The Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents (LEAP) got a look at some harsh budget projections for the Fiscal Year 2010 county and school budgets during its October 8th meeting at the School Administrative Offices in Ashburn. (The Fiscal Year 2010 budget will cover the 2009-2010 school year.)
The program began with Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Assistant Superintendent for Business and Financial Services E. Leigh Burden outlining the process through which the school system develops its budget.
Burden noted that LCPS' budget system is similar to that used by most Virginia school systems. A difference in the LCPS budget process is that Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III and his senior staff review the budgets proposed by various departments line-by-line. The School Board subsequently does an in-depth review of the budget before it is considered by the Board of Supervisors. (Burden noted School Board members submitted 165 written questions about the budget last year with 250 the year before.)
Burden said that 87.5 percent of LCPS' current $745.6 million budget goes toward salaries and employee benefits. With the equivalent of 8,527 full-time employees, LCPS is the 16th-largest employer in Virginia.
She added that Loudoun is low compared to other jurisdictions in the number of administrators it employs and ranks sixth in Metropolitan Washington in average cost per pupil (behind Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, Montgomery County and Fairfax County).
Part of the challenge in financing LCPS' budget, Burden said, is that under a state-approved formula Loudoun has a fairly high Composite Index. The Composite Index, based on a locality's relative wealth, determines the amount of funding the state gives to local school divisions. Loudoun's Composite Index is .6708, which means the state has determined that county residents can fund more than 67 percent of the cost of educating their students. Burden said the Composite Index ranges from a high of .80 for some Northern Virginia jurisdictions to a low of .18 for areas of Southwestern Virginia.
Loudoun County Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ben Mays detailed the budget outlook that was presented by County Administrator Kirby Bowers to the Board of Supervisors and the School Board earlier in the week. Figures contained in this analysis include:
- At the current real estate tax rate of $1.14 per $100 of assessed value, the county government would face a revenue shortfall of $27 million and the school system a shortfall of $70 million in Fiscal Year 2010. That shortfall would come from the funding level of this year's budgets.
- A tax rate of $1.26 is necessary to get the county government and school system back to the same funding level as this year.
- A tax rate of $1.35 would be needed to accommodate the anticipated increase in budget items, including school enrollment growth. (This rate would not fund raises or new programs, but would cover things such as increased insurance and retirement costs on current county employees.)
Mays said the projected budget shortfall at the current tax rate was due to a decrease of more than 8 percent in the value of Loudoun's housing and a 2 percent drop in the value of commercial property. “It's not a pretty picture. It's going to create a great deal of difficulties for all of us.”
Mays has worked 16 years for the county and seven years before that in an advisory capacity. He said the current economic outlook is not unlike that which faced Loudoun in the early 1990's. Mays added Loudoun's projections were not as dire as those for many other Metropolitan Washington jurisdictions. “I would not trade our position for that of any of our neighbors.”
One advantage to this year's budget process, Mays said, is that the Board of Supervisors and School Board are talking about budget issues earlier than at any time before. This work has been done mainly through the Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee. Five members of this committee were present at the LEAP meeting.
“There is no money, thank you,” Blue Ridge District Supervisor Jim Burton said jokingly in opening his remarks. Burton said this budget will be tougher than any of the 13 he has completed as a supervisor.
A problem that Loudoun County has is that it's perceived as a very wealthy jurisdiction, Burton said. He noted that 31 percent of county households have an income less than $75,000. “That sounds like a lot of money. I can assure you for a household in Loudoun County it is not.”
The current credit crunch has left the county unable to sell bonds at this point, Burton added. “We could not sell a bond today if we wanted to.”
Supervisors have asked Bowers to submit a range of budget proposals – ranging from no increase to 5, 10 and 15 percent decreases – with consequences attached to each one of them, Burton said. “We have to figure out a way to get through this next year in this county. It will be unpleasant...There is a very good chance that we, as a county, will suspend some services.”
Catoctin District Supervisor Sally Kurtz said the joint committee, which she chairs, has avoided some of the budget grandstanding that has affected both boards in the past. “I'm actually pleased by the proactive improvement that I see between the two boards.”
At-Large School Board member Tom Reed, the joint committee vice chair, said the School Board will look at everything – including such drastic steps as a four-day school week – in an effort to cut costs. Cutting costs with an additional 2,500 students coming to LCPS next year will be difficult, he added.
Despite the current economic news, Reed said he remains optimistic about the future. “We want to maintain the high-quality curriculum we have in Loudoun County.”
School Board Vice Chairman John Stevens (Potomac District) said citizen input is valued at budget time, but not often received before the School Board finalizes its budget and sends it to the Board of Supervisors. Stevens noted that citizens can comment on the budget at every School Board meeting and that citizen input on the budget will be sought at meetings on January 15th and 20th.
With so much of Loudoun's school budget involved in providing instruction, Stevens said it will be hard to keep cuts from affecting students. “When major cuts come this way, it's very difficult keeping those cuts from affecting the classroom.”
While the joint committee has yet to make any significant changes, Stevens said members have gotten to know each other and the culture of their respective boards much better.
School Board member Priscilla Godfrey (Blue Ridge District) said she knew what a $70 million budget cut would mean. “It's a lot less people with a lot more work.” She said deep budget cuts could drastically cut the number of teachers, positions like parent liaisons, the Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) program, technology resource teachers, activity buses and field trips. Godfrey also said that increased fees for students were a real possibility.
Federal- and state-mandated programs such as those required by No Child Left Behind, Standards of Learning, special education and English as a second language (ESL) form the core of the budget apple that the School Board can't cut. “It will be our job as a School Board to determine what the skin of the apple is and how much we can take.”
School Board members attending the October 8th LEAP meeting included Chairman Robert DuPree (Dulles District), Tom Marshall (Leesburg District) and J. Warren Geurin (Sterling District). Supervisor Andrea McGimsey (Potomac District) also attended the meeting.
LEAP's next meeting will be at 7 p.m. November 12th. The program will be “To B or Not to B: Details on Grading Policies.” LEAP meets in the School Board Meeting Room of the School Administrative Offices, 21000 Education Court, Ashburn. There is no charge to attend LEAP meetings and they are open to the general public.
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