Fairfax County School Board held a hearing to discuss a proposed budget of $4 billion for the next school year. Community members expressed strong opinions on both sides.

The proposed budget of Fairfax County Public Schools for the fiscal year 2026 includes an increase of 7.9% over the approved budget for fiscal year 2025, with a total increase in the amount of $297.1 million.

The public hearing was a forum for community members to discuss a wide range of topics. Many voices spoke on the controversial topic of collective bargaining, which requires unions and workers to negotiate employment conditions with employers.

The Virginia General Assembly has passed a law in 2020 that will allow school boards and local municipalities to engage with their employees in collective bargaining for the first since 1977.

“We have waited 50 years for collective negotiation to become a reality. David Walrod is the president of Fairfax County Federation of Teachers (the local union affiliate of American Federation of Teachers). Walrod teaches Learning Disabilities at Lake Braddock secondary school.

He said, “It is one thing to say that we will ratify the contract and another to actually pay for it.”

Norman Hall, the chair of the Fairfax County Employees Advisory Council (which represents all Fairfax County workers in the “merit-based system”), said that finding a way to engage in collective bargaining was proving difficult. “There’s a general consensus on the importance of collective bargaining for employee satisfaction and retention over the long term.”

Emily VanDerhoff is a second grade teacher and the president-elect of Fairfax County Federation of Teachers. She urged legislators to include as much funding for public schools as possible in the budget final, due to “threats,” to funding on a “national level.”

The budget proposal was rejected by other speakers.

Nancy Trainer, the co-chair of Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations’ Education Committee, has objected the proposed budget. She stated that the school board does not take its “public responsibilities” seriously. She said the school board has a “crucial role” in representing the public when creating a budget which reflects “priorities” of the community and “values.”

Trainer stated that Bryan Hill, county executive, would present the county budget advertised before the school boards, and the entire school board will not have a “meaningful role” during the county budget process. She said the public’s input was “performative.”

As she left the podium, she said: “You must do better and you can.”

Stephanie Lundquist Arora, a local mother, claimed that the budget does not reflect “responsible” leadership. Instead, it is like a “child’s wish list” for “Santa Claus.”

She stated that taxpayers were already suffering financially and that revenue sources that would fund the proposed budget are “far from certain”. She asked the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors “to conduct an external audit” of it.

Rosie Oakley is a Fairfax County resident who believes that FCPS’s school board and its superintendent have “lost the way”. She says that FCPS no longer values “academic success” above “politics” as reflected by a policy that puts “equity before success”. She also claims that spending has increased, academic results are down, and mental health issues have become an issue.

Oakley added that the board should focus on academic excellence and merit, parental input, budget cuts, and other factors.

Arthur Purves of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance brought up the issue regarding the achievement gap for minority students in FCPS. He said that there should not be any increase in FCPS spending until the gap was closed. Your strategic goal of waiting until 2030 to have 90% of 3rd graders read grade-level is indifference.

The school board was urged to eliminate disparities in quality in schools, replace inflated budgets with transparent ones, stop normalizing underpaid teachers and implement proposed pay increases for staff.

The FCPS website posted an earlier statement by Superintendent Michelle Reid, who said that the proposed budget would “anchor FCPS as the nation’s destination for education, keeping the needs and concerns of students, parents, and taxpayers at the forefront.”

Reid said that these needs included recognizing the taxpayer fatigue, acknowledging the chronic underfunding of the state, meeting the needs of families and students, as well as meeting the changing expectations of parents. Reid added that this budget was “fiscally sound and invested in excellence for FCPS and all of us who live in Fairfax County, who want to see a community full of successful students, dedicated teachers and support staff and a vibrant economy.”