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Fairfax County Schools
With Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech
Friday, Jan. 10, 2003
Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech leads Fairfax County Public Schools, which serve more than 160,000 students.
As enrollment grows, the school system is trying to find ways to combat crowding. The school system's 2004-08 capital improvement plan proposes building seven new schools and renovating 23 existing buildings. (Read the article.) Domenech will be outlining his budget for the upcoming academic year on Thursday.
What will his priorities be in the coming months and the next school year? What should he focus on?
The discussion follows below.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Fairfax, Va.:
How are Fairfax County Public Schools going to prepare for meeting the rigors of No Child Left Behind? Specifically what will be done to train teachers to assist their students pass the exams in grades 3-8? Won't this additional training and support put a great burden on an already stretched budget?
Daniel A. Domenech: Good afternoon and thank you to the Post for inviting me to join you.
I am very concerned over the fact that No Child Left Behind is looming as yet another huge unfunded mandate similar to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Specifically to deal with the teacher training aspects of this, I have recommended in my budget that we increase the teacher calendar to include two additional days for staff development over the summer months at a cost of $8.4 million.
Vienna, Va.:
With reduced funding from the state of Virginia, and further spending cuts expected (at the state level), how does Fairfax County propose to maintain the very high quality of education? Do you anticipate that Fairfax County will be forced to raise real estate taxes to offset the reduction in state funding of education?
Daniel A. Domenech: I am very grateful to Governor Warner for having proposed a budget that will not inflict education cuts upon us. If the General Assembly honors his proposal, we will not need to make the very difficult program cuts that otherwise would ensue. Our strategy to maintain our world class system through these very difficult times will focus on maintaining and attracting the very best teachers. In order to do that, I am proposing to make our staff the highest paid in the Washington metropolitan area. I have included in next year's budget accross the board increases of 2% for all employees, step increments (averaging 2.6%), a pickup of .5% on the Virginia Retirement system and two additional days for teachers giving them an additional percent increase. Given the increase in assessments in the county, I do not believe that raising real estate taxes is an option.
Springfield, Va.:
Can the amount of testing in the school system be reduced? Why do we need the Stanford tests when we have the SOLs?
Daniel A. Domenech: The No Child Left Behind federal mandates will require even more testing. In all probability, the Stanford tests will be eliminated to make room for SOL tests at the 4th, 6th, and 7th grade levels. The federal mandate requires testing at all grade levels in Reading and Math at grades 3 to 8.
Falls Church, Va.:
Won't the testing of thousands of additional children under NCLB also pose a budgetary problem for Fairfax? How will you cope with this and how can parents help?
Daniel A. Domenech: We are very concerned that indications from Washington are that next year's education budget will be flat funded, with no increases in funding for No Child Left Behind as had been promised a year ago. This will add a tremendous burden to school systems all over the country. Given the fact that Virginia is broke and that the best we can hope for is for no cuts to our budget and that our county cannot pick up the slack from the state, we are in trouble! I urge you to contact your representatives in the General Assembly and urge them to honor the Governor's request and not cut education dollars. You might also contact your congressional representatives and ask for full funding of NCLB.
Clifton, Va.:
You always announce that budget shortfalls will impact some education-related program/activity, e.g., Japanese language training, summer school classes, learning disabled instruction, etc. Why can't these budget shortfalls be directed elsewhere in your spending plan, e.g., school busing -- do we need all those full-size, Bluebird buses to transport 5-10 students (I see almost empty buses all over the county throughout the school day); security--why does the school system have its own security force and supporting infrastructure?
Daniel A. Domenech: Budget cuts have affected all aspects of our operation, including transportation. We purchase the largest buses because it is cost effective. The same buses are doing multiple runs every day, transporting the maximum numbers of students at the begining and end of the school day, and using the same bus to trasport smaller number of students as required. It makes for a much more cost effective operation than having a fleet of small buses that cannot be use for any other purpose than to tranport small numbers of students. Security is also a major issue for us. We already have police officers assigned to all of our secondary schools, but the police department does not have the resources to offer us the additional protection that we get from our security personnel.
