It was in the context of unofficial reports that the Falls Church City Public Schools, through their School Board, and the system’s employee bargaining organization reached a tentative agreement, subject to ratification by a vote of the employees, in their first ever collective bargaining negotiation.
While the parameters of all that will not be made public until the entire process has worked its way through, probably not until mid-January at the earliest, the mood around the schools was upbeat as the School Board and Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan met with the F.C. City Council Monday to share its needs for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 that begins next summer.
In a world where the competition for quality teachers and staff at all levels is particularly acute, the fact that employees and management of the Falls Church system, which is the largest employer in Falls Church, occurred at all, but moreover that the prospect of a happy outcome exists, helped create a constructive context for this week’s joint meeting.
At this coming Monday’s City Council meeting, the Council will take the input from this last Monday’s joint meeting to present the Schools and all the divisions of the City’s operations and set them all against the coming year’s tax revenue projections also presented last week (see story elsewhere this edition) and from that heady stew announce “guidance” for all concerning how much they can be expected to get and therefore to ask for.
While this is just the start of a budget process that won’t conclude until next May, coming out of the gate it is doubtful that the Schools can expect to get the 8.6 percent ($4.3 million) increase that Noonan concluded Monday the Schools will need for the coming year.
The components of the sought after increase break down to $600,000 for expected enrollment growth (it is expected that there will be 85 more students in the system next fall than this year requiring six new teachers and two paraprofessionals), a “step” increase and cost of living adjustment for teachers and other employees costing $2.5 million (driven by the inflation rate), and increased health care insurance costs of $450,000. Added contract work costs bring the total to the $4.3 million Noonan said the schools will need.
Noonan stressed that “teacher retention” in the face of the startling national shortage is a top priority for the system, and that in addition to the “step” and COLA increases being asked for, the ability of the Falls Church system to add the option of health care coverage under Kaiser are vital incentives to both keep and attract the best teachers, he said. “There is a direct correlation between compensation levels and the F.C. system’s highest results in the state,” he said.
Noonan said “the secret sauce” most responsible for the success of the school system has been its relationship to the Falls Church community. That has resulted in the consistent support for the schools as reflected in numerous bond referenda the citizens have passed by wide margins.
This has made the FCCPS “the very best IB division in the U.S. and probably in the world,” he stated.
In the current year, and coming out of Covid, there are 85 more students in the system than projected and that includes an increase to 37 percent of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches. Next year, it is expected another 85 students will join the system and about 100 new students a year after that. But the system has planned for that kind of growth, and will be able to accommodate it with all the new construction and expansion efforts. “There is plenty of room to grow,” Noonan said. As of next fall, it is anticipated there will be 2,719 students in the entire system.
Maintaining class sizes and living up to the challenges of being the best IB system in the U.S. are the baseline priorities, Noonan stressed.
Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields chimed in that “this has been one of the more dynamic years for revenue forecasting” due to the number of variables impacting the projections, such as housing and retail growth and an economic slowdown.
Terry Clower and Keith Waters, of the Fuller Institute at George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, noted that demand is now far outstripping supply in housing in the City and while they project that there could easily be 3,200 students in the school system by 2050, there will be a great challenge to provide enough housing where young families can effort to raise families.
Still, they said, Falls Church does not face the kind of problems that exist for its Arlington and Fairfax neighbors with their gluts in office spaces.
At the opening of the meeting Monday, outgoing F.C. Council members Mayor David Tarter and Phil Duncan were given special recognition along with departing School Board chair Laura Downs.
Among those present for Monday’s joint meeting were new Council members-elect Erin Flynn and Justine Underhill.
