Fairfax County Public Schools is one of the largest and wealthiest school districts in the country, with an annual budget of $2.5 billion to support the over 180,000 students enrolled in its 196 schools and centers. However, the diverse needs of students doubled with enrollment growth, higher health insurance as well as an increase in retirement and salaries amidst other issues have led to monetary crisis for the county.

The county as a whole has cut nearly half a million dollars and 2,000 positions since 2008, spending $1,000 less now per student than they did eight years prior. But more cuts have to be made to cope with the projected $72 million shortfall for the 2016-2017 school year.

One potential way to reduce the budget crisis is charging students to take IB and AP courses. The exact fee that students would have to pay hasn’t been released but it is predicted that the county could make $3.8 million by charging for the courses.

“It’s a very tough decision to make, but I understand why it is being considered,” IB science teacher David Tyndall said. “My concern is that any student should be able to take an IB or AP class regardless of whether or not they can pay for it, instituting a fee would prevent some kids from taking it.”

Many teachers see the IB students as leaders in the community and think that all of their hard work shouldn’t be rewarded with fees to take the classes that they dedicate so much time and effort to.

“IB students help set the standards, the high standards that are continuously being displayed to the rest of the country and when you get down to it every state and county in the United States compares themselves to Fairfax County,” IB business teacher Howard Dwyer said. “I am a firm believer that all my IB kids, and all I have are IB kids, are the future leaders of this country, therefore they deserve to have Fairfax County pay for the IB programs that they are taking.”

Along with charging for certain courses, sports are another item on the chopping block. The county has suggested drawing back the number of sports teams that it supports. The amount of cuts that the county could make pertaining to sports varies and are featured on the budget tool.

If all freshman teams were eliminated, the county could potentially save $1.1 million, and cutting all JV teams would save $2.3 million. If the county was to cut funding for sports altogether, the deficit would be reduced by $8.9 million.

“Cutting JV and/or freshman teams would lead to weaker varsity teams,” junior athlete Sheryl Fox said. “Our JV and freshman team feed into our varsity teams so without them I think our varsity sports teams would fall behind.”

Additionally, athletes could be charged to participate in sports. The county has proposed making students pay to play. The fee would be in addition to the cost of spirit wear, practice gear, uniforms, equipment and any other expenses that the particular sport may have.

If students have to pay a $150 fee for every sport they play, the county could make $2.7 million annually. If charged $200 per student per sport, the county revenue would increase by $3.6 million.

“The school board is trying to ask families to offset some of the costs,” Mims said. “I think it’s unfair to charge students the full price, but if they charge something to offset the price I think that is totally fair. If I had a wish it would probably be for each kid to pay $30 [to play] or $50 if they play multiple sports, I think that would help to better offset the costs.”

Some of the other solutions to the shortfall include making class sizes larger, which would lead to the reduction of staff members but would save the county anywhere from $3 million to over $10 million. Charging students to take the PSAT would save $.1 million, eliminating language immersion programs would save nearly $2 million and returning all kindergarten classes to a half day school day would reduce the budget issues by $39 million.

“The entire Fairfax County community has a critical decision to make: either we invest the necessary funds in our students and schools, or we will have to work together to decide what to cut – and we cannot cut our way to excellence,” Superintendent Karen Garza said in a statement she released on the FCPS website.

Currently, 23 percent of funding for the county comes from the state, 70 percent from the county itself, which is primarily raised by real estate property taxes, and seven percent comes from other outside sources such as the federal government, out of county tuition fees, cable franchise fees and building rental fees.

The income of the county has remained the same, while costs to run it have risen. 22,000 students have joined the school system in the past eight years and as a result nearly half of FCPS schools are over capacity or are in need of some form of a renovation.

“I think the school board is doing a good job at looking at all of the aspects of our county [as it pertains to the cuts that need to be made], including sports, academics, as well as other things,” resource teacher Hassan Mims said.

The county opened up a Budget Proposal Tool to show the public what is at risk of being cut as well as to get taxpayer input on what cuts should be made first. The tool features over 100 proposed cuts.

The hashtag ‘save FCPS’ is being used to help unite the community and to bring awareness to the predicted shortcomings. Garza encouraged the community to start using this hashtag last May in order to encourage the residents of Fairfax county to look for solutions to the looming budget crisis and to voice their opinions on what solutions are best, because although the ultimate decision will come from the board the public’s input will be taken into great consideration.

Despite the myriad of cuts that have to be made the county’s main concern is making sure that the academic excellence promised in Fairfax County stays in tact and the county will take whatever necessary steps to insure that virtue.