Vienna, Va.:
Will Fairfax County adopt a FULL-DAY kindergarten schedule (rather than half-day) anytime in the near future, or is it up to each individual school? If the FULL-DAY schedule will not be adopted county-wide, why not?
Daniel A. Domenech: We currently have 40 of our elemnetary schools offering full day kindergarten. They are part of our Project Excel and Success by Eight programs. Research and, indeed, our own results show that full day kindergarten makes a significant impact on achievement. Although our goal is to have universal full-day kindergarten, the reality of the budget and facility requirements will undoubtedly postpone this goal for a while.
Fairfax, Va.:
Has Fairfax county ever entertained the idea of year round schooling? You can fit more children into a single school with less crowding, and I have heard good things about the quality of learning when the students don't have such a large amount of time off during the summer.
Daniel A. Domenech: We currently do offer a number of schools on a modified calendar. The elementary schools begin early August and the middle schools and high schools in mid August. Our purpose, however, has more to do with academic achievement than solving space needs. As you state, the children benefit from not having all of that time off in the summer and their test scores prove it.
Herndon, Va.:
My daughter will be graduating next year. In the past we have not received notice on how she did on the SOL tests until well into the summer. How will we know if she has enough verifiable credits to graduate in June if the results are so late?
Daniel A. Domenech: This is a major concern for us as we approach June of 2004 when students will have had to have passed the required SOL tests in order to get a high school diploma. We are hoping that by then the state will be able to get to us the reults in time to make this very critical decision.
Falls Church, Va.:
Will Glasgow Middle School be replaced, rather than renovated as has been reported in some places? If so, when will this be done?
Daniel A. Domenech: The Capital Improvement Program that we have just released calls for the construction of a new Glasgow, as opposed to a renovated building. Assuming the appropriate levels of funding are available, construction is slated to begin possibly as early as the summer of 2005 with completion by 2008.
Vienna, Va.:
What's the current ratio of teaching staff vs. administrative personnel? How is that compared to FCPS prior years? Compared to other similar school districts? Is there a target goal for FCPS? Thanks.
Daniel A. Domenech: Administrators are less than one percent (0.9%) of our work force, one of the lowest percentages in the Washington area and the nation. We have made substantial reductions in administrative staffing over the last five years because of the budget cuts we have been forced to take. I have recently eliminated yet another assistant superintendent position and further consolidated the district office administration.
Springfield, Va.:
Dr. D:
Thanks for taking our questions today. You say that you intend to make our teachers the best paid in the area, but a 2 percent raise falls far, far short of that goal. A simple comparison of the entire compensation packages in competing areas shows that many pay their teachers up to ten thousand dollars a year more than Fairfax County. That's a tremendous disparity. And yet you've proposed a 2 percent raise again, while counties like Montgomery and Loudoun have proposed 5 and 7 percent, placing us even further behind. All of the programs in the world will be ineffective without high-quality teachers, and they are going elsewhere. When will we make up the discrepancy and really bring our salaries up to match?
Daniel A. Domenech: I dispute your ten thousand dollar figure. In fact, we are currently very competitive but it is my goal to make us the highest. You cannot just look at the 2% and ignore step (another 2.6%), the additional two days (1%) and the VRS pickup (.5%) for a total of 6.1%. I doubt that many, if any school systems in the area, will beat that raise this year.
On top of all this we currently do offer the best retirement program in the country and the finest disability program you will find anywhere.
Mount Vernon, Va.:
My daughter is in one of the Excel schools. When you first started project Excel I remember that since these schools were getting additional funding (staff?) if the school did not make higher achievement these funds would be taken away or some other "punishment" would be addressed to the school. Are there any Excel schools that are in this position?
Daniel A. Domenech: We are very pleased with the progress of our Excel schools. Half of them are fully accredited and all the rest but one have met provisional accreditation standards. We continue to focus our attention on the schools with need and we do not anticipate that we will have to exert any "punishment" on any of these schools.
washingtonpost.com:
I'm afraid that's all the time we have. Thank you so much for joining us today Superintendent Domenech.
Daniel A. Domenech:
Thanks for inviting me!
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