Superintendent Presents Unbalanced Budget

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schoolbusPrince William County Schools held a public budget meeting Monday evening, at which time Superintendent Dr. Steven Walts presented the FY16 budget to the community.

Walts explained that his budget is not balanced. Rather, it includes, at the request of the School Board, a $17.5 million shortfall. Walts followed the directions of the Board members who decided to assume the responsibility of identifying cuts, so they could better assess the needs and desires of their constituents.

The School Board, in turn, took its guidance from the County Supervisors. They requested that the County Executive present her initial FY16 budget at a 1.3 percent increase over the county’s FY15 average real estate property tax bill, which would require sizing down the county budget.

However, this tax guidance could change. Supervisors learned last week that limiting real estate tax increases to this degree would require freezing employee salaries and making other painful cuts to government programs.

However, at this juncture, Walts and the School Board are assuming that additional revenue will not be provided and they will have to identify large budget savings, or as Communications Director Phil Kavits said, "preparing for the worst case scenario."

While a 1.3 percent increase is roughly the cost of inflation, the superintendent explained that the cost to educate the Prince William student populations increases each year due to a steady increase in enrollment.

As a result, PWCS has been on a trajectory of decreasing buying power. A chart provided by PWCS shows that per-pupil spending has fluctuated over the past decade. As a result, spending has not even kept up with inflation.

Additionally, the School Board directed the administration to fund two of their top priorities: reducing class sizes, at least minimally, and increasing employee compensation via salary step increases.

While the cost for these two items totals more than $6.5 million in new expenditures, PWCS has already found some significant savings in the budget to offset those costs. Kavits explained that the falling price of fuel helped in finding those savings.

Walts told citizens that he supports the School Board's decision to increase employee compensation, saying they need to compete with surrounding jurisdictions.

“This budget will invest in improving compensation to better attract and retain the best teachers and staff to equip our children for a brighter future. It will provide for a one-step pay increase for all employees, at a cost of 18 million dollars,” Walts said.

He also supports class size reductions, which would focus on ninth-grade math classes, including algebra I and II and geometry. The maximum class size for those subjects would be decreased by one student across those classes in all eleven high schools. This would require new classes to be opened, and ought to decrease teacher-to-student ratios.

While Walts said the reduction might not translate into test scores, he believes it will help students struggling in what PWCS has found to be for students among the more difficult required high school courses.

And, although he admitted the strategy to reduce class sizes is progressing slowly, Walts said he feels that it should continue.

Now Walts must wait to see what cuts and eliminations the School Board members are proposing.

At the February 4 School Board meeting, several members expressed their opposition to cutting full-day kindergarten programs and specialty bus transportation. Eliminating these programs, initially identified by Chairman Milt Johns, though unpopular among parents, would go a long way to eliminating budget shortfalls.

But according to PWCS, the elimination of full-day kindergarten and specialty transportation are technically still on the table. Other programs that could face elimination include energy management, JROTC, SOL remediation, school security assistance, retirement opportunity program, elementary foreign language class, athletic/extra curricular programs and other programs.

For a full list of programs see the PWCS website.

Walts also believes it will be very difficult in this budget climate to distinguish between necessity and luxury.

“It will be especially difficult because what some see as luxuries are true necessities for others. This discussion and the process seem focused strictly on dollars, but in the end, they are really about what we can provide for our students, and how we can support the people and facilities that will help them to succeed,” Walts said.

Walts noted that the programs would not have been included in the budget if the administration did not feel they were important.

“These are in the proposal because – after years of refining – they reflect what our schools and students actually need,” Walts said.

School Board members will participate in work sessions to analyze and modify the budget, and will meet again with the County Board of Supervisors Feb. 28 at Buckhall Volunteer Fire Department located at 7190 Yates Ford Road in Manassas, to further discuss the budget.

According to Kavits, much of the information on the budgets that is presently on the website will be disseminated home to parents via students in the form of a two-sided letter. He said they usually send home a much longer budget document, but they are currently not at the stage in which they can do so.

The document will answer questions he believes parents have about the budget, such as "what is the genesis" of the proposed budget, and "what are the challenges we are facing?"

This article was updated as of Tuesday, 5:40 p.m. after a conversation with Communications Director Phil Kavits in which he provided more information relevant to the article. 

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