School Board Regular Meeting

Carolyn PitchesGood evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is Monday, January 5th of 2026, and this is a regular meeting of the City of Fairfax School Board. Will everybody please stand for the pledge?

Speaker 6I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay.

Carolyn PitchesThere are no changes to the agenda this evening. No other announcements. So the first item is the adoption of the agenda.

Sarah KelseyMadam Chair.

Carolyn PitchesYes, Ms. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyI move that the City of Fairfax School Board adopt the agenda as written and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesI may have a second. Second. Ms. Kelsey has moved. Ms. Hickman has seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. None opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Next we are going to move on to our student recognition this evening. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Phillips who is going to manage that recognition.

Dan PhillipsstaffThank you, Chair Pitches. Welcome, everyone. It's great to see you this evening. Great to see some familiar faces. We welcome everyone to our meeting this evening where we will look again to celebrate the success of our students. In just a moment, I'll call the names of students we're recognizing this evening one at a time. If you're with us in person tonight and you hear your name called, please come to the front of the room with us. We'll give you a certificate to recognize your accomplishment, and we'll take a photo together. If you're LISTENING AT HOME OR PERHAPS YOU RECEIVED A STATE HONOR IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS, DON'T WORRY. WE'LL SEND YOUR CERTIFICATE TO SCHOOL FOR YOU OR WE'LL RECOGNIZE YOU LATER THIS YEAR.

SO AT THIS TIME I'D LIKE TO INVITE ANY ADMINISTRATORS UP THAT MIGHT WANT TO BE WITH US IN

Speaker 2THE

Dan PhillipsstaffPHOTOS.

Speaker 2LET'S SEE. THERE. I KNEW WE

Dan PhillipsstaffHAD ONE.

Speaker 2DR. A.

Dan PhillipsstaffTHANKS FOR JOINING US THIS EVENING, DR. A. AND BOARD AND SUPERINTENDENT. SUPERINTENDENT, RIGHT? ALL RIGHT. THE NATIONAL MERIT COMMENDED SCHOLAR DESIGNATION IS AN ACADEMIC HONOR GIVEN TO APPROXIMATELY 34,000 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO SCORE IN THE TOP 3 TO 4% NATIONALLY ON THE PRELIMINARY SAT OR THE NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP QUALIFYING TEST. CONGRATULATIONS THIS EVENING TO PETER CHOI. PETER, COME ON UP. AND WE'RE GOING TO TAKE THE GROUP PHOTO WITH everyone once we come up. Kevin Nguyen. Priscilla Jang. Laura Johnson. Aniket Nardas Sean Nguyen Samuel Park Fiona Rice Noelle Sackey AND IF WE CAN GET A PHOTO WITH OUR COMMENDED SCHOLARS. Congratulations to our commended scholars. NEXT WE'RE GOING TO RECOGNIZE OUR NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS. A NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALIST IS A HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENT WHO SCORED AMONG THE HIGHEST SCORING ENTRANCE, TYPICALLY THE TOP 1% IN THEIR STATE ON THE PRELIMINARY SAT OR THE NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP QUALIFYING TEST AND HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE TO THE finalist competition for the National Merit Scholarships. Tonight we congratulate Rohan Desai, Elias Falk, Henry Mann, Michael Steckle, and Nathan Yoon. And now a photo. Do you want a folder? Yeah, yeah. Hey, was I too late? Was it okay? Thank you. We're so proud of all of our students. congratulations to all and congratulations to all of our students this year on their hard work and their accomplishments thank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay so I'm going to take or we're going to take we'll take a five minute recess wants to go, they can. There's still, I think, refreshments out in the atrium if you guys would like to enjoy those as well. So you are dismissed. Unless you want to stay, you're more than welcome to.

Dustin WrightstaffThe End

Speaker 6The End ¶¶ Thank you.

Carolyn Pitchesokay good evening again we are going to move on to presentations of school board and we do not have anybody signed up this evening for citizen participation so we're going to move on to miss Lucas's student report

Abbey Lucasgood evening and happy new year as we kick off 2026 Fairfax City schools are buzzing with energy and a reflection on a joyful December filled with performances community giving winter sports and excitement. The holiday season brought our students, staff, and families closer together in celebration and support of one another. Here's a look at some of the highlights from December across our schools. At Fairfax High School, the theater department delighted audience with the Colabrett festive winter cabaret performance on December 2nd, oh 12th, sorry, full of talent, laughter, and holiday spirit. Winter sports teams were in full action throughout the month with basketball, swim and dive, wrestling, gymnastics, and indoor track competing in thrilling

games and meets. The popular baseball Christmas tree sale continued into early December, raising funds for the team while spreading cheer to families picking out their perfect tree. At Catherine Johnson Middle School, the Fairfax Theater Company brought holiday magic with performances of a backstage Christmas from December 12th to 21st, showcasing student and community talent in this heartwarming production. Families connected over resources for cold weather support and ongoing PTA initiatives, including fundraising efforts to benefit school programs. At Daniel's Run, the PTA organized a canned food drive that ran throughout mid-December, collecting generous donations to help local families in need during the holidays.

