~$2.95 million to the schools (assuming no tax cuts).
State aid is projected to increase by ~$695,000
Able to be funded: These combined would be just enough to provide for
increased compensation (inclusive of health insurance and retirement) for existing staff
Includes a step increase and 2.5% COLA (an average raise of 5%)
the psychological services, 3 special education paraprofessional positions, 1 ESOL teacher position, and a half-time position for an advanced academics coordinator that are currently provided for out of non-recurring funds due to the tax rate decrease last year
the private day programs that FCCPS provides students with special needs who require more resources than FCCPS can provide
Further miscellaneous items (textbooks, insurance, utilities, etc.)
Unable to be funded: Material and staffing needs to address projected enrollment growth would be left unfunded:
4.5 classroom teachers
1 school counselor
1 Special Education teacher
1 Special Education paraprofessional
0.5 assistant athletic director
Bus driver and bus aide
Car driver
All these add to ~$1 million
Read the link above to see some enhancements that would also not be able to be funded.
Where is student growth coming from post-Covid:
FCCPS student enrollment has grown by 212 students (from 2502 in FY22 to 2714 in FY25).
125 new students come from multifamily housing (including townhouses), with 71 of those coming from the Broad and Washington and Founders Row developments in FY2025 (both having opened since FY2022).
54 additional students come from single-family homes
19 additional students are tuition-paying
(Total enrollment on the student-by-dwelling sheet for FY2025 does not exactly match total enrollment from the table in the presentation, which is why the previous 3 points only add to 198 rather than 212)
Considerations for future enrollment
Enrollment projection for FY2026 is 2873 (a growth of 159 students)
Currently Broad and Washington is not fully rented, so more students should be expected from that development.
During Covid, FCCPS saw a large enrollment decrease, mostly coming from students living in apartments/condos
The number of students living in apartments/condos is still 88 students below the FY2017 peak (and that includes the students in the developments completed since then)
There’s a lot of potential student growth in the existing stock of apartments without even accounting for the addition of the Founders Row 2 and West Falls developments
During the presentation, the demographer did note that during the last Trump administration, population grew much less quickly and the federal workforce located in DC declined. I will note that this coincided with a plateau in FCCPS enrollment.
Considerations for teacher competitiveness
Dr. Noonan has strived to provide a step and a COLA each year since he’s served FCCPS (sometimes budgets haven’t allowed for that), and each board has agreed with that goal.
When FCCPS wages were out of sync with the region, the board implemented recommendations from a compensation study in 2023
This year is the first year under a collective bargaining agreement
That agreement calls for a step and a COLA based on local CPI.
The current proposal is for a step increase and a 2.5% COLA for all employees, which averages to a 5% raise.
Collective bargaining agreements in other districts call for higher salary increases than what Dr. Noonan presented
Superintendent Search
You can find our discussion with the executive search firm HYA here.
Documents related to the search and community can be found here.
The calendar of events was the subject for a large portion of the meeting and we are endeavoring to receive community feedback as best we can.
Personal Tech Policy
The board has held several town halls regarding personal tech (i.e. phones, earbuds/headphones, watches, etc) usage, as well as work sessions centered around technology in schools.
We have heard from staff, students, and families about what they see as the benefits of personal tech usage and what they see as the hindrances to education that come from personal tech in schools.
To those of you who have written in or come to office hours or any of the town halls, thank you. Your input has been very valuable and has given the board lots of context to use in our decision making. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to engage with each of you in more depth.
The board will take up discussion of a policy governing personal technology in the new year. Allowances for phone usage consistent with IEPs and 504 plans is something that will be addressed in any policy the board passes.
My personal thoughts (representing only myself and not necessarily anyone else on the board) on the matter: My main framing of the question is this: “Has personal tech (mainly phones) been a net positive or a net negative on the educational environment?” Having heard from students, staff, and parents who have highlighted the legitimate uses of personal tech in schools, I am still of the opinion that most (if not all) of those benefits are reasonably achievable without the use of personal tech. I am happy to keep receiving feedback from the community.
I hope to have my next update posted in a more timely manner. You can email me directly at janderson@fccps.org. The other board members’ individual email addresses are here. Enjoy the holidays.
