November 30, 1998

Point Of Contact: 
Robert Whiteman, FCCPTA First Vice President
robert.whiteman@delusw.cec.eu.int

(202) 867-9550 (days) 
(703) 435-1773 (home)

13155 Ruby Lace Court
Herndon, VA 20171

Fairfax County Council Of PTA’s Position:
The number one Fairfax County school problem is the significant and demonstrable need for both new school construction and older school renovations.

Background:
According to a recent press report (Larry O'Dell, "Members of the panel say they're unsure schools need more state aid" Fairfax Journal, A3, October 15, 1998), "Several members of Gov. Jim Gilmore's school construction commission...are not yet convinced that Virginia schools need significantly more state aid to build more classrooms. At its first meeting, the commission agreed it needs updated, reliable information about school construction needs before making recommendations to Gilmore and the General Assembly. ...Commission members said they needed assurance that any updated figures reflect only the school's actual needs. ...Gilmore...approved $110 million in school-building grants in the next two-year budget. ...The legislature's commission...is resurveying school districts on their building needs. ...Members also suggested school consolidation may be a way to alleviate some construction needs..."

Discussion:
Fairfax has the most severe school construction needs in VA:

--The largest school system in the state, FCPS has over 150,500 students (14 percent of Virginia public students). The 14,000 students in FCPS’s 550 trailers alone are as many as in Roanoke County, the 17th largest district.

--FCPS has experienced continued growth and this fall added over 3,150 additional students; this growth alone is greater than the entire enrollment of any of the 64 smallest Virginia districts.

Educational improvements have additional facilities implications:

--Full day kindergartens need twice as many rooms as half day.

--Federal and state mandates have similar implications and have reduced the effective capacity of our existing schools by 20% over the last 20 years. These mandates include reduced class sizes, alternative programs for suspended and expelled students, special education programs, services for English as a Second Language students, remedial education, handicapped accessibility, and requirements that students achieve technological proficiency.

The entire enrollment of any of the 46 smallest Virginia school divisions could fit into the largest Fairfax high school. Further school consolidations will not alleviate school construction needs in Fairfax County.

Because three-quarters of our existing schools are more than thirty years old, and because some schools are not scheduled for renewal until they near the half century mark, we, the FCCPTA, support simultaneous new construction, renovations, and renewals. These renovations are necessary not only to protect the taxpayers’ existing facilities investment, but also to provide equitable educational facilities across the county into the 21st century; for example, to facilitate Internet access.

The crisis is growing. FCPS school construction has not kept pace with population growth in the southern and western parts of the County, nor with the increasing population in the older eastern portions of the county. Even more alarming, projected renovation costs are four times the anticipated new construction costs. In response to the newspaper article quoted above, these are updated, reliable data of our actual needs.

Recommendation: 
State aid for the school construction should be allocated based on a per pupil enrollment basis. 

Last Updated 01/27/2005 20:22:30