Fairfax County teachers are eager about the raise they’re due next year but are frustrated the school district has to consider cuts to pay for them, according to Molly Cronin, an elementary school special education teacher and member of the Fairfax Education Association.
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At a school board meeting last week, Superintendent Michelle Reid presented her revised budget, which included a 6% raise for educators. Initially, the teachers’ union and Northern Virginia school district agreed on a 7% raise, but the two sides had to return to the bargaining table because the Board of Supervisors is giving the district less funding than Reid originally asked for.
The result, Cronin said, has left many educators feeling defeated.
“So many people are thrilled with the raises we’re getting, but then we find out what the cost is,” Cronin said. “Some people are upset, some people are angry, a lot of people are frustrated, but the overall feeling is people just feel really defeated.”
Some of that frustration, Cronin said, is the result of the county not being able to meet Reid’s budget request. Last week, several supervisors spoke out about the way the budget process has been handled, criticizing comments from Reid and school board members.
“School divisions, superintendents are being threatened by our federal government, and now would have been an incredible opportunity for the Fairfax Board of Supervisors to stand up and say, ‘You know what? We love our public schools. We know that our staff’s working conditions directly impact the student opportunities that our students get, and we know that we need to fully fund schools,'” Cronin said.
WTOP has contacted for comment.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay’s office said in a statement to WTOP that while the county allocates 50% of its revenues to the school system, the state has underfunded the Fairfax County Public Schools system and even showed that in its own analysis.
“We cannot fulfill everything in our budget given the destabilizing chaos in Washington, D.C., which has impacted — and will continue to impact — our local economy. I recognize FCPS will have to make adjustments, just as everyone has. The Board of Supervisors made over $50 million in reductions this year alone to balance our budget,” he wrote.
In an updated plan, Reid proposed deferring materials for a new social studies curriculum and reducing funding for electric buses. The plan would change the number of teaching positions allocated to each school, impacting about 275 jobs, according to county documents. But, Reid said, because the county has more vacancies than that, the division is expected to find jobs for staff members who would be impacted.
The proposal calls for reducing funding for elementary school classroom monitors, a position that “supported pandemic needs” and has evolved into a role to help with challenges such as teacher vacancies. Those roles, Cronin said, are important for helping ensure general education teachers get planning time. Cronin said at her school, they help with recess coverage, in the cafeteria and can assist with basic grading.
“There’s monitors at my school, and I don’t know if they know that right now, their job is on the line,” Cronin said.
Reid also described changes to special education lead teachers in elementary schools, which could mean a teacher in that role splitting time between two schools “or potentially having a caseload and half time department chair,” Cronin said.
Teachers in those jobs oversee Individualized Education Programs and paperwork and make sure special education teachers are supported. Cronin said at her school, the special education lead handles testing too.
“If we don’t have a full-time lead, the impact is that there are going to be times when teachers wish they could be teaching, but instead, we need to do testing. And I don’t know if families are really prepared for that,” Cronin said.
The possible changes, she said, could cause some teachers to look for opportunities elsewhere.
“There are definitely staff members who are worried, some of which may be starting to look at other divisions who finalized their budget, like (Prince William County) and Loudoun, because they may feel like they need to ensure that they have a full-time job to provide for their families, to pay their mortgage, to pay their student loans,” Cronin said. “I would hate to lose any FCPS staff over the next two weeks, but we’re in this limbo period where people are confused and frustrated.”
The school board is scheduled to host a public hearing on the proposed changes Tuesday, and will vote on them later this month.
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