Arlington Public Schools Budget Maintains Class Sizes, Defers New Programs

Arlington Public Schools would eliminate step increases for its employees and defer the purchase of about half of the elementary school science textbooks it needs under the school board's proposed $496.2 million budget.

That budget does include a 2-percent cost of living adjustment for its 4,000 employees. It adds about 82 new staff members (about $6.5 million) and 25 new modular classrooms ($2.9 million). More than 81 percent of the school budget comes from tax dollars collected by the county government.

The public school system is the second-largest employer in Arlington behind the federal government. School officials are grappling with rapid enrollment increases that could lead to more than 30,000 students in the system by 2021 – nearly a 4-percent increase each year.

"It's a fiscally prudent budget," said school board Chairwoman Abby Raphael. "We're staying focused on student achievement. We're giving a modest increase to our teachers. We wish we could give them more."

School officials presented their proposed budget to the Arlington County Board on Thursday. The county manager that includes a half-cent real estate tax increase; of that, about $397 million is earmarked by a formula for the school system.

As proposed, any tax increase on the county's part does not benefit the schools – which means the percentage of local real estate taxes that go to education would shrink as taxes go up.

The school board could have chosen to ask the county for a tax increase dedicated to the public education system, Raphael said. It chose not to. 

The county board has given itself , which would cost the average Arlington homeowner an extra $196 annually – though the average home cost varies widely, and so does the potential impact on tax bills.

The county board is scratching its collective head on , among other things. Neither county nor school officials indicated any will to increase the amount of tax dollars going to education Thursday night.

The school board's $496.2 million budget is a 4.4 percent increase over its current spending plan. That doesn't include a potential $2.2 million increased contribution to the Virginia Retirement System that could be mandated by the state.

To make financial ends meet in recent years, the school system has reduced its central office personnel, increased the average class size twice, limited teacher compensation, deferred computer and bus replacement and textbook adoption, and limited a program that would allow all elementary school students to learn Spanish.

For the coming budget year, the school board is replacing some lost federal funding for its Even Start program, adding a substance abuse counselor, increasing staff to meet student demand for learning Japanese, Chinese and Arabic, and spending about $400,000 to convert Hoffman-Boston Elementary into a science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, school.

The proposed budget maintains current class sizes. The average class size is about 20 or 21 students, though classes range from about 13 to about 27 students.

"That average is very deceiving," school board member Sally Baird said. "In some of our schools that are the most crowded, our classes are at the maximum."

Superintendent Patrick Murphy originally proposed a budget that was about $2.4 million less than what's being discussed. It increased class size, too, which the board decided against.

The proposed school budget also zeroes-out funding for a program to expose students to college before the sixth grade.

The school board will hold a public hearing on its budget April 12.

Much of Thursday night's discussion focused on the school board's long-term plans for dealing with overcrowding.

County Board member Chris Zimmerman predicted that in the future, Arlington will see more of an urban student population – that, just as families are more likely now than in years past to stay in Arlington to send their children to school here, so too will that happen with families in townhomes and condominiums.