School Board adopts $408M budget
Language programs preserved; board warns of deeper cuts if city doesn't fund 3.5% request
The Alexandria City School Board unanimously adopted a $408,157,759 budget for fiscal year 2027 Thursday, preserving its Latin and Chinese language programs and Afghan family liaison positions after weeks of advocacy from students, parents, and teachers.
The approved spending plan includes a $376,158,150 operating budget supporting 2,493.7 full-time equivalent positions and requests a 3.5% city appropriation increase, bringing that figure to $292,268,100. The grants and special projects budget totals $19,185,333 with 117.4 FTEs; the School Nutrition Services budget totals $12,814,276 with 121 FTEs.
The operating budget of $376,158,150 includes a transfer for the Virginia Preschool Initiative grant; the base operating expenditure figure is $374.5 million.
1.5% vs. 3.5%
The adopted budget exceeds City Manager James Parajon’s guidance to ACPS of a 1.5% increase, or $4.2 million. The board’s request is 3.5%, or $9.8 million.
After the vote, Chair Michelle Rief said the lower figure falls short of what the division needs.
“A 1.5% increase from the city — $4.2 million — does not even cover a step increase for our staff,” Rief said. “In order to provide a competitive pay raise for school staff next year, we’ve had to make many difficult choices — eliminating about a dozen positions, mostly from central office, increasing fees. All of our departments and schools were asked to cut 5% in non-personnel costs. And we’re asking ACPS employees to contribute more for health care.”
Rief said the division could face further reductions if the full request is not funded.
“If we do not receive a 3.5% increase, we’re going to be forced to make even more difficult decisions — cutting positions, increasing class size. We’re not going to be able to give staff a competitive pay increase, and we may lose staff to neighboring divisions,” she said. “I don’t want community members later saying that they didn’t know this was happening.”
Board member Alexander Crider Scioscia also spoke after the vote.
“We’re not blind to the fact that the city has recommended a 1.5% increase and that this budget is 3.5,” Scioscia said. “But what bears repeating is that while this request might be a reach for council, it’s a bare necessity for us. We cannot fall behind our surrounding jurisdictions.”
Programs preserved
The budget restores Latin under an itinerant model — one teacher serving both George Washington and Francis Hammond middle schools in person — reversing a proposal that would have moved instruction entirely online. The position is funded by eliminating a communications role. The Chinese language program retains one teacher in a hybrid format covering both middle schools. Both had been targeted for elimination amid declining enrollment and a $15.1 million shortfall.
The two Afghan family liaison positions, whose federal grant funding had expired, were preserved through a superintendent’s budget adjustment.
Board member Donna Kenley highlighted all three after the vote, noting more than 1,100 Afghan students are enrolled in ACPS and that the liaisons help families navigate the school system. On Chinese, she said the program “enhances competitiveness in federal jobs right within five miles of U.S. national security, intelligence, defense and diplomacy.” Kenley added: “I will do everything that I can to make sure that the city council and other members realize how very important the additions that we have made tonight are supported and they understand the critical need that we have to support our teachers, our students and all of our families and parents.”
Healthcare and compensation
The budget shifts 5% of healthcare premium costs to employees — moving most staff from a 20/80 split to 25/75 and support staff from 10/90 to 15/85 — saving approximately $2 million earmarked for the district’s first collectively bargained agreements.
What comes next
Parajon presents his proposed FY 2027 budget to City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, with a community presentation Feb. 26 at Charles Houston Recreation Center. A joint ACPS-City Council work session is scheduled for March 4. Council public hearings and work sessions run through April, with adoption set for April 29. ACPS may revisit its appropriation request in May once the city’s budget is finalized. The board will vote on the final adopted Combined Funds Budget on June 11.
