Be sure to settle in. It’s bound to be a bumpy ride. Loudoun School Superintendent Ed Hatrick presented his initial budget to the new School Board this past week. And largely because of changes to the Virginia Retirement System, the proposed budget is more than 10 percent higher than last year.

As always, there are two core factions in relation to school funding: the first will recommend any sacrifice and expenditure to maintain a world class school system and the other simply cannot believe that the school budget can be so large without significant waste.

Many of the officials elected this past November ran on a platform of restraining spending and carefully examining expenditures. It will be interesting to see their reaction to this new, larger budget.

And while the school budget causes a commotion every January and February, it seems more likely to do so this year – where the cuts from prior budgets have come due and are now supposedly requiring a higher budget. Contrast this with two new boards, each seeking to prove themselves by taking the budget head on.

At this stage, we can only recommend that every family in Loudoun pay careful attention to how the budget discussions play out – and make their own voices heard when our elected officials are trying to balance a fair tax burden against excellence in education.