News

School Board cuts 56 positions in $401M ACPS budget, gives lifeline to CIS program

By James Cullum and Emily Leayman
The Alexandria City School Board on June 11, 2016 (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria City School Board gave the green light to its $401.18 million combined funds budget on Thursday night, capping months of public meetings and conversations during what Board Chair Michelle Rief described as “an extraordinarily difficult budget year.”

“This year’s budget development process occurred amid significant uncertainty,” Rief said before the budget’s passage, “including federal workforce reductions that disproportionately affect Alexandria, slowing City revenue growth, continued inflationary pressures, the complexity of negotiating our first collective bargaining agreement and the delayed adoption of the state budget.”

The School Board’s 8-1 vote — with Member Abdulahi Abdalla the lone dissenter — approved the school system’s $369.44 million operating budget as well as the school nutrition fund and grants and special projects fund, a 2.3% increase from last year. The School Board also approved the fiscal year 2027-2036 Capital Improvement Program.

The budget provided funds in anticipation of a one-year collective bargaining agreement but at a steep cost. The School Board cut 56 staff positions, made program cuts and increased facility use fees and employee health care contributions.

The reductions of 56 positions include a mix of vacant and filled positions. Of these, 13.5 full-time-equivalent positions were non-instructional roles. Fifty-one of the positions were transferred to other ACPS roles.

Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said the budget reflects “the realities of a difficult fiscal year.”

“Investing in recruitment and retention remains critical to ensuring that ACPS can continue to attract and retain the talented educators and staff who serve our students each day,” Kay-Wyatt said. “We are grateful for the work that went into this process and remain committed to using our resources responsibly in support of student success.”

In a blog post, the School Board admitted to frustrations regarding staff compensation in its recent add/delete process. The members wrote that compensation terms under the original tentative agreement announced in May were stronger than what was in the final budget — a 1.25% COLA adjustment, a step increase for eligible staff and a new top step were all they could fund with the City Council’s contribution. In the latest city budget, City Council partially filled an approximately $5.6 million gap for the tentative $12.7 million ACPS collective bargaining agreement.
The compensation proposals in the original tentative collective bargaining agreement (via ACPS)

The School Board’s blog post noted that additional proposals on staff pay and the collective bargaining agreement brought to the add/delete work session were withdrawn. At the work session, the School Board learned that making compensation proposals without consulting the collective bargaining representative — the Education Association of Alexandria — would violate the ACPS collective bargaining resolution.

“Even a raise, adopted unilaterally, would not allow ACPS employees the right to negotiate that they are entitled to under the [collective bargaining resolution],” the members said in the blog post. “For example, the Board might add a COLA when employees, through their union, would prefer a step increase, a retroactive step increase, or something else entirely. That choice belongs at the bargaining table, which protects our employees and binds us because we have committed to honoring it.”

The School Board found $147,200 to keep one of two advanced academic studies teachers and $150,600 for two Afghan liaison positions at Hammond Middle School and Alexandria City High School. An estimated $83,800 will provide partial funding of the $350,000 needed to maintain Communities in Schools of Northern Virginia‘s program. The School Board is awaiting City Council’s decision on use of contingent reserve funds to fill the remaining gap for CIS NOVA, but the city won’t know reserve totals from parking revenues until September.

The School Board also approved a $15,000 benchmarking study to evaluate central office staffing and compare it to similar school districts.

The lack of a state budget has also caused uncertainty for the ACPS budget. ACPS says it could receive no funding increase or as much as $3.1 million more depending on what state budget is adopted. The Virginia House of Delegates will reconvene on June 18, and the Virginia Senate will return on June 22.

At its Tuesday work session, the School Board indicated it would prioritize compensation with any state funding, then CIS NOVA, and revisit eliminated positions and staff stipends.

“Staff’s recommendation is that new state money go to compensation as a one-time payment rather than a permanent increase because a recurring raise built on one-time money must be funded the following year, and if that money isn’t there, the result is deeper cuts,” the Board members wrote in the blog post.

Capital Improvements

The School system’s $340.4 million 10-year Capital Improvement Program includes nearly $28 million for projects budgeted for FY2027, including:

  • $6.12 million in systemwide projects, including $120,500 in asbestos/lead paint remediation and $1.8 million in emergency repairs
  • $5 million for lease space renovations
  • $3.4 million in floor repairs, HVAC repairs and a new elevator at Mount Vernon Community School
  • $2.9 million for building envelope repairs, elevator modernization, flooring repairs and roof repairs at Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School
  • $2 million in building system technology modernization upgrades
  • $1.3 million for an outdoor playground, a fire alarm system and renovations at William Ramsay Elementary School
  • $1.74 million for school bus and vehicle replacements
  • $1.25 million in HVAC improvements at Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School
  • $1.7 million in building envelope and HVAC repairs at John Adams Elementary School
  • $965,000 for an outdoor playground, HVAC repairs and a new water heater at Francis C. Hammond Middle School
  • $538,000 for kitchen repairs, flooring, painting and a new fire alarm system at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School
  • $430,000 for building envelope repair and a water heater replacement at George Washington Middle School
  • $308,800 for interior and exterior painting, and a water boiler replacement at Charles Barrett Elementary School
  • $300,000 for roof repairs and other renovations to the Alexandria City High School King Street Campus
  • $70,000 for a new fire alarm system at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy
The ACPS Capital Improvement Program 2027-2036 budget (via ACPS)

About the Authors

  • Reporter James Cullum has spent nearly 20 years covering Northern Virginia. He began working with ALXnow in 2020, and has covered every story under the sun for the publication, from investigative stories to features and photo galleries. His work includes coverage of national and international situations, as well as from the White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Supreme Court and State Department. He's covered protests and riots throughout the U.S. (including the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol), in addition to earthquake-ridden Haiti, Western Sahara in North Africa and war-torn South Sudan. He has photographed presidents and other world leaders, celebrities and famous musicians, and excels under pressure.

  • Emily Leayman is the editor of ALXnow and contributes reporting to ARLnow and FFXnow. She was previously a field editor covering parts of Northern Virginia for Patch for more than eight years. A native of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, she lives in Northern Virginia.