Students and staff embraced the season with community building activities, winter readiness celebration of giving back. In Providence, the school community wrapped up the year with a hands-on learning and STEM lab and outdoor spaces, fostering creativity and sustainability. Families enjoyed continuing engagement through Title I programs and reflections of the school's eco-school achievements, carrying the spirit of innovation into the new year. I'm wishing everyone

Carolyn PitchesTHANK YOU. DO BOARD MEMBERS HAVE ANY QUESTIONS? THANK YOU. THAT WAS A GREAT REPORT. NOW WE WILL MOVE ON TO THE SUPERINTENDENT'S PROPOSED 2027 BUDGET. I'M GOING TO THROW IT NOW TO DR. WRITE.

Dustin WrightstaffGood evening and thank

Dan Phillipsstaffyou for the introduction. Chair Pitches, Vice Chair

Dustin WrightstaffSessori, and Board Members Bartlemy, Hickman, and Kelsey, thank you so much for being here this evening. I'm looking forward to presenting the 2027 Fiscal Year Superintendent's Proposed Budget. I think we all know each other, but for any of our members of the public at home, my name is Dustin Wright. I'm the very proud new superintendent here in the city of Fairfax school system. And it's an honor to be with you here tonight. Before I begin, I'd be remiss if I didn't share some words of gratitude. To put a budget together like this takes a lot of work. And prior to the winter break, I've only been on the job for about three weeks, and it takes a lot more than three weeks to do something like this. So a huge thank you to Dan Phillips,

Carrie Dorsey and Barb King for all of their support. I also want to acknowledge the collaboration and partnership and really great feedback and insights from our partners on the city government, specifically our chief financial officer JC Martinez and our budget director Gwen Riddell. Both of them were extremely supportive while we were developing this on a pretty quick timeline. A big thank you to our public for engaging by watching this presentation and engaging in some of the opportunities that will be available and that we'll discuss with the timeline at the end of this presentation. And then finally to the City of Fairfax School Board and our City of Fairfax City Council. These elected bodies provide tremendous support for the city schools and we wouldn't be able

to do what happens in our schools every day, which you just saw with some of our students without that support. tonight's budget should hopefully reflect three key priorities throughout the discussion the first is strengthening the connections we have between our schools and our community to provide wonderful schools for the city of Fairfax for our families and community members with school-age children and for our families and members without school-age children all of them rely on having really great schools as a part of our

Kristina Cecerecommunity

Dustin Wrightstaffthe second is supporting and empowering our outstanding educators and staff members at each of our schools. We need to give them the resources that they need to be able to provide exceptional experiences for every single student every single day. And then finally we want to be keeping our students at the center of all that we do through the budget and the resources and everything that happens in our schools. We want our students to have the access and opportunity every single day to meet that limitless potential that we know they each have. We want them to go out after their experience in a to not only be successful in the world, but to go out and impact the world. Hopefully, that will be a result of that experience they've had here.

I want to orient everyone to the structure of the presentation so you know where we are headed. We'll begin with who we serve and how our system is structured. Then we'll spend some time on our school services agreement with Fairfax County Public Schools and how that tuition bill is created and calculated and the impacts of our membership on that agreement. That's important because that's one of the primary cost drivers of our budget. And then we'll conclude with a proposed budget and the timeline ahead. I think all of us are familiar, but here in the city of Fairfax we have four schools and an academy. And these four schools make up a single cohesive system, but each has its own identity. And we love that about all of our schools, but they are aligned in expectations, programming,

and outcomes. Each of these schools plays a distinct role in a vertically aligned system from early learning all the way through graduation. And although we have a small division here in the city of Fairfax, our students have access to a broad range of pathways. The breadth is made possible through thoughtful design and strong partnerships. Our size allows for personalization, while our partnerships allow for scale. And you're going to hear variations on that theme throughout the presentation. I think all of us are familiar with some of these key aspects of our school division, some of the things that make it special and unique, but I think it's important to continue to highlight it. We have four high-performing and fully accredited schools, and we saw evidence of that prior

to the winter break with the results of the state accreditation system that came out in December. We're supported by an engaged community. We're strengthened by the longstanding partnership that we have with Fairfax County Public Schools through our SSA. And we have the best of both worlds. We have that small city feel with the resources of a large school district. To continue to acclimate everyone to our school division, we've talked about this school services agreement a little bit, and we'll get into details here in a few slides. But that's been in place for 47 years in its current form. It was initiated in 1962 and then renegotiated in 1978 and it's been in that current state since then.

