Fairfax County Public Schools staff will receive most, but not all, of their planned salary increases under a revised fiscal year 2026 budget proposal shared last week by Superintendent Michelle Reid.
However, in order to preserve as much of the promised raises as possible, some positions and services will be cut after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors declined to approve Reid’s full funding request.
Fairfax County teachers’ elation at securing a collective bargaining agreement, the first of its kind in nearly 50 years for the district, has proven short-lived.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is set to adopt a budget for fiscal year 2026 that transfers $2.93 billion to Fairfax County Public Schools — up $119 million from the current fiscal year, but well short of the $248 million increase that Superintendent Michelle Reid requested primarily to cover employee pay raises promised by the union contract.
A lower real estate tax rate, smaller transfer than school leaders sought and imposition of a meals tax are all part of Fairfax County’s $5.7 billion fiscal year 2026 budget slated for formal adoption next week.
“Our residents are worried” as they “prepare for the impact” of the Trump administration’s downsizing of the federal government and its related economic fallout, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said at a budget markup session today (Tuesday).
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently marked the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and saluted the Vietnamese American community’s vital role in the local area and nation.
“We honor all the contributions that the Vietnamese American community makes to Fairfax County on an everyday basis,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said when presenting a resolution at an April 22 meeting. “Anywhere you go in Fairfax County, you can see this.”
Plans for the nearly billion-dollar planned bus rapid transit (BRT) project in the Richmond Highway corridor took another step forward at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting on April 22.
The supervisors formally accepted $47.7 million in grant funding from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) in support of the project, which is currently estimated to cost $979 million. The money will come from the Commonwealth’s “Smart Scale” funding pool.
At their first meeting after a stabbing at West Potomac High School this week, School Board members said safety and the Fairfax County Public Schools budgets are inextricably linked.
School Board members expressed sympathy for staff, students and families affected by the stabbing, but also used it as a rallying cry in an ongoing budget battle with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
Consideration of a meals tax has gained most of the attention this budget cycle, but Fairfax County supervisors also are looking at increasing the transient-occupancy tax paid on hotel stays.
If adopted next month, the increase from 4% to 6% on stays of less than 30 days will raise an additional $13 million in the coming fiscal year, said Phil Hagen, director of the county’s Department of Management and Budget.
Fairfax County supervisors on Tuesday (April 22) gave the county school system an extension totaling nearly a full year to submit planning documents for expansion of Centreville High School.
The action did not sit well with the supervisor in whose district the school is located.
Opponents outnumbered supporters as the public weighed in Tuesday (April 22) on the imposition of a countywide meals tax.
Adding a meals tax on top of the sales tax for restaurant meals and prepared foods would “really be a burden” both to the industry and “economically exhausted consumers,” Jim Rafferty of the Glory Days Grill restaurant chain told Fairfax County supervisors during a public hearing.
Fairfax County supervisors on Tuesday (April 22) took the first step in what could result in a local-government takeover of trash-collection services across single-family neighborhoods in the county.
Supervisors voted 9-1 to advertise, for a June 24 public hearing, a plan that would start the clock running on a five-year waiting period before the county government could create a unified, countywide trash-collection district.
