By JillAnderson

Breaking News: Superintendent Dale is trying to save Full-day Kindergarten, Elementary School String and Band Programs, and Elementary school Immersion programs.

“To prevent more damaging cuts, I am requesting a county transfer increase of $57.8 million to preserve full-day kindergarten, elementary band and strings, elementary foreign language immersion, and to avoid further increases in class sizes for general and advanced academic education, including Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST)”.

The proposed budget includes a class size increase of one student, and the elimination of the Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) program, general education summer school, all high school freshman sports, and 594 positions, including 81 in central office support for schools. The proposed budget also includes no salary increases for employees for a second consecutive year.

Read the full News Release Here

The Fairfax County School Board will hold public hearings on the FY 2011 budget on January 25 and 26 at Jackson Middle School, 3020 Gallows Road in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County; the speakers list for those public hearings opens on Friday, January 8 at http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/requestspeak.htm. For complete information on the FCPS FY 2011 budget, including the budget calendar, visit http://www.fcps.edu/news/fy2011.htm.

I’m crossing my fingers that the BOS will approve the extra tax/money but in the meantime I am planning on attending one of the Public Hearings. I hope to see you there.

Original Post:
Fairfax County Superintendent Jack Dale will being releasing the 2011 Proposed Budget on January 7th.

Among other items, it is expected that full-day kindergarten will have been cut from 101 schools to just 32 Title 1 schools that serve the poorest communities.

Bailey’s and Belvedere are both Title 1 schools and should retain full-day kindergarten however I didn’t find Sleepy Hollow Elementary School on the Title 1 list.

Of course, anyone in Fairfax County wanting full-day kindergarten could apply for Bailey’s Magnet Program. I wrote a post about it last week. Applications are online now and will be accepted through March 1st.

The Washington Post wrote a full story about the proposed cuts to kindergarten – dated Dec 31, 2009:

More than a decade after the Fairfax School Board decided to bring full-day kindergarten to the county’s 139 elementary schools, nearly a third of them are still waiting for the longer school day. Progress has sputtered and stalled in recent years as the economy soured, and now the board might reverse course.

Continue reading the full story Here

Other items under consideration for cuts are an increase in class size by one student per teacher, resulting in a $19.1 million savings; elimination of summer school, saving $7.8 million; the elimination of elementary band and strings, saving $7.0 million; a reduction of needs-based staffing in elementary and middle schools and the elimination of the special needs staffing in high school, saving $19.8 million. You can see a Straw Man of proposed cuts HERE.

Fairfax County Public Schools website mentions that Public Hearings on the proposed budget will be held on January 25 & 26 although I wasn’t able to find any additional details at this time.

On a side note, this reminds me of a really terrific blog posting by Seth Godin last January- “What is School For?“.

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