We're at Luther Jackson Middle School to discuss the budget with Superintendent Garza. Hi Dr. Garza. Hello.
Thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks for the opportunity. Sure, so let's start with the FY 2016 budget which will affect the 2015-2016 school year.
We know that was not fully funded. What does that mean for us in the coming year? Well, most definitely was very disappointing.
We worked very, very hard to keep our request of the county as low as possibly as we possibly could and keeping it as close to budget guidance. as we could as well. Yet, in fact, it was the lowest amount ever requested in the history of the school system of the county.
So it was disappointing that there wasn't more of an effort to fully fund that request given that it was so reasonable, very pragmatic budget. But at the end of the day it still requires, presents us yet another shortfall in funding. And so this is consecutive years since 2008 where we've been underfunded.
So I think it's important for our community to know that we're a school system that since 2008, every year, consistently have been cutting. Our budgets have not reflected the infrastructure needs of our system. We do not have an annual budget for refreshment of equipment and computers, for an example. And those are essential components of any operation today, particularly a school system. So our school budgets are just the bare minimum.
And so when the bare minimum is not being funded. It's devastating to our system. How do you respond to those who question FCPS's efficiency?
The school board had the foresight to request a state efficiency review. Outside, independent auditors came into our school system, spent almost a school, a calendar year with us, studying every aspect of our organization. Transportation, special education, every aspect of our organization. And the only thing they could identify in terms of savings was $10 million in aggregate.
We have fully implemented every suggestion that they have made, and in fact they've reported that we were one of the most efficiently run school systems in all of this area. So I believe we're very efficient. I see a lot of evidence that we are, but we have lots of independent evidence to suggest that we are as well. And so, you know, look at the facts, and a lot of that information is on our website. So if you do have questions about how efficient we are, our central office function, people oftentimes will say, well, why don't you cut more at central office?
Well, at central office, we now have the lowest leadership ratio of any surrounding school system, and it's getting dangerously low. We are still required to manage programs, manage federal requirements, and any work that's not done by someone at Gatehouse or at Central. the central office, it gets pushed down to someone.
And it's become an issue for our schools and for even our teacher organizations are saying that we've cut too much at central office because of the responsiveness that's needed to support our schools. The bigger concern, though, is really FY 2017, which is the 2016-2017 school year. There's a projected shortfall of more than $100 million.
Where's that number coming from? That $100 million figure. figure largely is that increase to VRS.
There's a cost annual growth that's factored in. We have to, you know, when we enroll students, we still have to meet their needs. We still have to staff their classrooms.
So there's a cost to growth. And so those are two big pieces. Our health insurance plan, just running and operating our health insurance plan, we anticipate an increase there. And then just compensation for our employees. So we think we've shown this Throughout the community for the last two years, we've been projecting a fiscal year 17 and this particular hit to our system for some time.
As we contemplate fiscal year 17, the only thing we have left now to consider, unfortunately, is programs and services that will directly affect our schools. We've tried very, very hard to protect our schools over these last several years of cuts to protect our academic programming, student programming, and to... affect our schools the least we possibly could, although we have had to increase class size, and that obviously affects our schools.
But now we're at a point where we do have to consider some of our student programming, and I find that unfortunate, but it's our reality. You'd mentioned earlier teacher compensation, and I know you've said before, too, that FCPS is lagging far behind when it comes to teacher compensation. What would you say to FCPS teachers that are watching this right now?
When I go into classrooms, I'm just humbled and so amazed at the great work that our teachers do with our students. students. So I believe that in order for us to continue to be an excellent school system we have to maintain our great workforce. That means our teachers and all of our employees throughout the system. And it's clear there's much evidence to suggest you can look on our website to see what we are trending in terms of surrounding school systems with regard to teacher pay and you know it's really tragic and I believe to some extent embarrassing that we've slipped so low.
in those comparison groups. What can people do to help? We do have a complex budget, and so sometimes it can be very overwhelming. As such, we've developed a citizen's guide for understanding FCPS's budget.
We have two versions of that that are available on the website, and it's a good, I think, primer for individuals who are just beginning to try to understand this challenge. So I would encourage individuals who want to start... to understand it to go there maybe first but there's a lot of great information on our website and just stay tuned we will have a lot of additional information for our public over these coming months we will also have be using some tools that will be online tools for our stakeholders to actually give us feedback and guidance on what they would suggest that we consider in terms of cuts so we will do everything we can to make sure that our community has has had a say in the direction we head from this point forward. And so we believe that if this community truly values our schools as they are today and want us to continue to build upon that excellence, then we need them to pay attention now because an investment in our schools is absolutely essential for us being able to continue this history and tradition of excellence.
A lot of tough decisions ahead. Yes, we do. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Grassley.
Thank you.