Smyth, Reed Meet with Providence Constituents About Proposed Budgets

About a dozen Providence District constituents heard a presentation Wednesday on the proposed county and school budgets, then participated in a discussion about their concerns.

Fairfax County Supervisor Linda Smyth and School Board Member Patricia Reed, who both represent Providence District, fielded questions from the public with help from school and county budget experts.

This meeting at Luther Jackson Middle School was the first of the budget meetings with the public. For a meeting schedule, click here.

"What we're seeing this year in terms of the county budget at least, is maintaining the status quo," Smyth said at the beginning of the meeting. "We're not funding new programs, we're not going back and refunding programs that have been cut. We're sort of where we were last year."

The proposed fiscal year 2012 county budget is about $6.1 billion. The proposed county transfer to Fairfax County Public Schools amounts to about $1.8 billion, or 52.5 percent of the budget's disbursements — the same percentage as the 2011 adopted budget.

The most vocal members of the audience seemed concerned that because the county was not proposing to increase the transfer to schools, it meant pay increases for teachers in the School Board-approved FCPS budget proposal would not be possible. Teachers' salaries have been frozen for the past two years.

"When teachers are getting together to have coupon parties, there's a problem," said Vera Woodson, a marketing management teacher at Falls Church High School.

Smyth explained the county decided to not increase the schools budget solely for teacher pay increases because it would be unfair to other public employees.

"There is an equity issue," Smyth said. "We cannot fund an increase in pay for one group because everyone — public safety employees, librarians, park employees — is important to us."

Woodson pointed out a small percentage of teachers, specifically in the career technical education field, who have been taking pay cuts under the FCPS budgets for the past two years.

"The schools budget has not dealt with salaries in an equitable manner within the school district," she said.

Woodson said she is not unsympathetic to the budget woes facing the county, but wanted to make sure both Smyth and Reed understood teacher morale is declining.

"We have to be sensible about what we're doing and what the message is because teachers are on edge," said Woodson, who is also the Northern Virginia representative for the Virginia Association of Marketing Educators.

But other members of the audience said teachers need to sacrifice just like other county residents who work in the private sector.

"All the public employees, do they think we've had pay increases?" one Providence constituent asked.

After the meeting, Smyth explained salary increases for teachers are not out of the question, it's just not going to happen by an increased transfer from the county.

"We write one big check. It is a transfer of funds. They decide how it's going to be spent," Smyth said. "What the schools put out is 'We need an increase in the transfer so that we can pay the teachers a higher salary.' But that's not exactly the case."

Reed, who voted against the proposed school budget, concurred.

"What we need to do regardless [of whether the county increases the transfer] is go back and look at all of our programs, how we're spending money, and decide what our highest priorities are and figure out how we can fund those," Reed said after the meeting. "If compensation in some form is at the highest priority, then where in our budget can we take some money to fund that? We need to figure that out."

Reed said compensation is the highest priority for her because she sees how its impacting teacher morale and, ultimately, the kids.

"We don't want to impact student achievement in a negative way, obviously," Reed said.

She asked the audience to provide input on where costs can be reduced now that it looks like the increase of $48 million the Superintendent and School Board hoped would come from the county won't, encouraging people to call and write with their suggestions.

Christophe LeMenestrel attended the meeting because he wanted to judge for himself whether the county holds education as its top priority. He is not a teacher, but has two children in the Fairfax County Public School system.

He asked Smyth to state whether she would lower the real estate tax rate from what is currently advertised — $1.09. Current projections show the Board of Supervisors will have $30 million at its disposal, and LeMenestrel wanted to know if the Supervisors would lower the tax rate rather than put the $30 million toward schools and teacher compensation.

Smyth said too many factors still stand in the way from her being able to make a decision on the tax rate, such as budget decisions on the federal and state levels and global issues affecting Americans.

"When [County Executive Anthony Griffin] proposed this budget, Libya hadn't happened," Smyth said. "Things like gas prices are going up, and we'll have to see what that means for county residents."

Later she explained that though the county might be struggling, it does not necessarily mean keeping the tax rate at the advertised rate of $1.09.

"We have to be thinking about the people who have lost jobs, have lost their homes. The idea here is to be sure to take all of this into account," Smyth said. "The advertised tax rate is the maximum we can go. Once it is advertised, that is the maximum. It's open for discussion [to be lower], and it's a serious discussion. That's an average of $110 per household at that rate. That can hit families hard."

The Board of Supervisors will hold public hearings on the budget March 29 through 31.