FY2011

Sleepy Hollow parents,

I am Traci Cooke, the President of Sleepy Hollow Elementary School's PTA for this 2009-10 school year.  I'm sure you≠ve been hearing and reading all of the terrible forecasts about the Fairfax County Public Schools' (FCPS) budget for FY2011.  I'm sending you this message to help get the word out about the magnitude of the deficit.  I want to make sure you know that if the proposed cuts actually take place, it will directly impact our children's education at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School, and all schools in FCPS. 

Please take a few minutes to read this email and go to the FCPS websites I've included at the bottom of this email, so that you can fully understand the facts about the budget, and how you can get involved NOW to ensure your voice is heard.  Also mark your calendars to attend an informational budget meeting on the evening of November 17th -- more information will follow in a separate email as the details are currently being ironed out.

Some important information: 

The budget shortfall for FY2011 is $162 million.  This deficit is forcing the Board of Supervisors and FCPS Superintendent Dr. Jack Dale to pick apart every expenditure in the budget and make significant cuts; cuts that will directly affect the quality of education, programs and enrichment that our children are fortunate to receive right now. Even Dr. Dale recognized at the meeting that with all of the cuts they are looking at making, FCPS will not look like the FCPS we all currently know.

  • A small sample of possible budget cuts for FY2011 as presented by Superintendent Dale include: 
  • Increasing class size by 1 student/classroom (this after similar increases over the last 3 years); 
  • Elimination of band and strings in elementary schools; 
  • Elimination of Summer School; Charging $100/sport for High School Athletic programs; 
  • Eliminating full day kindergarten, except for 34 Title 1 schools.  SHES is no longer a Title 1 school, so  SHES would have half day Kindergarten; 
  • 20% reduction in Instructional Assistants; 
  • 50% reduction in school based technology instructors; 
  • Elimination of staffing for Foreign Language Immersions and FLES; 
  • Close to 1700 positions being eliminated. 

The above listing represents a very small subset of items Dr.  Dale has on his list of potential cuts.  His entire list of cuts total $123 million...which is still significantly short of the $162M deficit. So there are more cuts to come, though I can't imagine where they will come from.  The other proposed cuts include many, many more programs, materials and staff reductions that will trickle down to truly negatively impact a small school like Sleepy Hollow.  

SHES will see bigger classes at all levels, and less Instructional Assistants (IAs), which will limit the number of pull-outs and push-ins that we are so lucky to have at SHES, and no, the Focus School funding SHES has received to run our Parallel Block program is NOT included in the FY2011 budget.  As you all know, Parallel Block has been at the foundation of SHES≠ instructional program for several years.  It allows our children to receive small group instruction (10 or so students in a group) in core subject areas of Language Arts and Math with other students of like-abilities and to delve deeper and move more quickly through the curriculum to the huge benefit of all our students! 

In past years, during budget reductions, the SHES community has worked hard and lobbied diligently to our Board Member, Kaye Kory, and to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) to retain the SHES focus funding, by telling them how important Parallel Block is to our school.  In my opinion, we have passed the point of rallying for our particular program -- the budget deficit is at such a large scale- I fear all extras are going to be cut -- FCPS is going to be operating at bare minimum. 

We need to work together within our district to focus on what is best for our students, and to fight for staffing and programs that make FCPS a top tier school system.

This year,  we will need to make our voices heard not only to FCPS by attending Community Dialogue Meetings (link is posted below) and writing emails to our School Board Member and BOS (email links below), but we will have to push our requests up the ladder to our delegates and state senators in the Virginia General Assembly, as well as to our state officers, etc...these are the bodies who can look at the revenue that the state has, and realign what is necessary for Virginia, and FCPS to retain the highest quality public school system.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW: 

  1. EDUCATE yourself about the budget situation and the process! (Link to budget presentation that I saw below) 
  2. Write to your School Board Member and Board of Supervisors -- copy Jack Dale on these messages/emails.  (email links below) 
  3. Register and attend Community Dialogue Meetings. (link below) 
  4. Mark your calendar for the evening of November 17th.  I am working with PTA Presidents at other local schools to organize a pyramid-wide PTA meeting about the budget.  Kaye Kory, current School Board Member and Delegate Elect will be there to present some budget information and have a Q&A session.  MORE DETAILS TO COME, but mark your calendar for the evening of NOVEMBER 17th-and keep your eyes out for more information. 
  5.  Please send me an email at president@shespta.org  if you would be interested in participating in a SHES budget working group.  This group will help follow the budget process, find volunteers to attend meetings, help communicate information with the school community about the budget and work with the other schools in our pyramid during the budget process to coordinate our efforts.  

Here are some links that may be helpful:

  • Link to 10/27/09 presentation by Dr. Jack Dale detailing the budget shortfall for FY2011:http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/0/aba025484a08396287257651006d5fff/$FILE/FY%202011%20Budget%20Planning_School%20Board%20Work%20Session_10-19.pdf 
  • Link to register for Community Dialogue Meetings (NEXT ONE NOV. 14th at George Mason Community Library) http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/survey/fy11communitydialogue.htm
  • Link to a widely circulated petition that requests that Band and Strings in elementary schools remain in the FY2011 budget. Please read the petition, consider signing it, and forwarding it to anyone who will do the same http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/5842035

School Board Member:

tbd. 

email: tbd

Board of Supervisors:

Go to http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/government/board/

Email the Chairman and EACH of the BOS with our discontent over the budget.

Delegate of the 38th District:

Bob Hull- Current Delegate for our district.  Note that Ms. Kory will be sworn into office in January

email: DelRHull@house.virginia.gov 

http://house.virginia.gov/ <http://house.virginia.gov/