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| • November 17, 1997: A Comparison of Pay Practices Among the Fairfax County Public Schools and Five Neighboring Systems: Identified areas where FCPS pay practices differed or conformed to regional norms; Provided basis for School Board to provide corrective pay attention to deal with recession related circumstances whereby outside teachers were brought in at higher salaries than were earned by their inside peers with identical experience |
• January 5, 1998: A Comparison of Benefits and Total Compensation Packages Between Fairfax County Public Schools and Five Neighboring Systems: Impact was to save FCPS $18 million/year on pension costs and to point out need for more cost effective long term disability plan; also identified FCPS tendency to provide relatively low net pay but high ultimate pension value for lifelong employees |
• January 5, 1998: A Report on the Status of Efforts to Renew Media General's Cable Franchise and Discussion of Issues Impacting the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to document the need for an increase in franchise funding from 1% to 2% for FCPS, resulting in $2.3 million in increased annual revenue for FCPS |
| • March 23, 1998: Technology Trends of Possible Interest to the Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified need to be more mindful of likely future price reductions in PC's; pointed out increasing emphasis on networked computers |
| • March 23, 1998: A Review of Options to Deal With Space Constraints in the Fairfax County Public Schools: Pointed out that leasing space is generally not economically preferable; explained creative strategies from around the nation, including employer site schools, alteration of grade configurations to address enrollment variations among schools, allowing extended parental choice to add to under enrolled schools; also identified opportunities to barter vacant FCPS land parcels in exchange for reduced cost construction of new schools; documented cost benefits of modular units for school additions |
• March 23, 1998: A Review of the Fairfax County Coincident and Leading Indexes and Related Economic Projection Information: Explained the factors involved with forecasting local economic conditions |
| • March 23, 1998: Regulations Governing Non-Resident Tuition Charges: Identified $1,550,000 in additional revenues to add to budget forecast; also pinpointed issues causing shortfall of millions of dollars in justifiable federal funding to FCPS for Impact Aid and encouraged federal lobbying effort to address the problem |
| • April 30, 1998: A Review of Budgeted Subobjects Projected to Increase by More Than Inflation: identified need to adjust budget assumptions to reflect savings from falling personal computer prices; also identified over budgeting in Natural Gas, Vehicle Fuel, and Vehicle Parts accounts; developed a customized FCPS inflation index to help compare budgetary increases to underlying market pricing pressures |
| • April 30, 1998: A Review of Enrollment Forecasts for Special Education and English as a Second Language Programs for the Fiscal Years from 1994 to 1999: identified need to update budgetary forecasts late in the process; identified trend toward lower ratios of instructional staff to special ed enrollment, due to decentralization of student placements, and correctly predicted that more positions would be needed than were in the budget |
| • May 4, 1998: A Review of Utility Expense Control Processes for the Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified that a lot of energy conservation bonus money went to schools that actually increased consumption, so recommended more emphasis on actual reduction; identified excessive amounts requested for Utilities costs in 1999 budget; identified need to direct more formal attention to means of controlling growth in telephone costs in light of increasing impact of Internet; identified means to influence state deregulation process for natural gas; recommended consolidation of refuse disposal function with County; identified retroactive savings from Virginia Power; demonstrated that 20-year correlation of utility consumption to weather was much less than assumed |
| • May 4, 1998: A Review of the Consolidated Printing Operation for the Fairfax County Government and Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to identify factors causing annual printing costs for FCPS to increase after consolidation with County; recommended corrective actions |
| • June 30, 1998: A Review of Billings to Fairfax County Public Schools by the Equipment Management Transportation Agency and a Report on School Fleet Management Issues: Impact was to identify that budgeted amounts for gasoline and diesel fuel were too high and funds could be freed up for use in meeting more pressing FCPS needs; identified excessive motor pool rates; pinpointed need to alter mix of buses to save millions of dollars by buying small buses to serve routes with low ridership; identified means to save $770,000 a year by reducing spare bus levels to regional norms; recommended higher driver recruitment bonuses to reduce shortage |
| • September 28, 1998: Current Issues Impacting the Taxation of Mail Order and Internet Transactions: Impact was to proactively identify a potential long range loss of an estimated $7 million a year in sales tax funding for FCPS due to Internet tax exemption policies |