In our four schools, we have approximately 5,400 students. 2,900 are our city residents and then another 2,500 are county residents that attend our city schools. And we'll talk more about that throughout the presentation. And then we have an elected five-member school board and a superintendent and central office staff to support the schools. I'd like to take a few moments here to talk about that school services agreement that manages how our school system operates and also is a big driver of the budget that we're going to discuss this evening. As we talked about earlier, it was initially established in 1962, but it's important to note that there are four key stakeholders in that school services agreement. There's the City

of Fairfax Schools, the City of Fairfax City Council, the Fairfax County Public Schools, Board of Supervisors. The third bullet I think is a really good encapsulation of how the agreement works where FCPS manages and operates the day-to-day at our city schools. They hire the staff and develop the curriculum. Our city school board oversees the contract. They provide wonderful supplemental resources and they maintain the four city-owned school buildings.

Carolyn PitchesDr. Roy, do you mind if I just jump in for a minute? And just for the public to understand, when we say maintains, we don't do the minor maintenance, we do the major maintenance. So when, you know, a bathroom needs to be fixed, typically FCPS, that would be their responsibility. Thank you for that

Dustin Wrightstaffclarification. And as we look at this next slide, we'll start to see some more of the specific details of that SSA and get into some of the things that Chair Pitches was just referring to to help kind of really understand it at a granular level. You can see some of the information about oversight. I would like to highlight some of the really important things about collaboration. Our city school board members collaborate with their county school board counterparts with ongoing communication at all times of the year. Myself, I'm constantly working with Dr. Michelle Reed, the superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools. And then to help understand kind of the experience for our students, for our city students,

they're all able to attend city schools, but they have access to all the FCPS resources, such as special education services, academy programs, IB programs, and even magnet schools such as Thomas Jefferson. Our city residents participate on advisory committees that support the school system. And we welcome City of Fairfax, in our City of Fairfax schools, we welcome county students into our buildings through the boundary process. And so that's something we'll talk about a little bit later as well, about those county students that attend our city schools. And then a great clarification that Chair Pitches gave us, the city is responsible for the major capital improvements to our school buildings.

And we've seen evidence of that through the recent bond process that the city went through, and we appreciate that support. At this point in the presentation, we're going to start to talk a little bit about who our students are and the membership and the enrollment that we're seeing at our schools. So the information that you see on the screen right now talks about the enrollment that we saw at the start of this school year. That's our September membership numbers. And you can see that we had 2,942 students in September. And I'd like to help orient everyone to some of the information on this table. What you're going to see on that second column is the membership by level of our city students.

And then what you're going to see in that third column is the change when compared to September of 2025, the start of the school year, to September of 2024, the start of last school year. And you can see some of those shifts. And then in the fourth and fifth column, it's a similar presentation of information just for Fairfax County Public Schools overall. And we were presented this information at our December board meeting from the FCPS DIT team. And you can see a lot of blue downward arrows on there, which is a downward trend in enrollment. And this downward trend is happening region-wide in the Washington, D.C. area. We've seen lower than expected enrollments at Fairfax County Public Schools, Arlington,

Loudoun, Prince William, Montgomery County, and Maryland. All of those schools have promoted much lower enrollment than they were projecting at the start of the school year. There's a trend that's going on in our area. and again we'll continue to talk about that as we move through the presentation. This next slide builds on what you just saw which is that September membership number and something called our average daily membership or ADM and this is an important distinction that I think is I'm going to spend just a minute here to help everyone understand how these two numbers are created and why they're important. So those September membership numbers are what we're looking at at the start of each

year. But the ADM or average daily membership is something that we look at throughout the school year and it's a really important number for lots of reasons. And essentially what it is, it's an average of the membership throughout the entire school year. It's defined by the total aggregate daily membership and you divide that by the number of days school was in session during the school year. This ADM impacts our state funding. The ADM is used to develop the local composite index, which is another key driver of our budget. And then it is the key number in our school services agreement with Fairbanks County Public Schools. So for the rest of the presentation, we're going to talk about that ADM.

But while we're on this slide, we want to show two important things. First is that blue line is our September membership number and the yellow one is that that ADM which is typically measured at the end of March and You can see that for the past three school years not only those numbers are fairly similar When they're compared, but they've also been on that upward trajectory As we talked about in the previous slide where throughout the region there's been lower than expected enrollment You can see that that's the case as well because that blue line dips down We were probably expecting it to be a little bit higher at the start of the school year, and it ended up being lower. The projection of our ADM for this year, so the best estimate that was done at this time last year, you can see in the yellow line.

We'll have a better idea of how those numbers are going to come together later in the school year, and we'll continue to monitor that as well. But all of our school division partners around the area are looking at similar charts where they're seeing this gap between their projection and their enrollment. We just talked about how that ADM is important because it's one of the key drivers of the school services agreement and the tuition bill that we have with Fairwich County. And so we're going to take a look at the history of our tuition bill right now. What you can see on the screen is the last 10 years of tuition bills that we've received from Fairfax County Public Schools. In a minute, we'll talk about how this tuition bill is calculated,

but what you can see is that upward trajectory of the tuition costs, while also you can see, especially in the last several years, the upward trajectory of our enrollment, and that is rebounding from the dip that we saw during the COVID pandemic. As the overall costs have gone up, you can also see that cost per student increasing each year. Now, I'd like to note that the FY2026, the year that we're currently in, those numbers are estimated at this time because we won't know the exact cost from Fairfax County for their operating costs until the end of the fiscal year. There's some end-of-the-year true-ups that happen where they look at costs that weren't originally budgeted but are still operating costs and they have to factor all those in before

