Residents voice concerns about Fairfax budget
http://www.wtop.com/149/3572998/Residents-voice-concerns-about-Fairfax-budget

HERNDON, VA. -- A community summit held Saturday brought together Fairfax County officials and citizens to discuss the upcoming operating budget.

"The most important thing for me is the Fairfax County schools budget," says Katy Slater, who lives in Reston.

Slater says she moved to the county because of its quality schools. But over the years, that quality has eroded because of the lack of money for schools.

"We've got the schools which have increased needs, a growing student population," says Sharon Bulova, chairman of the county board of supervisors. "It's not going to be easy."

The county is still recovering from the recession, so Fairfax residents could see a tax hike, Bulova says: "I'm not sure how it will all turn out in the end. I am willing to advertise a higher tax-rate."

The county would have to advertise the higher tax-rate before they have a discussion about it.

Right now, Bulova says she's not sure how the schools shortfall will be handled. "Our taxpayers are also struggling," she says.

However, residential assessments are up. But with that increase in property value, residents will have to pay more in property taxes.

This is the first of 15 town hall meetings being held across the county. Visit http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dmb/ for more information.

The county Board of Supervisors will adopt the budget on April 29.

Go here to listen to the audio:
http://media.dev-cms.com/wtop/32/3285/328561.mp3

The horse is already out of the barn but discuss 2 issues with your supervisor:

1. unimpeded illegal immigration and unlimited feel good services to make their stay very comfortable

2.A school system that receives whatever funding they feel they need despite widespread waste and abuse

Since it not an election year, the Board will more than likely stick it to us, Try making it clear come election year, out memories are long.

frustrating. as a parent, i want schools funded in an intelligent manner. class sizes are already out of control (29 kids in elementary school? it's a joke). but the waste is absurd. so much low hanging fruit to cut and yet they threaten us with increases in class size every time.

any parent could solve this problem with 30 minutes and a red pen.

Slater says she moved to the county because of its quality schools"

You mean those 25 in the top 250 or something? Yeah, sure.

Dimwit.

I have a questions from what I've read

- Has there been a full audit of FCPS recently? If so, what were the results?

- Are there performance reviews and metrics for each teacher? If so, are the high performers being rewarded? Are the low performers being trained or put on performance improvement plans?

- How aware are the teachers and budget increase advocates of the rising assessments in the community?

- We haven't heard many complaints of FFX public employees outside of FCPS relative to the teachers. How does the teachers salary increase compare to those? How does the Fairfax teachers' salary compare to other neighboring counties?

- What fees are currently in place at schools and can any of those be increased?

- What retirement system is in place for the teachers? Would they be open to changing that system to address some of the salary increase tensions?

Infestation Alert! Stupid right-wing assholes have congregated and are as usual making no sense at all. Laugh at them, then run away in disgust.

Asshole Sighting Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Infestation Alert! Stupid right-wing assholes
> have congregated and are as usual making no sense
> at all. Laugh at them, then run away in disgust.

Since that's the best a liberal can put together as a response to logical conservatives, I'm not surprised this is what you suggest other commies to do. Brilliant!

Fuck you right wing low tax assholes. We need more tax money, so pay up or leave.

How about taxing daily parking at school lots & zones at the same level as Metro parking garages? Should FCPS have issues with that, we need more tax money, so pay up or leave.

Bulova and friends will have a tussle ahead of them.

Fairfax libraries threw out books-a huge waste of money.

Fairfax schools are wasting money on turf fields.

Fairfax fire and rescue wastes money on an in-house newsletter.

When there are so many obvious places to cut, a tax increase will not get any support.

I agree with Curmudgeon: they need to cut the low hanging fruit. FCPS schools did just fine before we had all these AAP centers, FLES, etc, etc. We're spending millions and millions just on busing for AAP--that doesn't cover the other administrative costs. TJ has a full time affirmative action recruiter. And, yet, the numbers of Hispanics and AA minorities have hardly increased. We spend half a million to bus kids to Bailey's. Is that really a good value? I know it's peanuts compared to the budget, but it does add up. Do you know that we budget something like 19 million for subs? How many of those days are training days for teachers who are out of the classroom not teaching? More than you would think. Not to mention the salaries of specialists or the payments to the consultants doing the training. Really, we need someone to get that red pen and go through line by line. There is tons of waste.

Speaking of newsletters, County Executive Ed Long brought back a county newsletter for employees that was cut to save money years ago. It is a waste of time and printing costs.

Tedavens Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Speaking of newsletters, County Executive Ed Long
> brought back a county newsletter for employees
> that was cut to save money years ago. It is a
> waste of time and printing costs.

Everyone likes it, do they not? Then NOT a waste of time and printing costs is it?

Curmudgeon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> frustrating. as a parent, i want schools funded
> in an intelligent manner. class sizes are already
> out of control (29 kids in elementary school?
> it's a joke). but the waste is absurd. so much
> low hanging fruit to cut and yet they threaten us
> with increases in class size every time.
>
> any parent could solve this problem with 30
> minutes and a red pen.


Meanwhile, the GT class rooms are kept at 22 students.