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Growth costs: School-spending request increases $111 million
"Growth costs," said Supervisor-elect Stevens Miller (D-Dulles) when he got his first look at the proposed budget for Loudoun's public schools for next year.Superintendent of Schools Edgar Hatrick presented his spending plan for the next fiscal year, July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009, to the School Board and to five of the supervisors who will vote on it next April.
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Scott York (I-at large) and Broad Run Supervisor Lori Waters (R) attended the Nov. 27 presentation, as did supervisors-elect Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac), Susan Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) and Miller.
The bottom line is $801.4 million, up from $690.6 this year. An expected enrollment increase of 3,270 students accounts for more than a third of the $110.9 million increase over the current year, Hatrick said.
This budget looks to local taxpayers for $593.3 million, up $80.1 million from last year.
Hatrick acknowledged the supervisors will be facing a challenge this year, as real estate values decline and local revenue may be down. But a tax increase, he suggested, cannot be ruled out.
No other fast-growing jurisdiction in Northern Virginia, he said, avoided raising taxes. Both Fairfax and Prince William peaked at $1.50 per $100 of assessed value of real estate or higher before commercial development caught up with the houses.
Loudoun's tax rate this year is 96 cents per $100.
"Not a single person who was elected didn't express strong support for public education," Hatrick said. "There's a connection between what you spend and what you get. This is an estimate of what it costs to educate 57,000 children."
The number could have been higher had he included another $20 million in spending, he said. In addition, the state will be sending $25 million more than it did last year.
Enrollment in the school system this year is just over 54,000 students. By next August, when school doors open, it will be more than 57,000.
Another $3 million of the increase in the budget goes to opening three new elementary schools.
Woodgrove High School, planned to open north of Purcellville by mid-year, has been bumped back at least to August 2009 by continuing litigation with the Town of Purcellville.
The schools will be competing in the market for 800 teachers -- new positions and filling vacancies -- and Hatrick proposes raising the starting salary for a teacher to $44,357, and increasing teacher salaries across the board by 5.8 percent. He proposes raising salaries for classified employees -- secretaries, custodians, plant engineers, bus drivers -- by 6 percent across the board.
Since 87 percent of the budget is people, Hatrick said, "the quickest way to do it cheaper is to increase class size and hire fewer teachers, have longer bus rides and hire fewer bus drivers."
Miller said he is looking forward to the coming budget sessions. "THis is what I campaigned on,t hat gerowth is expensive,"he siad. ""We can't solve overnight all the problems it took years to create."
York left the meeting with the 451-page budget book for homework.
"Growth is costing us dearly," he said. "It's going to be a tough budget year."
Contact the reporter ssollinger@timespapers.com
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