March 2025 budget comments

Last night, the School Board approved its FY26 Proposed Budget, which now goes through a period of public discussion and refinement before the board approves a final budget in May. 

Below, I'm sharing the remarks I made at last night's meeting about our proposed budget and the process we've undertaken to develop it.

Later today, the School Board and the County Board will gather in a joint public work session to share and discuss each organization's FY26 proposed budget; I encourage you to watch via video stream or join us in the County Board Meeting Room at 1 pm.


​I want to thank the Superintendent and members of his leadership team for their partnership and willingness to work together a little differently this year. In particular, I am grateful for the conscientious work of Andy Hawkins, Tameka Lovett-Miller, and John Mayo.

When we began our budget work in July, we knew we would have a considerable gap to cover. In the initial scenarios we looked at, the gap ranged from an estimated 35 million dollars on the low end, if we built in just a step increase for our employees with no cost of living adjustment, to 55 million dollars if we wanted to give a step and a 3% COLA.

We also knew we would not have reserves to plug that gap as we’d done in years past, nor did we want to keep using reserves, which are one-time money, to fund ongoing costs.

Back in the summer, we agreed we wanted to align our financial resources to our strategic plan and data about changing student needs. We wanted to free up resources for priorities and needs that are currently unfunded. We had the goal of ensuring that we can recruit and retain skilled, talented, and effective staff. And we wanted to do all of this in a way that would increase our financial stability and reduce our structural deficit.

These were our goals at the outset, which I hope you saw reflected in the budget direction the School Board approved last October.

In my School Board life, whenever we’re wrestling with a mighty problem, I like to remember that we are not the only school division in the universe. I ask myself, “What have other school divisions done when they faced similar problems?” So my work began with a lot of study of what other divisions have done to close budget gaps and realign resources. This study of other districts factored into our work over the summer, and it also is reflected in the analysis we commissioned from an outside company that has worked with many other school systems on issues just like ours.

Tonight in the budget presentation, you heard about things that are being proposed as potential reductions. What you didn’t hear about are the things that we did NOT include, and that we saw in other school divisions. I think this is useful context for what is being presented, so I want to talk just a bit about things we rejected, for a variety of reasons.

We did not increase class sizes, which is admittedly the easiest lever to pull when a school division wants to reduce costs. In our public meetings, we regularly hear from APS educators during public comment who talk about the impact of class size increases on their workload and their ability to know and support each one of their students.

We did not eliminate retiree health benefits as other divisions have done, because we know that these benefits are significant to our retirees, who devoted so many years to our community, and because we know they are an important reason why many educators choose to stay with APS.

We did not outsource and privatize parts of our operation like Extended Day, transportation, or custodial and maintenance services, as is the case in many other school divisions. These employees are members of our APS family and they form valuable relationships with our students, staff, and families that enrich our school communities. Many students begin and end their days with our bus drivers and Extended Day staff, who get to know them and provide positive support.

We did not scale back or eliminate our program for court-involved young people, or our program for older students that enables them to complete credits for a high school diploma while holding down one, and sometimes more than one, job.

We did not close a neighborhood school, which many school divisions have done as enrollment flatlines or decreases and the cost of building upkeep and renovation increases.

These are just a few of the measures that we determined weren’t a good idea for Arlington Public Schools.

There are other ideas we decided have promise, but will require more study and may take more than one year to implement. An example of this is converting more, or all, of our schools to renewable energy sources. At a net zero school like Discovery, this saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in utility costs each year.

I also want to say a few words about our process, which has been different this year in that the School Board and Superintendent are presenting this budget together. This year’s budget in my estimation required a different approach, where the board in its governance role and the Superintendent in his leadership and operational role had the opportunity for extended deliberation, discussion, and reflection.

Now we are bringing you the work we’ve done to date as a result of our deliberation, but our work is not done. The work sessions, hearing, and community engagement over the next several weeks are a crucial part of getting to the best possible result.

If you know anything about me from my time thus far on the board, I hope you know and trust my sincere belief that each of us has unique knowledge and perspective to share, and it’s only when we are genuinely curious and listening to each other that our own understanding and decision making can be enriched. You see things in your classrooms, in your homes and school communities, and in your team’s work here at Syphax, that I can’t see or know nearly as well as you do. When you share those ideas and considerations with me, I make better decisions.

It’s in that spirit of transparency and collaboration that we have posted, along with the proposed budget, a number of other documents that provide a window into our work to date. We’re showing you our work, and asking you to help us elaborate and improve it.

Finally, I want to note that in this particularly difficult budget season, and at a time of economic and job uncertainty for many in our community, we are necessarily having to make decisions that have a very human impact on many people. I want to say to those of you directly impacted by the proposed reductions that I am aware this is difficult and emotional. For me, that’s why it’s even more important that we use the time between now and May to be absolutely sure that we are making the most careful and strategic decisions possible. I thank all of you in advance for the contributions I know you will make.