Alexandria City Public Schools’ (ACPS) new proposed budget comes with a raise for school district employees and more security for the schools.
At a budget presentation last night, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt proposed a budget that’s a 4% increase over the current fiscal year’s budget. That increase includes a full-step increase for all eligible staff at the beginning of the contract year and an additional step increase to increase maximum pay, though ACPS staff on a Facebook page for school faculty noted that this doesn’t come with a cost of living adjustment.
After the meeting last night, a work session is planned on Tuesday, Jan. 28 with a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 30. The budget will go into the add/delete process next month for approval by the School Board at the end of February. That budget then goes to City Council for its review. The City warned the school division this year to keep the increase modest.
“The FY 2026 operating expenditures budget totals $362.30 million, an increase of 4.1 percent percent compared to the FY 2025 Final Budget,” according to the budget document. “The appropriation to ACPS from the City of Alexandria totals $285.50 million, an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the FY 2025 Final Budget. Total positions show a net increase of 42.60 FTEs.”
The budget also proposes hiring more security officers for Alexandria City High School and security officers at every elementary school.
According to the proposed budget:
Our staff is what makes our school division operate, prosper and continue to succeed. They represent roughly 88% of our Operating Budget, easily our largest commitment to supporting our students’ success. To ensure we can continue to recruit and retain high quality staff, we must offer compensation that is highly competitive with our surrounding school divisions. ACPS plans to award eligible staff a full-step increase at the beginning of the contract year. After reviewing our preliminary compensation report, we are also adjusting all pay scales to add an additional step to increase the maximum pay.
The budget also includes funding for, among other things:
- Additional homeroom teachers to accommodate increased student enrollment
- Increased funding to meet rising costs and provide comprehensive health coverage for ACPS employees
- Increased funding for more security officers at Alexandria City High School and the introduction of security officers at each elementary school
- Additional school psychologists and more funding to social workers to address student social-emotional and mental health needs
- Increased funding for positions supporting English learner students
