SCAC Minutes
January 24, 2006

Lynn Terhar opened the meeting and called members' attention to the FCPS on-line legislative update.

Superintendent Dale distributed copies of an outline of priorities for his proposed FY 2007 budget.

Dale said the School Board is working on its vision and goals and will have a communication plan in effect by the time of the next SCAC meeting on March 28, so he expects the Council will be able to discuss this at that meeting. The Board will adopt its goals this spring.

Dale said that funding of FCPS capital improvement program (CIP) is difficult because the recent hurricanes and attendant building requirements have destabilized prices of construction materials such that vendors can only offer 72-hour price guarantees. This means that construction costs are up 20-30 percent. The School Board is asking the Board of Supervisors to increase the $130 million cap on yearly bond sales. He said he would recommend that a new Glasgow Middle School be built at its original size rather than at reduced size as had been discussed because the large numbers of students with special needs require smaller class sizes, which require more teachers and more space.

Nell Hurley said Woodson High School has rooms that are used for storage and other noninstructional tasks and needs these rooms to be returned to instructional use.

Eileen Kugler asked why a boundary change for a neighborhood in the Lee High School boundaries is being considered, even though the school the neighborhood would be transferred to is overcrowded. Dale said the School Board wanted this change to be considered. Jeanine Martin said clearer criteria are needed for boundary changes.

Dale said the Board might rank-order criteria. If this were done, the Board might be able to turn over boundaries to staff members.

Dale explained the tiered presentation of his budget and noted that the 3 percent market scale salary adjustment might need to be increased to remain competitive because of salary increases in the area.

Hurley said she thinks that the budget shows the numbers of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals and those needing English-for-speakers-of-other-languages services going down. She cited page 65 in the budget book.

Terhar began discussion of the questions members had been given to ask their constituencies, including both possible initiatives and possible cutbacks.

Terhar said that the CCPTA board favored all-day kindergarten for schools with the neediest students, teacher training, and increased salaries and was split on adding foreign language to all elementary schools' curriculum.

Tycz noted that her input came from the Federation's board and education committee. The board favored high teacher salaries and benefits - but not for all employees - and all-day kindergarten. Anything else should go to meeting NCLB requirements. The Board also wanted to cut administrative costs and special education services beyond what are mandated and were skeptical of Elementary School foreign language programs that are not followed up in middle school. The Federation's education committee favors training outside school hours as well as higher teachers' salaries and benefits.

Mary Randolph reported that elementary school principals favored, in this order, full-day kindergarten and higher salaries, but not foreign language immersion, Bill Oehrlein noted that elementary school foreign language programs needed to be implemented as part of a K-12 spectrum.

Hurley said she had been unable to get the Republican committee together to discuss the items but said that, among those individuals she was able to talk with, there was a consensus that parents should have choices, for instance in whether they want half- or full-day kindergarten. There should be at least one class of half-day in all schools with full-day and vice versa. Foreign language was not a priority.

Martin said it was difficult for people to discuss priorities without knowing the costs and trade-offs of items.

Ellen Oppenheim said teacher salaries and full-day kindergarten were priorities; foreign language is important only if students acquire fluency in the languages.

Eileen Filler-Corn said salaries, training, and leadership development are priorities. She found no consensus on foreign language except at Fort Hunt Elementary School, where people were for it.

Jan McKee noted that she knew Capital One was recruiting new employees from the Curry School of Education at U.Va. starting at $90,000.

Toby Sorensen said that full-day kindergarten was the only priority that received emphatic support from the Fairfax City School Board, although members said the kindergarten curriculum should change more for the full day. Foreign language was not a priority.

Steve Spero said students ask if there is an SOL for foreign language.

Lynn Dysart asked if recruitment and retention are problems for GT teachers.

Elisabeth Freed said her constituency favored full-day kindergarten with a half-day option and wanted to cut school-based GT program.

Dick Reed submitted written comments {see Attachment] He said that teacher training is more important than higher salaries and that foreign language is important in middle school and high school, not elementary school. The key is to find out what works, then implement it.

Brenda Greene said yes to full-day kindergarten, no to foreign language, and yes to higher salaries for teachers (not other employees). She asked if we were not already hiring well-trained teachers. She said the school system needs to communicate to taxpayers what it costs to live in Fairfax County compared to what teachers are paid.

Kugler said FCPS is a model system partially because of the professional development programs it offers, but that "keeping the main thing the main thing" led to today's problems because it focused too much on SOL scores.

Hurley suggested adding arts programs and asking parents to pay for this.

Tycz said salaries and benefits are the highest priority and that the retirement package is not a draw to young teachers.

Attachment: Balancing Taxes and Expenditures