A pr il 2 1 - 2 7 , 2 0 1 6
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d ed 1991 • Vol. X X V I N o. 9
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week No Action Taken on Special Ed Report
The Falls Church School Board decided to take no action in response to a report by two of its members asking for the removal of the Schools’ Special Education Advisory Committee chair and vice chair. See News Briefs, page 9
Man Dies in F.C. After Struggle With Police
A man who was reported missing died after a struggle with police who were attempting to return him to caretakers, police reported Wednesday.
4 of 7 on City Council Resolved To Slash $912,000 from Schools Goal to Placate Demands for No Tax Rate Hike
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
See News Briefs, page 9
Maureen Dowd: Hillary is not Sorry
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Hillary Clinton. She is hearing ghostly footsteps. But at least last time, it was a dazzling newcomer who also offered the chance to break a barrier. This time, Hillary is trying to fend off a choleric 74-year-old democratic socialist. See page 13
Press Pass with Creed Bratton
Creed Bratton, the actor who played a character named after himself on the American version of the television show “The Office,” is coming to Vienna’s Jammin’ Java next Tuesday for a night of comedy and music. See page 25
FALLS CHURCH SCHOOL BOARD members (left to right) Erin Gill, Michael Ankuma, Margaret Ward and Lawrence Webb were four among six School Board members present Tuesday night to mull the grim options for deeper cuts in the School Board budget ahead of the final City Council vote on the budget Monday night. (Photo: News-Press)
F.C. School Board Scrambles To Find Ways to Cut Programs by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters..............6, 27 News & Notes.10-11 Comment......... 12-15 Sports..................19 Calendar.........20-21
Business News....22 Food & Dining......23 Classified Ads .....28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........29 Critter Corner.......30
Three scenarios for how to cut $912,600 from the Falls Church School Board’s adopted Fiscal Year 2017 budget were delineated by Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones late yesterday afternoon in anticipation of the City Council cutting that sum when it votes on the budget Monday night. Following Monday’s work
session of the Falls Church City Council when a majority of four members came out in favor of eliminating any increase in the real estate tax rate thus mandating cuts of $912,600 from the Falls Church School Board’s adopted budget, the School Board assembled in a work session of its own the next night to assess the situation and begin to make some very difficult decisions. It was an exasperated School
whie Board and City school staff wrestled Tuesday night with the hard realities of cutting $912,600 from the budget it submitted in February. Meeting at School Board headquarters to face up to the prospects of a draconian funding cut by the City Council below the numbers requested to cope with rising enrollment and pressures to remain competitive for teacher compensation with
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As the Falls Church City Council moves to adopt its Fiscal Year 2017 budget this coming Monday night, the News-Press has learned there are at least four (out of seven total) who are reinforcing each others’ resolve to defy the recommendation of City Manager Wyatt Shields and to force $912,600 in cuts to the School Board’s adopted budget in order to adopt a budget with no real estate tax rate increase. A flummoxed School Board tried to come to grips with the inevitability of such cuts at a lengthy work session Tuesday night (see story, elsewhere this page), and School Board chair Justin Castillo penned a guest commentary in this edition to explain what the impact could be. He said that “the proposed cut would almost certainly increase average class size (a process that is difficult to reverse) and hurt staff pay.” On the City Council, Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly is also siding with the School Board request and submitted a letter to the editor in this edition. But there appears to be a solid majority on the Council resolved to eliminate Shield’s recommendation for a 2.5-cent tax rate increase from $1.315 to $1.34 per $100 of assessed real estate valuation, and that would include some deep new cuts in the City’s operational budget, adding up to less than half the amount that would be cut from the Schools. The growth in both sides, the City and Schools, would be limited to three percent.
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