understanding what the total budget can be. We'll talk a little in a few minutes about how what is the impact of some of those year-end true ups but that's where we are right now as it's estimated for the 2026 year. Some of the key factors that are in place when we think about how our tuition bill is It's that ADM that average daily membership of our City of Fairfax students and then the total operating cost for Fairfax County Public Schools Those two key numbers are the bulk of what makes up our tuition bill and how it is calculated some of the secondary factors are the percentage of our City of Fairfax ADM to the Fairfax County Public Schools ADM and it's important to know that We have to monitor how relative those are to each other if they're

enrollments are going up we're going up and Fairfax County is going up we're probably going to see our percentage stay pretty similar which then again is going to impact our tuition bill same thing if both enrollments drop if our tuition if our enrollment goes up and their enrollment goes down we're going to have a greater percentage of the overall students which means we're going to have a greater percentage of their operating cost impacting our tuition bill and those are some of the things that we've seen in the last few years where our enrollment has grown and that has multiple factors it's it's just the schools, some of it's the new development that's opened up in the city which is increased housing

availability. But we always want to monitor how those two work together. Some of the other secondary factors are the amount of students that we have at each level because the school services agreement has different cost points for elementary, middle school and high school. They're not drastically different but they do make a difference. We'll talk at a few points during this presentation, but the number of county students that attend our City of Fairfax schools impacts the classroom rental credit that we receive. So every county student that attends Fairfax High School, there's a classroom rental fee as a part of our tuition bill, and we'll receive credit from Fairfax County for that. And then we already discussed that year-end true-up adjustment.

it. So as we move to the last stages of this presentation, you're going to see three slides that I think just kind of review just but in graphic form what we just talked about with our ADM, the FCPS operating costs, and then our overall tuition bill. So you can see those trajectories. If I was a better graphic designer, I would find a way to overlay all three of those at once and make it really clear and easy to understand, but I was unable to do that. But I think as you look at the three of them in succession, hopefully it will show that similar trend line that we're seeing for each slide. So here's that average daily membership that we've been talking about, not that September enrollment but that ADM. And you can see that upward trajectory, especially since 2020.

And then you can see the projected numbers that we have for not only our current year, for FY 2027, which we're talking about tonight, and then FY 2028. We will have more information later on this year when Fairfax County releases their budget about some of the enrollment projections, but right now these are the numbers that we've been operating on. Again, if we need to make those adjustments throughout the budget process this spring, we will do so. You can see a graphic representation of the operating costs for FCPS. And so through last fiscal year, FY 2025, you can see the trend that it's been on. So not too dissimilar from the upward trend of our average daily membership. And then you can compare when you put those two together, you'll see the impact that it's having on our tuition costs as it continues to increase over time.

the last section of this presentation for this evening is taking a look at the proposed budget for our fy 2027 year the process that we're working through this spring so again to orient everyone to the information on this slide that second column talks about fiscal year 2025 the one we just completed and so all of those numbers are are fixed and complete and that year has been operating costs, our tuition, our debt service, and our improvements. The third column is the estimated budgets for FY 2026. And again, they're in that estimated category because of the tuition bill that we won't know that final cost until the end of the year. But working with Mr. Martinez and his team, we have some pretty good estimates. We've looked at some of the historical

trends and we think we have got a pretty good number to work with and then we're in constant communication with Fairfax County to try and calibrate to make sure we have the best information and the most timely information as possible to determine what that number is going to be. And then as we look at the fourth column, that's the proposed budget for FY 2027. What you'll see on there is $1,298,429 for operating costs. You'll see an estimated tuition. So again, Not knowing exactly where Fairfax County is going to come in, we're estimating the tuition is just over $74 million. You can see our debt service, which is decreasing each year. That improvement line is something that has been in place for several years.

It probably could fit in our operating cost category, but that improvement line is something that has been dedicated to maintaining the turf fields throughout the city. And so when you add all those together, you get a total FY 2027 proposed budget number of $80,189,606. In that final column, you can see some of the changes from our current year to the proposed year. And so the operating cost shifts. Most of that is from increases in our school supplementary instructional funds and some additional communication supports that we think we'll need as a part of the renovation process. And then the bulk of that increase is the anticipated tuition increase. One other piece of financial information that I think is important for the board

and the public to understand is the state revenue that the city of Fairfax schools receives each year. This revenue usually falls into two categories, sales tax and basic school aid, and this is another one of those factors that are impacted by our ADM. You can see on here the actual funding that we received from the state in 2025. Right now we're forecasting the number in the third column for this current year. And then this is our best projection on what we think 2027 will look like, again, in collaboration with the city's finance team. Governor Youngkin released his budget right at the end of December. and that budget will then be worked on in the legislative session in Richmond that will take place over the next few months.

