A pr il 2 8 - M ay 4 , 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 No. 10
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week School Board Dissolves Special Ed Committee The Falls Church School Board Tuesday night voted unanimously to disband its Special Education Advisory Committee which had been embroiled in almost a full year of acrimony. See News Briefs, page 9
News-Press Summer Camp Guide Inside
F.C. Council Votes 4-3 to Adopt FY17 Budget With No Tax Hike, School Cuts
Split on School Funding Issue, It Holds Tax Rate Line
by Nicholas F. Benton
Summer is just around the corner and summer camps and classes around Falls Church are filling up fast. Check out the News-Press’ camp guide inside for all the area’s summer fun.
Falls Church News-Press
See pages 16-21
David Brooks: Getting to Zero
Ernest Hemingway’s house in Cuba seems like such a healthy place. Yet Hemingway was not a healthy man during the latter phases in his life. He was drunk much of the time. See page 12
Press Pass with Jamie Kilstein and The Agenda
Jamie Kilstein and The Agenda have bold, overtly political messages in their music and they’re bringing those messages to the masses starting this week with a tour of the United States. See page 29
WRESTLING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES of a $912,600 cut in their budget at Tuesday’s School Board meeting were (l. to r.) Chair Justin Castillo, Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones, Financial Czar Hunter Kimble, Assistant Superintendents Lisa High and Marty Gadell. (Photo: News-Press)
F.C. School Board Votes to Cut Teacher Salary Hikes by 20% by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters..............6, 26 News & Notes.10-11 Comment......... 12-15 Sports..................22 Calendar.........24-25
Food & Dining......27 Business News....30 Classified Ads .....32 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........33 Critter Corner.......34
Reeling from Monday night’s 4-3 Falls Church City Council vote to cut $912,600 from their budget request, the Falls Church School Board met Tuesday night in the conference room of their offices in the Flower Building, and were pressed by Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones to make a prompt decision on how to absorb the cuts in terms of teacher salaries. The rush was due to the fact that Jones and Assistant
Superintendent Lisa High are currently in the process of interviewing for new positions, as are other jurisdictions who could be wooing Falls Church teachers this spring. The immediate decision was to accommodate a portion of the cut by eliminating 20 percent of the salary increases that had been built into the School Board budget to maintain the competitiveness of the system with others in the region. The removal of that increase, in a year when there are no “step” increases provided for the teachers and staff
and in which health care premiums are soaring, could prove critical to the soundness of the Falls Church system even now. But in a spirit of sacrifice, all the members of the School Board present Tuesday said they’d forego their modest salaries from being on the School Board, if their colleagues on the City Council did likewise. That would ante up almost enough money to make up for the 20 percent across-the-board teacher salary cut.
Continued on Page 4
The die was cast in recent weeks and there were no changes in the arguments or discourse among the four Falls Church City Council members Monday night who constituted the majority in favor of slashing almost $1 million from the City Schools’ budget. Despite passionate pleas from School officials, ranging from Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones, School Board vice chair John Lawrence, leaders of the teachers’ Falls Church Education Association and teachers themselves Monday night, there was no change in the rhetoric presented by those four Council members, including from ones who had posted their remarks online earlier in the week. The vote was 4-3 to hold the real estate tax rate at $1.315 by cutting $912,600 from the School budget, with Mayor David Tarter and Council members Phil Duncan, Letty Hardi and Dan Sze voting “yes,” and Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly, and Council members Karen Oliver and David Snyder voting “no.” The $86 million budget will go into effect on July 1, but Superintendent Jones met with the Schools’ chief financial officer Hunter Kimble Tuesday morning to begin to work out the details of where the cuts in the Schools’ programs will have to come. That work was brought forward to a work session of the whole School Board Tuesday night. The number of the cut to the Schools’ budget was, Dr. Jones says, entirely arbitrary based on a
Continued on Page 5