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.”