Alexandria City Council members are pressing for more answers before they can fill a $5.65 million budget gap to pay for Alexandria City Public Schools’ first-ever collective bargaining agreement.
Earlier this month, the School Board approved its $12.7 million collective bargaining agreement with the Education Association of Alexandria, promising a step increase for all eligible employees (and an extra step for staff employed since 2010), a 2% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for licensed staff, a 3.5% COLA for support staff and a $2,000 longevity bonus for support staff.
The Saturday (March 14) City Council meeting was the second of three public hearings before City Council approves its final budget on April 29. At the meeting, City Councilmen Canek Aguirre and John Taylor Chapman said they were surprised that the $12.7 million collective bargaining agreement was only for one year.
“We haven’t negotiated that far into the future,” said Dawn Lucas, president of the Education Association of Alexandria, when asked by Aguirre how the second and third years of the agreement would be funded. “I think we have language written into the contract that we will come back to the table to negotiate for subsequent years.”
In January, City Council backed funding for three multi-year collective bargaining agreements with firefighters, police and administrative and technical employees. City Manager Jim Parajon’s $977 million budget proposes an allocation of $286.6 million in operating funds to the school system, while ACPS says it needs $292.3 million, making for the $5.65 million budget shortfall.
“If we don’t know that the agreement is $12.7 million, period, or if it’s additional money in the second year and then additional money in the third year, then that’s very concerning,” Aguirre said, “Because then I don’t know where we’re getting that money from. I think it’s very crucial that that be clarified, not just for you all, since you’re not sure, but for the council and for the community.”
School Board Chair Michelle Rief told the council she would support increasing taxes to bridge the gap.
“If it’s a tax increase, if it’s additional creative ways that we can find to close that gap, we’re here to partner with you,” Rief said.
On March 10, City Council approved advertising a one-cent increase to the city’s real estate tax rate. The move limits Council from raising taxes more than a cent in this budget cycle, with once cent adding up to about $4.7 million and resulting in a $280 average annual increase in residential tax bills, according to the city.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins, at that March 10 meeting, said that she doesn’t want to see a tax increase in the final budget.
“I’m probably leaning very strongly towards no increase,” Gaskins said. “I think we’ve been presented a very strong budget at the current tax rate, and we’re still finding efficiencies for other funding that we can use for some of our priorities.”
Chapman said he was “very surprised” that the school system’s collective bargaining agreement wasn’t built on a three-year model.
“I assumed you were following similar jurisdictions models,” said Chapman, who works by day at Fairfax County Public Schools. “As you know, I’m under a Fairfax County contract, and theirs is a multi-year contract. I just assumed that was going to be the case … We folks need to really get in the room and talk about this really quickly.”
ACPS confirmed that its press release on reaching a bargaining agreement only applies to the 2026-27 fiscal year.
“Because funding levels for ACPS in the following years is uncertain and dependent upon factors that are outside of the control of ACPS, the parties have agreed to reopen negotiations in the following years solely for the economic terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” ACPS said in an email to ALXnow.
If City Council doesn’t fill the $5.65 million gap for the collective bargaining agreement, the school system has outlined a number of cost-cutting measures, including not filling dozens of positions. Rief outlined those proposed budget cuts in a joint City Council and School Board work session on March 4.
Rief told City Council that before making the $12.7 million request, ACPS identified $7.5 million in budget reductions, including a 5% cut in non-personnel spending across the division, eliminating 13.8 positions — mostly from Central Office.
“These were difficult but responsible steps to manage costs while protecting classrooms,” Rief said, adding that neighboring jurisdictions threaten to outpace ACPS with salary increases. “ACPS employs 2,700 people, one of the largest workforces in our city, and each 1% pay increase costs $2.8 million.”
