Superintendent Presents Proposed FY 2025 Budget to Maintain Core Services

Calls on County and State for Funding to Close Budget Gap and Meet Unfunded Needs 

Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán presented the proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year (FY 2025) to the School Board on Feb. 29, 2024.

Dr. Durán presented a proposed budget totaling $824.7 million, a 1.5% increase over FY 2024. The superintendent’s proposal focuses on continuing to invest in compensation, with a 3.3% average increase for staff, and maintaining core services for students and schools, while emphasizing significant needs that are unfunded and unmet.

The proposed budget aligns with the School Board’s budget direction, limits new spending—resulting in over $25.1 million in unfunded needs—and includes over $20.9 million in expenditure reductions, primarily affecting central offices. Despite the reductions, APS faces a $29.5 million budget gap.

“We are facing a challenging budget year, and this is not the budget I want to propose—it is a budget of necessity and leaves many needs unfunded, such as the need to reduce class sizes, provide a larger compensation increase beyond the proposed 3.3%, and increase staffing and resources to strengthen instruction for all students,” said Dr. Durán.

Eighty percent of the proposed budget is dedicated to compensation, including step increases of 2.3% and a 1% cost of living adjustment. The superintendent underscored his ongoing commitment to compensation and retaining staff while acknowledging that this increase is not enough.

The Superintendent’s proposed budget includes $17.3 million in overall reductions to spending, including a 5% reduction of central office non-school-based positions and a 12% cut to central office budgets.  Core unfunded needs identified in the proposed budget include priorities such as:

• $11.8M more to provide an additional 2% cost of living increase for staff, resulting in a 5.3% average compensation increase. This additional increase would further advance the goal of being in the top three local school divisions for compensation.
• $8.7M more to reduce class sizes by 2.
• $3.2M more for 21 additional staff positions to support instruction, including interventionists for K-5 math and high school literacy coaches, and an EL assessment specialist and six deans at remaining secondary schools.
• An increase in staffing to support special student populations including English learners and Students with Disabilities, based on recommendations from the planning factor study.
• $400,000 more for inflation-based adjustments to teachers’ instructional supplies, to correct a supplies budget that has not been increased since FY 2014.
• $1.5M to restore funding for Minor Construction/Major Maintenance (MC/MM) to care for aging school buildings.

According to an independent review by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), Virginia school divisions receive less K-12 funding per student than the 50-state average, the regional average, and three of Virginia’s five bordering states. School divisions in other states receive 14% more per student than school divisions in Virginia, on average. This equates to about $1,900 less per student for Virginia. The JLARC estimates that annually, APS is underfunded by approximately $51 million.

“My recommendations reflect our collaborative work over the past several months to balance the budget with limited funding support, based on current information available to us,” Durán continued. “I urge the State and County to increase funding for schools and look forward to collaborating with the County and School Board to address our budget gap in the weeks ahead.”

The Superintendent and School Board urged the community to support schools by advocating for more funding—specifically for the Governor to sign a budget that funds APS, opposing the Governor’s current proposed budget which reduces state funding to APS by $5.7 million, and for the County Board to provide more funding for schools with a 2.5-cent tax rate increase.

For more information and to view the full presentation, visit the budget webpage.