| • September 28, 1998: A Review of Virginia's Funding Practices for Public School Districts and Their Implications for the Fairfax County Public Schools: Determined huge magnitude of flaw in state's locality wealth measurement formula due to failure to recognize differences in purchasing power in high cost areas, a practice which costs FCPS about $155 million a year in state funds it otherwise would receive |
| • October 7, 1998: A Report on the Recently Implemented Changes in Annual Leave Policy as Well as Possible Future Changes Pertaining to Employee Disability Programs in the Fairfax County Public Schools: Helped to refine development of new disability insurance provisions, particularly shedding light on a dispute as to how much sick leave time it was necessary for employees to donate to meet the plan's needs |
| • November 16, 1998: A Comparison of Pay Practices Among the Fairfax County Public Schools and Five Neighboring Systems: Updated report on areas where FCPS pay policies differed and conformed to regional norms |
| • November 16, 1998: Class Size Characteristics Around the Region, Country, and World: benchmarked FCS staffing ratios, determining that FCPS is generally favorable at elementary level but not at secondary |
| • November 16, 1998: A Review of the Use of Temporary Positions by the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to identify 129 “temporary” employees who were used as if they were permanent, leading to subsequent changes in their job designations |
| • November 16, 1998: A Report on Employee Turnover Patterns in the Fairfax County Public Schools in Relation to National and Regional Trends: Impact was to identify surge in retirement rates and to raise question of whether it would be prudent to devise a policy to enable retired workers to come back; also identified flaw in budgetary turnover savings projection method, noting that effects of internal promotions were ignored |
| • January 19, 1999: A Report on the Applicability of Business Models to the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to recognize importance of best practice consortiums and benchmarking practices to promote quality organizational performance |
| • January 19, 1999: A Review of Employee Absenteeism Patterns in the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to validate that absenteeism levels in FCPS are reasonable |
| • April 12, 1999: A Review of Issues Pertaining to Recruitment of a Culturally, Ethnically Diverse Instructional Workforce at Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified best practices approaches to improving minority recruitment |
| • April 12, 1999: A Review of Facilities Equity Issues Pertaining to the Fairfax County Public Schools: documented extent of capital needs backlog in FCPS, as well as pointing out flaws in using 20-year bonds to finance computer purchases; also documented need to ensure thematic electrical system project was devised to ensure that buildings could make good use of acquired technological equipment |
| • June 14, 1999: A Review of Grant Funding Obtained by the Fairfax County Public Schools: identified opportunity for $250,000 funding per eligible school for Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration funds; identified benefits of using indirect cost allocations to speed up charges to fit within grant deadlines, avoiding forfeitures such as occurred with the FCPS Head Start program; also recommended electronic filing to speed processing |
| • June 14, 1999: A Review of Working Conditions for Maintenance, Trades, Custodial, Warehouse, and Food Services Employees in the Fairfax County Public Schools: identified extent of low maintenance spending in FCPS budget and clarified need for more best practices attention to be given to clerical work processes |
| • July 15, 1999: A Review of Procurement Practices in the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to document swelling levels of carryover funds swept into instructional materials accounts and to identify need to determine means of putting together more bulk orders to reduce high administrative costs associated with orders of less than $100 |
| • September 13, 1999: Design Considerations for Superintendent and Leadership Team Pay for Performance Plans at the Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified national best practices approaches to pay for performance measures in order to guide School Board development of plan for the Superintendent |
| • November 29, 1999: A Comparison of Pay Practices Among the Fairfax County Public Schools and Five Neighboring Systems: Impact was to identify strategic implications of Loudoun's long range pay strategy on FCPS recruitment prospects; identified need to enhance FCPS promotion pay |
| • November 29, 1999: A Review of Health Insurance Issues Facing Employees and Retirees of the Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified best practices means of reducing health insurance costs, demonstrating that FCPS costs were way above regional norms and illustrating how a neighboring school division obtained comparable coverage at roughly 45% of the cost incurred by FCPS, a savings which could amount to over $25 million a year; also pinpointed high prescription drug costs as a key problem area for FCPS and explained best practices methods to reduce them; many of these ideas are being considered for implementation effective January 1, 2002 |
