The growing tension between Fairfax County’s government and schools leaders over funding spilled into public view yesterday (Wednesday) when Hunter Mill District School Board Representative Melanie Meren shared a hostile text exchange with Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
In response to a May 7 newsletter where Meren criticized the Board of Supervisors for eliminating high school crossing guards in the county’s fiscal year 2027 budget, adopted on May 5, McKay texted that she “should apologize” for the “crazy words you have put out,” according to screenshots that Meren posted on Facebook and provided directly to FFXnow.
“Melanie I thought you were better than this?” McKay wrote. “We are the safest jurisdiction [of] our size in the US bc of how we fund public safety (who took a cut while schools took a large funding increase). Not to mention the massive investments we have made in ped safety and cameras in school zones. We fund all Your remaining crossing Guards and your SROs [school resource officers] too.”
McKay then sent a screenshot of his comments to an unidentified third person, stating that it was “what I sent the bimbo.”
Meren, who was presumably unintentionally included in the text group with McKay and a person she believes was County Executive Bryan Hill, asked if she was “the bimbo.”
“Yes because you have everyone here angry as heck and it costs the schools,” McKay responded. “Did you think about that before you sent out the ridiculous newsletter. You have to stop the finger pointing all the time. It’s exhausting and harmful.”
McKay added that he’s “never used my newsletter to attack the school board.”
When Meren noted that they “don’t talk when we are in the same rooms” and her “requests to connect” haven’t received responses, adding that she would “welcome a discussion via phone or in person,” McKay stated that her newsletter set the Board of Supervisors and school board relationship “way back.”
He compared her newsletter commentary to remarks that he would expect from Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity — the only Republican on either board — and argued that she owes an apology to Hill.
“Our professional staff don’t need to be attacked by elected officials. Ever,” he wrote.
McKay also indicated that he no longer plans to attend Meren’s campaign kick-off this Sunday (May 17), as she seeks a third term on the school board. All local elected offices, including every seat on the school board and Board of Supervisors, will be on the ballot in November 2027.
County cut funding for crossing guards, middle school programs
In her newsletter, Meren criticized Hill for proposing, and the Board of Supervisors for approving, a budget that cut county funding for high school crossing guards and Fairfax County Public Schools’ Middle School After School (MSAS) programs — with the expectation that the school system would continue funding the latter through new fees.
Last year, faced with a projected $292.7 million gap in available funding, Hill had recommended outright eliminating $4.13 million that the Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) spends on MSAS and a Values in Prevention (VIP) summer camp program for middle school students, supporting staff salaries and supplies.
The nearly $60 million in proposed reductions also included an elimination of the Fairfax County Police Department’s 16 crossing guard positions assigned to public high schools, amounting to a $842,581 cut. According to budget documents, Fairfax County “is the only neighboring jurisdiction where crossing guards are placed at high schools.”
In May 2025, the Board of Supervisors ultimately adopted a fiscal year 2026 budget that restored funding for high school crossing guards and the middle school programs, but it directed county and FCPS staff collaborate on a plan to recoup some future expenses generated by the MSAS program through fees.
FCPS currently contributes approximately $1.9 million to the program for supplies, hourly staff and snacks, plus about $500,000 to provide late buses.
County officials had also spent more than a year at that point discussing potentially enlisting a private contractor to take over the crossing guard program after staffing challenges led FCPD to stop covering schools in Herndon and Fort Belvoir. The department also considered pulling back on crossing guards in Vienna, with the town’s police taking over at nine locations, but that wasn’t implemented.
In his advertised budget for fiscal year 2027, which will begin on July 1, Hill proposed eliminating 13 full-time high school crossing guard positions, or $1.89 million, and hiring contractors to fill any vacancies at elementary and middle schools instead of having the FCPD pull patrol officers.
With spending cuts totaling $32.9 million, the plan also transferred all county funding for the MSAS and VIP programs to FCPS. While the VIP program already charges fees for registration and field trips, the MSAS programs are currently free for all students. Hill’s budget plan called for the introduction of a $300 annual fee for participants who don’t qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
“It is estimated that this will generate $1.1 million in revenue and will be implemented for the 2026-2027 school year,” budget documents said.
The Board of Supervisors’ adopted FY 2027 budget staved off some of Hill’s proposed cuts, including for the BeWell mental health program, home meal deliveries and a part-time preschool program, while also making a small reduction to the real estate tax rate and increasing funding for affordable housing.
However, the crossing guard and middle school program changes went unaddressed, and the budget didn’t provide all of the funding to FCPS requested by Superintendent Michelle Reid, who presented proposed cuts to address the resulting $28.9 million shortfall to the school board last week.
Meren responds, McKay apologizes
In her newsletter, Meren took issue with the county shifting all funding for the MSAS program to FCPS.
“Basically, the Board of Supervisors is indicating how FCPS should spend its funding, which is not how the budgeting is supposed to happen,” she wrote.
She also blasted the elimination of high school crossing guards as a removal of safety precautions “in the exact locations with the newest drivers.”
“Our teen drivers and pedestrians are Fairfax residents who have a right to public safety services that enforce safe transportation where thousands of people commute daily,” Meren wrote. “That the County Executive continues to balance the budget on the backs of our kids’ safety, and the Supervisors allow this, is truly a neglect of public safety services in Fairfax County.”
“I do thank Hunter Mill [District] Supervisor Walter Alcorn, for rejecting the budget markups, and Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, for trying to protect the high school crossing guard program,” she added.
Alcorn had joined Herrity in voting against the package of revisions to Hill’s proposed budget, stating that he couldn’t support reducing the property tax rate at the same time services for “some of our most vulnerable residents” were also being cut.
In a statement regarding McKay’s texts to her, Meren maintained her belief that removing crossing guards from high schools “is the wrong decision for our community” and expressed concern that the board chair’s comments reflect a “sense of entitlement about having unilateral authority on public spending.”
More from Meren’s statement:
To be clear: the Board of Supervisors does not fund anything. The taxpayers fund the government, and our elected officials are stewards of public dollars. When the Board of Supervisors makes decisions about how to spend public monies, they must answer for those decisions. Attempts to stifle criticism and accountability are not signs of strength, but weakness.
I will continue speaking truth to power and standing up for student safety. I hope others will show up and speak up to do the same.
A few hours after Meren publicly shared the text messages, McKay released a statement acknowledging that his language, specifically the use of the word “bimbo,” was out of line.
“I used an inappropriate term while referring to School Board Member Meren that was disrespectful and wrong, and I apologize for it,” McKay said. “Substantive disagreements are fair to discuss, but I should have expressed those views professionally. That language does not reflect the standard I expect of myself or the level of respect owed to my colleagues and the public we serve.”
The exchange suggests lingering acrimony between the Board of Supervisors and school board built up over recent years of budget negotiations, despite members of both bodies agreeing that they need to improve communications and present a united front as they advocate for more state education funding.
The adopted FY 2027 budget transfers $3.05 billion to FCPS, an increase of $118.09 million, or 4.02%, from the budget adopted last year. However, the additional $99 million includes $4.59 million related to the middle school programs and transitional services for special education students graduating from high school that the county now expects the school system to fully fund.
Reid had proposed a $4.1 billion budget that sought an additional $138.4 million from the county government, stating that the amount is what’s needed to cover staff pay raises and other essentials.
The request was a step down from the $268 million increase that FCPS wanted for FY 2026. When the Board of Supervisors didn’t provide that full amount, school officials were forced to make last-minute cuts, including to pay increases promised to employees in their first collective bargaining contract.
