The $59.9 million budget includes $53.4 million in tuition payment to Fairfax County Public Schools, $5 million in debt services and $285,000 in supplemental school funding for student remediation support, student transition programs and professional development for teachers. The proposed schools budget will represent 43 percent of the overall City of Fairfax budget.
Breakdown of City School Budget
Tuition Payment: The majority of the City of Fairfax Schools budget is in form of a tuition payment to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Ninety six percent, or a little over $53.4 million dollars is designated to FCPS to pay for the approximately 3000 City of Fairfax students. Through the School Services Agreement (SSA), the City of Fairfax contracts FCPS for educational services for city students, while the City of Fairfax Schools owns the four city school buildings: Fairfax HS, Lanier (soon to be Katherine Johnson) MS, Providence ES and Daniels Run ES. The schools welcome both city and county students in the four schools. To learn more about this agreement, please see our page on the SSA.
Capital Improvements: The FY 2022 Schools budget provides $2.495 million in Capital Improvements for the city school buildings and facilities. Improvements include updating air conditioning units, maintenance for roof and other infrastructure updates, ground improvements, turf fields and transitioning carpet to tile floors in our schools.
School Supplemental Funds: The Superintendent provided $285,000 in supplemental school funding for the four city schools. These funds are designed to create opportunities for student remediation such as summer enhancement programs, transition programs to help students when they enter a new school such as freshman orientation and kindergarten readiness camps, professional development time and opportunities for teachers and funding for individual school initiatives such as technology enhancements or literacy programs.
To see a complete breakdown of the proposed FY 2022 budget, please see Dr. Pajardo’s presentation made to the City of Fairfax School Board on Monday. Go to the City of Fairfax Meeting Page and click on School Board; December 7, 2020 meeting.