That's something that we're looking at and monitoring closely. There's some calculation tools, modeling tools, that the Virginia Department of Education provides to give us some estimates on where we think that'll end up. But again, if these are numbers that need to shift throughout the spring based on what we're hearing from Richmond, we'll do so accordingly.

Amit HickmanAnd then the final piece

Dustin Wrightstaffof information, which I think is good for everyone to know, is just how our general fund here in the city of Fairfax is dispersed to our schools and how that compares to our partners. So the city of Fairfax allocates a substantial portion of its general fund to the schools, and this reflects the city's longstanding commitment to education. And you can see some helpful regional context with some of our peer jurisdictions. The last slide before we wrap up is a preview of the calendar and what will happen next in this budget process. So tonight you're hearing the proposed budget. And there's a few key timeline spots throughout the next few months that I think is important for everyone to know about.

On

Sarah KelseyJanuary 22nd,

Dustin WrightstaffFairfax County Public Schools will hear Dr. Reed's proposed budget. and because of the impact of their operating costs on our tuition bill, I think that's going to be a good indicator for some of the things that we're talking about this evening. And again, we'll monitor that closely. The first meeting in February, the school board will have the opportunity to vote on the budget. And then that will start moving on to the work with the city council where you'll hear the city manager present a budget to the city council at the end of February. Our City of Fairfax Schools team will present specifically to the City Council at the beginning of March. And then throughout the rest of March and April there's opportunities for

public hearings and a City of Fairfax budget open house. We don't have that exact date right now, but we'll definitely provide that as soon as it's available. And then the City of Fairfax Mayor and City Council will vote on their budget on May 5th. Again, I want to emphasize the gratitude I have for all the support our schools have received while developing this budget. I appreciate the opportunity to walk through this proposal and to highlight its focus on our community, our staff, and most importantly our students. I think this budget reflects stewardship and strategic intent on behalf of our students and community, and I look forward to the discussion and any of your questions this evening. Thank

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Dr. Wright. Ms. Barlman, do you have any questions?

Lauren BartelmeI have a comment first. I just appreciate that you broke down and explained a lot with SSA to the constituents because I think you caught some nuance and some details that I think are often not understood. So I appreciate that. which graph I was looking at so on the tuition history our estimated is not like the slope is not keeping up with the recent trends I think it's on page 14 or slide 14 the city of Fairfax tuition history

Dustin WrightstaffWe're going to try and get it back up on the screens. If our slides can go back up there, that would be great. So I think this is the one you're talking about.

Lauren BartelmeYeah. I was just wondering if you could speak at all to the fact that our estimate is the slope is decreasing a little bit.

Dustin WrightstaffI think it might. It would be, you know, to give you a specific direct answer, I'm not able to do that. It's probably some combination of it depends, which I know is a sneaky, non-specific answer, but just probably a combination of a lot of different things. But I think what we're hopefully seeing is I think we saw some very significant increases in past years, and that one of the reasons we're seeing a slightly different slope is just the estimation process that is helping us have a better idea. Again, a big credit to Mr. Martinez for helping us with that. But I think it's having a clearer idea of where we're going to be, whereas we might, some of the estimates in previous years might have been on the lower side,

and they ended up being significantly higher. It might also just reflect just some of the less drastic increases that we're seeing in Fairfax County's operating costs. I think it's definitely something we can look at a little bit more to see if I can get you a more specific answer.

Carolyn PitchesMs.

Sarah KelseyKelsey. Yeah, one of my questions just on the membership versus ADM slide. I just want clarification. The numbers in parentheses are just saying that's the difference between the September and the March numbers. Absolutely. That's the blue ones? Okay. I just want to make sure that I'm reading that correctly. And then my other question is, do you know when does FCPS send out these projections for the next couple years? I know it's towards the end of the year, but do you know, because I'm just, in my mind, I'm kind of thinking because last year Fairfax County was also decreased in their numbers. We were increased, but I'm just curious why they have so much increase. You know what I mean? Like, because they, if they already kind of saw that trend coming, why they're making such a big increase in the ADM numbers.

Dustin WrightstaffYeah, I think that's a great question. have a caveat in my response to say I'm not going to speak for Fairfax County, but we typically see through their budget process is when you're seeing a lot of their enrollment projections. So on January 22nd, I think we're going to have a really good idea of what they're projecting for the next year. So the numbers that were lower than they were expecting, I think on this previous chart, and if we can just stay on the slides for the time being, that I think that would be helpful for everyone. When we saw their September enrollment of 177,000, that what they projected in their budget was somewhere around 180 or 181. And that was in the budget that came out

around this time last year. So I think in a few weeks, we'll see what their projections are for the upcoming school year. And they even look out beyond there. So I think soon is the answer of when we'll know what some of their projections are. And I think that will also give us some good information on where some of our projections might need to shift.

Amit HickmanOkay. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Heckman.

