The City Council passed their budget for FY 2018 on Thursday evening.
The City Council approved an Operating Appropriation of $214.1 million for FY 2018 for Alexandria City Public Schools.
The total funds approved by the City Council leave ACPS with a $2.1 million gap from the approved Operating Budget.
The Superintendent and School Board will be identifying areas for potential reduction to find ways to address the gap over the next two weeks. The aim will be to protect our classrooms as far as possible and impact staff as little as possible. However, 88 percent of the entire Operating Budget for the schools is personnel-related.
The City Council also approved a Capital Improvement Program allocation of $19 million. The FY 2018 allocation was reduced by $13.5 million.
The City Council identified $11 million to be held in contingency for School and City facility needs, which may or may not be released at a later date. At the same time they passed a resolution instructing the City Manager to create an Ad Hoc Joint City-Schools Facility Investment Task Force whose role will be to review various CIP documents and make recommendations regarding the prioritization and funding impact of city and school division capital projects.
The City Council also voted on Thursday night to increase taxes to help fund both ACPS and the City’s own Capital Improvement Projects.
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The School Board has a budget work session on Thursday, May 11, scheduled for after the School Board meeting at approximately 8p.m. in the School Board meeting room at Central Office, 1340 Braddock Place.
There are also two add/delete sessions on May 18 and May 23, both at 7 p.m. in the School Board meeting room at Central Office, 1340 Braddock Place. All meetings are open to the public.