The Arlington County School Board last week approved its proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year and construction of new facilities was one of its main concerns.
In the $412 million budget for the 2008 fiscal year, the School Board added an additional $8.4 million for capital improvements over last year’s budget.
Board members said that most of this money would go towards construction projects at the Walter Reed School and at Washington-Lee High School.
The majority of the school’s funds come from county taxpayers. Less than 20 percent of Arlington Public Schools’ revenues come from state and federal funds.
This year the county spent more than $331 million on public education. This added up to more than $18,500 per pupil, giving Arlington County the highest per pupil spending rate in Northern Virginia.
Arlington Public Schools’ enrollment numbers have also gone up. After decreasing for several years, pre-kindergarden through high school enrollment is now at 18,451 students.
School Board Member Ed Fendley attributed this to demographic patterns in the county, saying that "Families are not moving on like they used to."
The School Board’s 2008 budget represents a 5 percent increase over the previous year’s and contains a 2.2 percent increase in teacher salaries. The Board was concerned that recent increases in teacher salaries by Loudoun County and Fairfax County would siphon off some of their best instructors.
"Our goal is to attract and retain teachers," School Board Chair Libby Garvey said.
She added that, because the cost of living in Arlington is so high, many of the county’s teachers live elsewhere. She was concerned that this meant that certain teachers might want to find a job closer to their homes to cut down on their daily drives.
"We don’t want to lose teachers with kids that don’t want to commute [anymore]," Garvey said.
School Board Vice-Chair Frank Wilson said that he didn’t want all of the school division’s new teachers to be fresh out of college and hoped that schools would look for seasoned veterans when filling vacancies.
"Nothing beats a good, experienced teacher in the classroom," he said.
IN PASSING THEIR BUDGET, the School Board also dealt with other pressing matters.
Fendley proposed an amendment that increased the amount a schools employee could put into their retirement fund from $15 a month to $30 a month. The funds are taken out of the employee’s salary and are matched by Arlington Public Schools.
School Board Member David Foster also successfully lobbied the board to decrease the size of the student-teacher ratios. The schools use this ratio to determine when they should hire a new teacher or create a new class.
Foster believes that class sizes are too high in county schools and was able to convince the rest of the board that the ratio should be lowered by one student.
The School Board also acknowledged that it has a shortage of bus drivers. In a county with a shortage of affordable housing, Arlington Public Schools has had trouble filling what are typically low-paying jobs such as bus driving.
While the Board was unable to raise bus drivers’ salaries, Wilson acknowledged how crucial they were in the learning process.
"If you can’t get kids to school," Wilson said, "You can’t educate them."
Foster, however, said that the bus driver shortage was a matter of supply and demand.
"You can work at this 28 hours a day," he said, "But if the economics aren’t right, it won’t get us over the hump."
The School Board passed its proposed budget at its April 19 meeting. This budget is based on an estimate of how much money it will receive from the county.
The School Board will pass the final version of its fiscal year 2008 budget, which is not expected to be significantly altered, on May 3.