Fairfax County Public Schools is set to allocate an additional $3.4 million to safety and security upgrades, drawing from surplus revenue identified in its mid-year budget review.
The funding includes $1.5 million from a class-action settlement with Juul, as well as higher-than-expected sales tax revenue and tuition payments from the City of Fairfax.
At a school board meeting last Thursday (Dec. 5), FCPS Chief Financial Officer Leslie Burden said this is the second of several payments expected from the settlement with Juul, though the total amount hasn’t been disclosed to the public.
“We’ve already had two other payments, and we’re expecting about three more,” she told school board members. “All of those we have allocated towards safety and security initiatives.”
According to a district staff report, the new funds will expand existing safety measures, including vape detectors, security cameras, panic buttons and security vestibules at school entrances.
The measures build on earlier efforts by FCPS to enhance security at dozens of schools following the 2022 Uvalde school shooting. Earlier this year, the school system used $3.2 million from the first round of its Juul settlement funds to pilot “security scanning technology” at select high schools.
For security reasons, FCPS declined to say which schools will get new vestibules or cameras via this latest round of funding. The school system is also keeping quiet about how the new security screening pilot and panic alert systems will work.
“We are not at a point in the process where we can share that information,” an FCPS spokesperson said.
Plans to expand the vape detector pilot are also in the works, despite mixed results from pilots in two high schools and one middle school.
“One of the desires is to expand the pilot further based on these results,” FCPS said.
In addition to the expanded security measures, Burden recommended the school board approve $141,000 for one-time stipends to pay esports coaches at all 25 high schools. Esports, or competitive video gaming, was previously funded through a federal grant and offered as an after-school activity.
She also proposed $300,000 in ongoing funding to help up to 100 aspiring teachers complete the Virginia iTeach program, which offers an alternate path to becoming licensed. Participants would fill teaching roles while completing a year-long residency, giving FCPS a way to recruit teachers from non-traditional backgrounds.
“It is recurring funding; and we’ll need to build that into the next year’s budget,” she said. “But … we had very few participants this past year. This is the year that we’re going to ramp up and try to get 100 people to be able to do that. And so we need to allocate funding for it.”
The school board is expected to vote on the proposed budget adjustments, including the $3.4 million allocation, on Dec. 19.
