Junior Olivia Ko has certainly made the most of her high school experience. In addition to competing in three seasons of sports, she is currently enrolled in six IB classes and on her way to getting the IB diploma. However, her high achievement is putting an extra burden on her parents’ shoulders, as the budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which was adopted on May 20, is putting the financial responsibility for some academic tests and athletic fees into the hands of parents.
Next year, students will have to pay $75 for all AP or IB tests and $100 per VHSL sport. This means that Ko, who intends to have a similar schedule next year, will be responsible for approximately $750 in new fees.
“I think that these fees are ridiculous and that [students] should not have to pay for the best education a public high school can offer,” said Ko.
While these fees are necessary, the school board recognizes that they may cause financial hardship for some families.
“We encourage students who cannot afford either the AP/IB fee or the sports fee to make sure they talk to their counselor or administrator about it so that we can fully waive or partially waive the fee,” said FCPS Superintendent Jack Dale. “This is a tough economic time and there are families who have lost jobs or are in other circumstances that we need to be sensitive to.”
While these fees will probably be the largest change in the budget that affects students, the most devastating may be the continuing freeze on teacher’s salaries, which did not increase, even to compensate for a rising cost of living, for this year and will not rise for next year either.
“My greatest fear is that we will lose the best and the brightest of our young teachers,” said Spanish teacher Maureen Hunt. “The problem is that they simply cannot afford to live here. I see many of these young teachers working multiple jobs to try and pay their bills.”
Dale is not however, ignorant of the financial problems this may cause many of the school system’s employees.
“The thing I feel most disappointed about is not being able to give teachers a raise,” said Dale. “It has been two years in a row and I feel that it is simply inappropriate.”
The school board was able to save many of the programs that had been on the line, such as freshman sports, elementary school band and strings and full-day kindergarten, because of the Virginia State Legislature’s actions. Every two years, the school system contributes into the Virginia Retirement System.
For FYs 2011 and 2012, the board expected their required contribution to rise by $23 million, when in fact the state legislature reduced FCPS’ contribution by around $70 million, leaving FCPS with approximately $93 million more than had been expected.
However, Dale believes that the county may have to make some difficult decisions in the coming years.
“We really dodged a bullet this year because we have saved money through the retirement system alteration,” said Dale. “If we had needed to make the cuts that were outlined, it would have been catastrophic. I think the big issue will come two years from now.”
In addition, summer school has been eliminated almost entirely, with the exception of credit recovery for high school students who failed courses during the regular school year, programs for special education programs and self-supporting programs, such as online classes.
During the past three years, FCPS has been forced to make some drastic cuts, including the elimination of over 1,400 positions in the central office and in schools themselves, where the jobs of assistant principals, custodians and teachers have been removed. In the coming year, 150 positions, mainly in the central office, will be eliminated, as will the jobs of 66 custodians.
“We are very lean right now but we will still have the same quality programs,” said Dale.
