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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Alexandria City School Board adopted its fiscal 2027 budget Thursday night, closing out what board members called one of the most difficult budget years in recent memory.
The board approved both the $282.3 million, 10-year Capital Improvement Program and the $371.1 million operating budget by 8-1 votes, with member Abdulahi Abdalla of District C the lone no vote on each. Abdalla did not state a reason during the meeting.
The operating budget totals $371.1 million, supported by a city appropriation of $286.6 million, an increase of 1.5% over the prior year. The budget funds 2,449 positions and draws $7.5 million from fund balance. Counting the operating fund alongside the grants and school nutrition funds, the combined budget comes to about $401.2 million.
A $13 million gap
Chair Michelle Rief, in remarks after the vote, laid out the pressures that shaped the year. The board had to close an operating gap of more than $13 million amid what she called significant uncertainty: federal workforce reductions that fall heavily on Alexandria, slowing city revenue growth, continued inflation, the work of negotiating the division's first collective bargaining agreements and a state budget that still has not been adopted.
To balance, the board cut non-personnel spending, raised facility-use fees and employee health care contributions, and eliminated or reduced 56 full-time-equivalent positions. Most affected employees have been placed in other ACPS positions, Rief said. A district news release issued after the meeting said 13.5 of the 56 positions were non-instructional, that 51 affected staff had been moved into another position, and that five had not, citing an inability to match positions, eligibility requirements or other factors.
Chief Financial Officer Dominic Turner, who steered much of the process, described the reductions as deliberate. The cuts were strategic rather than reckless, he told the board, framing them as an effort to limit direct effects on students, preserve front-line staff and ease future budget pressure. He cast the result as a choice for long-term stability over short-term fixes.
What the budget does for staff pay
The adopted budget carries the compensation package the board reached after the city set its appropriation: a step increase for eligible employees, a 1.25% cost-of-living adjustment for licensed and education support professional staff, and a new top step for those who have reached the top of their pay scale.
That package is narrower than the tentative agreement the board negotiated earlier in the year, and the gap between the two became the defining tension of the budget's final weeks. At Tuesday's add/delete work session, the board abandoned most of its proposals to restore pay after staff warned that, having adopted a collective bargaining resolution in 2024, the board no longer had the authority to set compensation on its own, in either direction. Any improvement, the board agreed, must now be negotiated with the Education Association of Alexandria.
The board moved to get ahead of the resulting frustration, publishing a signed, unanimous explanation of that decision on its blog Wednesday night.
The June 9 session produced a narrow set of changes folded into Thursday's budget: both Afghan family liaison positions were restored at their actual cost of $150,600, an itinerant advanced academic services teacher was added at $147,200, and $83,800 was put toward the Communities In Schools contract. Those additions were offset by cuts to the School Board's management services account, division-wide travel, a vacant technology services position, membership dues and contracted services, keeping the budget balanced, as state law requires.
A capital deferral
In the capital budget, Rief disclosed a decision that had not been previously emphasized: the board chose to defer the modernization of Cora Kelly School for Math, Science and Technology. She called it a difficult choice, but one that would reduce future operating pressure while the division monitors enrollment trends and updates its long-range facilities plan. The capital plan commits $24.9 million in FY 2027 and $282.3 million across the decade.
Public anger, and a farewell
The vote came after pointed public comment. One speaker called the budget "an effective pay cut" and faulted the board for leaving central office largely untouched while front-line staff absorbed reductions. The speaker pledged to fundraise for Communities In Schools, which the board funded at less than a third of its full contract, and to file public-records requests and bring findings to the City Council. Several Titan Robotics students and alumni also spoke against the loss of their workshop space at the King Street campus, a separate dispute that drew a petition with more than 160 signatures.
The meeting carried an undercurrent of transition. It was the final budget of Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt's tenure before her retirement this fall, a milestone Turner marked in his closing remarks, calling the budget a reflection of her legacy.
Alexander Crider Scioscia, the only member besides Rief to speak after the vote, called it his second and one of the most complex budgets in recent history, citing collective bargaining and the constrained 1.5% increase. He said he welcomed the criticism the board had received and looked forward to the coming central office benchmarking study, which he said would help the division and the next superintendent. The board may not agree on everything, he said, but it can act on what it does agree on, and he committed to working with the City Council to find new revenue next year.
What's still unresolved
The state budget remains the open question. The General Assembly reconvenes later this month, the House on June 18 and the Senate on June 22, and ACPS could receive anywhere from zero to roughly $3.1 million in additional funding. The board has said that if the money arrives, its priorities are compensation first, then closing the Communities In Schools gap, then revisiting positions and stipends. Any compensation increase would have to be bargained with the EAA, and staff have recommended that any new one-time money go toward a one-time payment rather than a permanent raise.
The board's next meeting is its July 9 organizational session.