Amit HickmanOkay. I have a couple, so I'll do two and then go for a call. Okay. So I think very similar to what Ms. Kelsey is saying, I also have some concerns between slide 9 and slide 12 in terms of, again, And those projections of the ADM going up while our membership is going down. And I know they are not tied to each other, but there is likely some sort of correlation in some way, shape, or form.

Carolyn PitchesWell, let me just clarify. Membership is basically on September 30th, they count the number of bodies in the building. March 30th, the ADM is a calculation based on numbers days present and number of days absent by that particular date. So there is a little bit of a correlation, but it's very loose, which is.

Amit HickmanI think my concern. So what I'm seeing is on slide nine is typically they are much closer together. Right. As we're looking on the chart here. And that is a really big gap between what we saw on September 30th and what the projection is. As you said, I know you didn't A didn't make the projection, but I'd be curious that once that September 22nd or December. January, 22nd presentation happens, if we could get some updated information, if that does change, if those estimates do look different, since I think that would obviously impact our budget. And I know you're in a tricky position of having to budget before a budget is provided for you. But I think there is some room to kind of look at that and see how, you know, the reality

is actually going to possibly affect us. Do

Carolyn Pitchesyou want to speak to how they get to that, where that estimate comes from?

Dustin WrightstaffAbsolutely. So I definitely appreciate some of your recognition around, you know, some of the trickiness around this process. I would say that it's my, if I had to, I don't know what the ADM will be, but I don't, remember that number is a projection. later in the year, it could look different. And it may match a similar type of delta that you're seeing in previous years. And then we will have that ADM number here in a few months, and we can definitely keep everybody updated as to what that is. And it might be possible as we look on slide 12 where we have projections for those out years that some of those numbers will be different in February or March as we have different information.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, and that number we receive an estimate from FCPS and it's also based on birth rate, like what they're predicting the kindergarten classes will be like. Some of those children who are born that year don't end up showing up for kindergarten and also predicted student yields from new development. So that's a huge delta. So like Dr. Wright said, we're hoping that it's going to follow our historical trends and be a little bit closer to the membership number of September. So we're all going to keep our fingers crossed

Amit Hickmanon that. Perfect. That's exactly what I was essentially getting to, and I want to make sure that the public is aware that we are aware that that looks like a huge delta right now and that we're kind of watching that there. So I want to talk a little bit about operating costs. Obviously, there's been an increase in operating costs from FCPS, which increases our tuition costs. Is it possible that you can give just a couple examples of what has increased in the last couple of years? Because I know, as Ms. Barrowman was saying, that there has been an increase. I think it would just be helpful to kind of have a little bit of information on those things that have been more costly in the past two, three years.

Dustin WrightstaffFor the Fairfax County Public Schools operating costs?

Amit HickmanYes, that we then, that

Dustin Wrightstafftransfer to us. Great. No, I think that's a great question. I think, you know, again, you know, can't speak for them specifically, but I think what you're seeing in a lot of those costs, typically a school budget is 85 to 88% personnel costs. The most important resource that I think, you know, any of our community and government, local government organizations have are our people, right? So our teachers, our staff members, our bus drivers, our counselors, the salary costs, the benefit costs are some of the key drivers for that. So as we've seen regional labor markets, benefits and inflation, I think that's where a lot of those increases, you know, because it's so much of their budget. When there's an increase, it's typically tied to something there.

I mean, in previous divisions I've worked at, when they look at estimating what health and medical benefits are, they typically look at a 10% increase each year. Now, that's probably on the high side, and you hope it comes in lower, but somewhere around 5% to 8% of costs increasing per year just to keep doing what you're doing in the previous year is not unheard of in school divisions. So I think those are some of the, as you saw, hopefully in the Fairfax County budget process last year, they were actually reducing it throughout the budget process. So even with that, you still saw the increase in overall costs. So it's mostly personnel and the benefits and the support and the salaries that go with them.

Amit HickmanThank you so much. And then I highly encourage anybody who's watching tonight to also watch on January 22nd to continue to hear what those changes are because they do impact us and then we'll do our best also. Distribute any of that information to the city and then I'll take a go back later.

Carolyn PitchesOkay necessary

Kristina Cecerea few just a for a point of clarity for the public and whatnot um, I know we have we're talking about different operating costs operating costs with FCPS and operating costs with the city of Fairfax and Our school system slide 15 does it does that just sort of looping in the FCPS operating costs with intuition I just want to give a plug here that we did have a presentation from our Acting Superintendent of Time, Mr. Phillips, on November 3rd with those operating costs, highlighting the SIP and such for that. So anybody who's watching this is welcome to go back and look at that presentation.

Dustin WrightstaffMs. Essary, can I make a quick plug? Go for it. There are several footnotes throughout the presentation that have hyperlinks on them to a lot of the source documents. Perfect. The CIP on slide 15 that you're talking about is actually linked down there at the bottom. So anybody who wants to look at that presentation that Mr. Phillips gave is linked right there for them.

Kristina CecereI appreciate those hyperlinks quite a bit. I want to kind of take a moment. And I know having been in education for a bit, I'm familiar with the year-end true-up adjustments, but I know people in the general population may not know what those look like. And so we talk about year-end true-up adjustments. Can you elaborate a little bit more?