| • December 20, 1999: A Review of Working Conditions for Security Workers and Bus Drivers at the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to identify the range of possibilities to reduce driver turnover by providing standard 40 hour work weeks to a significant number of people |
| • January 10, 2000: A Review of Issues Pertaining to the Deferral of Capital Improvements at the Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified funding shortfall of $500 million, determined that County could issue $195 million more in bonds within existing policy guidelines and could probably increase debt ceiling from 10% to 15 without losing AAA rating; Identified need to scrutinize residual balances in old projects more rigorously |
| • March 16, 2000: A Review of Overtime Patterns Experienced at the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to point out that FCPS overtime is reasonably low, although computer technician overtime levels imply a need to examine workloads to achieve greater cost effectiveness |
| • March 16, 2000: An Overview of Federal Funding Shortfalls Pertaining to Special Education and Impact Aid, As They Relate to the Fairfax County Public Schools: Identified shortfall of $67.7 million a year in federal funding for FCPS Special Education students and $45.5 million a year for Impact Aid students |
| • May 1, 2000: A Review of Staffing Allocations at the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to point out several areas where FCPS exceeds peer norms, such as for clerical, maintenance, and administrative positions |
| • May 1, 2000: Variances Between Budgeted and Actual Revenues and Expenditures for the Fairfax County Public Schools, Fiscal Years 1996 Through 1999: Impact was to point out means by which millions of dollars in excess carryover funds could be more effectively applied to grant higher COLA and to avoid an increase in class size |
| • May 22, 2000: An Overview of Possible Approaches to Improving Employee Retention Rates in the Face of a Labor Shortage and Changing Workforce Expectations: Impact was to highlight need for better exit surveys and to highlight growing potential for temporary agencies to become relevant to FCPS labor shortage issues |
| • July 19, 2000: A Comparison of Pay for Nonschoolbased Positions in the Fairfax County Public Schools to Market Norms Established by the County Pay Study and Neighboring School Districts: Determined that most FCPS positions are compensated comparably to their peers at the County; determined need to raise Warehouse Supervisor pay and identified systematic shortfall in entry level step values for FCPS administrators |
| • July 19, 2000: A Review of Issues Pertaining to Paperwork Demands Being Placed on the School Sites Within the Fairfax County Public Schools: Impact was to pinpoint special ed and testing as key work flow issues, as well as to identify need for master calendar and better coordination of survey responses |
| • December 11, 2000: A Review of Funding Issues for Technology in the Fairfax County Public Schools: Devised recommended criteria for inclusion of technology funding in State Basic Aid formula, with an estimated $5.6 million in increased revenue for FCPS if adopted |
| • January 4, 2001: An Analysis of Virginia's Role in Funding K-12 Public Education Compared to the Roles Taken by Other State Governments: Documented how Virginia 's level of participation in K-12 funding falls below national norms |
| • March 19, 2001: A review of Practices Giving Rise to North Carolina 's National Recognition for Improvement in its Public Education System: Identified means employed to dramatically reduce minority achievement gap, demonstrated value of statewide business support for K-12 education,and explained the status of ambitious effort to end social promotions |
| • March 19, 2001:The Prospects for Shifts in Federal K-12 Education Funding Policies Under the Bush Administration: Identified the primary shifts in educational philosophy and funding tendencies emerging at the federal level, giving “heads up” to FCPS and policymakers and identifying areas where lobbying efforts might be best focused |
| • May 3, 2001: Issues Pertaining to Federal Funding for Special Education: Identified recent past and likely future trends relative to federal revenue support for special education programs and development of accountability systems to monitor enrollment growth and effectiveness of academic programs |
| • May 3, 2001:Trends in Title 1 Program: Identified best practices approaches to use of Title 1 funds effectively in raising achievement levels for at risk children; explained the issues affecting past and likely future federal revenue support for this program |
| • May 3, 2001: Current National Policy Issues Affecting the Head Start Program: Identified best practice approaches to provide greater academic focus for Head Start; proposed means of coordinating grant reporting process with County to ensure that award amount is identified in time to use the new money to properly work in to the Head Start program at the outset of the school year |