The character of Fairfax County’s next school board will depend in large part on the outcome of this fall’s race for three at-large seats, a wide-open contest that could help sweep a change-minded, Republican-backed majority into office.
Members endorsed by the Democratic Party currently dominate the board, with nine of the 12 seats, but half of the incumbents are retiring and others are in tough races against challengers, guaranteeing substantial turnover.
School Days 2011-12
Among the key issues dividing candidates is how to pay for popular initiatives — such as reducing class sizes and boosting teacher pay — in an era of tight budgets.
Republican-backed candidates have proposed finding that money in the $2.2 billion budget through cost-cutting, particularly in the system’s central office.
“I would like to remind everyone that our funds come from the taxpayers,” said Lin-Dai Kendall, a self-described tea party member who said she was motivated to run by the board’s decision to close Clifton Elementary. “We need to make do with what we have.”
Democratic-endorsed candidates, meanwhile, have questioned whether significant savings can be found in a budget that has remained flat since 2008, even as enrollment has grown about 7 percent.
“Everyone wants to hear about trimming costs, and I’m in favor of that, too,” said Ryan McElveen, who graduated from Marshall High School in 2004 and now works in Boeing’s international policy office. “But we have an increasing population, and we need more money to pay for those needs.”
Central office costs have indeed grown over the past 10 years, prodded in part — according to the schools’ budget director — by rising salaries and health-care costs. But since 2008, the school system has cut 147 central-office positions, according to budget documents — an 8 percent reduction.
Meanwhile, since 2008, the proportion of Fairfax school employees who work in schools — such as teachers, principals and guidance counselors — has risen slightly to about 93 percent, akin to the proportion in Montgomery County.
Republican-endorsed candidate Lolita Mancheno-Smoak is a business consultant who has made a career out of finding cost efficiencies for businesses and federal government agencies.
She said she would support asking for more local and state funds only after squeezing the current budget. She said a proper audit would find savings of about 15 percent — or about $330 million.
That is approximately the cost of all central-office operations, except the county’s bus fleet, according to an analysis by budget watchdog group FairfaxCAPS.
“We have to go systemically and surgically through things,” said Mancheno-Smoak. “It gets a little painful because folks don’t want to hear that some of their programs need to be shut down, but if that’s what it takes, that’s what we need to do.”
The down-ticket race has drawn more interest than usual this year as parents and teachers have expressed increasing frustration with the school system’s handling of high-profile, hot-button issues such as boundary changes, budget cuts, and overhauls of grading and discipline policies.
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