Dustin WrightstaffAbsolutely. So when a school system creates their budget, a school board is going to vote on the budget, and they're going to appropriate the funds, and they're going to have all those funds accounted throughout the year. There might be additional funds that they have that are one-time only funds that they might be able to spend, whether it's a carryover or an additional grant, additional costs that they didn't initially budget for. I can think in the past year, the state mandated, which I think was a good thing, it mandated bonuses for teachers. That was not something that was in their original budget, but it was an additional cost that took place at the end of the year. So they had their original appropriated funds that were a part of the budget that was approved,

and then there's typically in a lot of places, and Fairfax County Public Schools has followed that trend over the last several years where they have additional money beyond what they allocated in the budget, and that's what that true-out process is. And so because much of those additional dollars are operating fund dollars, they go into our overall tuition bill. Fairfax County typically does either in the summer or early fall, they provide a presentation that talks about what those funds are and share that information with the public. So that's why we typically get our final tuition bill, I think it's in September is when you received it this year because they need the extra time after the fiscal year is wrapped up to know what that is.

Kristina CecereAnd to clarify, too, I think we had a slide from last year, sort of a three-year window. We kind of go into proposed budget, actual budget, and then that true up piece, right? And so it's sort of the cyclic, talking about past, present, future monies and whatnot. Absolutely. I know that might be a new term for people listening in. I might have a go back depending on what Ms. Sigmund says. You can

Carolyn Pitches‑‑ I mean, we're at the end. That's true. That's true.

Kristina CecereJust to highlight again, we're not voting on this tonight. As you highlighted in your calendar, that's in February and we'll have a work session on January 26th further talking about this too.

Carolyn PitchesAnd a second public hearing. And a

Kristina Ceceresecond public hearing. I appreciate you highlighting that one.

Carolyn PitchesDo you want to go do your go back or do you want me? Okay, go ahead. Okay, I have to go too. So, yeah. I don't have a lot.

Amit HickmanI had one more, just a specific question for you. For the improvements where you discussed the turf field, it was my understanding that with the replacement of the field, that PRAB, it's something that there's, PRAB is going to be taking over, Parks and Rec is going to be taking over more of the maintenance. Am I misinformed on this?

Dustin WrightstaffThere's a really good chance I'm going to need to phone a friend on this one. Or have mic troubles real quick. I think there's some information on that. I don't know if Mr. Phillips wants to try and address that. But before he does, I would say even with that and some of the conversations we had, Even with that, it would be a good best practice to start building up those capital accounts again for even any future needs that we might have. But it's just proposed at this point.

Dan PhillipsstaffMr. Phillips. Thank you for the question. So the turf field used to be a project that was under Parks and Recreation. And this coming year, they're going to move it to schools. So it's actually the opposite. Thank you. But the $20,000 will serve us well as a fund to do maintenance. baseball fields and the practice fields and things like that. So there was thought that we could leave it out because we're planning to buy the new turf field if, you know, pending approvals. We're asking for that in the CIP. But the $20,000 is not that much in maintenance, and it's probably a good practice to have those funds available when we do.

Amit HickmanOkay. Thank you for clarifying. I knew it hurt something, and I obviously A

Dan Phillipsstafffew changes like that this year. That's true. Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. First, I would like to say that Fairfax High School achieved distinguished status, so I just need to put that out there. That's very impressive. The only thing I would like to clarify, I don't even know if it needs clarification, but on slide eight, the net change for FCPS membership, those numbers include the city numbers as well. So when you're, they are not net of those. So just keep that in mind. Other than that, I would say, you know, we talked about operating costs. I think collective bargaining is probably, you know, it's a driver probably for some of these salaries and benefits going up more than we probably they would have maybe in the past. Dr. Wright can probably will in his conversations with Dr. Reed figure out

what are some of the other factors that are going to drive up their operating costs. Do you have a question? Okay, yes, Ms. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseySorry, quick clarification. Just came in my head. these numbers are city kids only in city schools, not city kids that go to county school. This is only counting the city kids in our schools, correct?

Dustin WrightstaffSo if I can, just so we're all together, if I can have my friend put up slide eight or put the slide back up.

Sarah KelseyYeah, eight, nine, somewhere in there.

Dustin WrightstaffSo 2,942 is the number of city students that we have total.

Sarah KelseyTotal.

Dustin WrightstaffOkay, so

Sarah Kelseythis

Dustin Wrightstaffis counting

Sarah Kelseythe ones that are also going to county schools.

Dustin WrightstaffWe have approximately, and I have the exact numbers. I can give them to you if you let me shuffle through papers for a minute awkwardly. But we have about 2,700 students in our four city schools, and then we have approximately 200 that attend non-city schools. other placements. I just

Sarah Kelseywanted to clarify that because in my head.

Dustin WrightstaffThat's a great question. Yeah. So thank

Sarah Kelseyyou.

Dustin WrightstaffYeah.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Any other go backs?

Kristina CecereMs. Cessari. Could you take a moment and just go back to the slide where we compare the transfer of funds? I don't have my slide flipped to it at the moment. Between the counties. Slide. Slide 17. I just want to take a moment and I would be remiss to highlight the value that we do get from our relationship with FCPS. And, you know, like with any relationship, you know, there are all kinds of differing opinions about those, you know, or any kind of relationship. but we have an incredible I think value for our money where we're transferring only 80 38 percent from our general fund to schools for our cost here compared to other but we're still part of one of the best school districts not just in the state but perhaps even in the country too

where we're able to leverage so much opportunity as you mentioned not only for our 2,700 students but our 200 students that are in county schools may be attending academy programs and immersion programs, AP, et cetera. So I just want to emphasize that, and I apologize for taking up more time, but I just want to highlight that slide very much as we go into the budget conversations of that there's value here. And as you said, like, that's an investment in our students and our community here. So thank you for letting me have that time.

Carolyn PitchesOf course. Ms. Lucas, do you have any questions for Dr. Wright?

Abbey LucasNope. Not today.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. All right. We're going to let you sit back now, Dr. Wright.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you very much.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. So now this begins the public hearing of which we have unless Mr. Martinez would like to speak. Okay, moving on to action items. Okay, the approval of the December 1st, 2026 meeting minutes. I think the clerk has provided those minutes. May I have a motion,

Amit Hickmanplease? Madam Chair. Ms. Hickman. I approve that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the minutes of the December 1st, 2025 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesI second. Ms. Hickman is moved. Ms. Bartle may have seconded. The City of Fairfax School Board approved the December 1, 2025 regular meeting

Kristina Cecereminutes as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesAre there any changes, modifications, or additions? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. None are opposed, so the motion passes unanimously. The next action item is the approval of the 2026 legislative program. May I have a motion, please?

Kristina CecereMadam Chair.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Sessori.

Kristina CecereI move that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the City of Fairfax School Board 2026 State and Federal Legislative Program as printed and distributed. Okay. May I have a second?

Carolyn PitchesI second. Okay, so Ms. Sessori has moved. Ms. Bartlemay has seconded. City of Fairfax School Board approve the City of Fairfax School Board's 2026 state and federal legislative program as printed and distributed. Any changes, additions, modifications, corrections? Anybody? Okay. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. No members are opposed. The motion is unanimous. Okay, moving along. We will go to superintendents matters. So, Dr. Wright, you get to talk again.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you, Chair Pitches. And good evening to everyone. In our superintendent's report for this evening, we have a few things to share. December was a very exciting month for me, and I don't know if it was the first month on the job here in the city of Fairfax, but there was lots of great things to participate in and lots of wonderful people to meet. So we've talked about this entry plan that I'm engaging in, which has three different phases, and the first one is listening and learning. So we've been able to do a lot of that during those three weeks in December. I've met with over 60 people during that time, and that includes city council members and the mayor and school board members, all of our principals, FCPS staff, community leaders.

we've been meeting with our architects that are part of our renovation projects and much much more and it's been wonderful

Sarah KelseyI've

Dustin Wrightstaffalso been able to not only be in our schools during the day but to attend several wonderful wonderful exhibitions of the talented students that we have here in the city of Fairfax so I was able to go to both the Fairfax high school band concert Noelle was here earlier and she played timpani during the the last piece that was played. I was also at the KJAMS band concert as well. And I, you know, will take a moment of privilege to say I was there as the superintendent and as a very proud dad. We went to the Fairfax High School Parent Coffee, which is great to see Dr. A working and connecting with the parents in her community. There was a fabulous rising seventh grade tour that took place at KJAMS.

So not only do all of our feeders, sixth graders were there, but our seventh graders were, excuse me, our seventh and eighth graders were there hosting those sixth graders, serving as tour guides, presenters, and just great leaders. That would have made us all proud. Several athletic events, a Fairfax High School wrestling meet, a boys and girls varsity basketball game, and a swim and dive meet on the Friday before winter break where I was given the privilege of handing out the cards, which meant all the swimmers probably went in the wrong events, but it was really great. And then I also, I was able to go with my daughter to the Academy MTAS Cabaret concert, where they did a movie-themed night.

There was popcorn and everything. It was great. So lots of wonderful exhibitions of our talented students. I would like to take this time also to preview another portion of that entry plan. It's some community listening sessions. I'm excited to share that there will be three of them, two in person, And these will all be taking place in February and we'll be getting all those dates out to everyone There'll be one on February 4th February 11th and February 18th And these sessions are designed to give our families staff students and community members the opportunity to talk about three really important questions What makes our schools strong? Where they see opportunities for growth and what hopes they have for the future?

beginning next month during our school board meetings I'll either use this time or a different time on the agenda to provide our community with a dedicated renovation update so everybody is able to stay in the loop on what's happening so I just want to preview that for our community and then I would also before looking ahead briefly I also want to take this opportunity to welcome Dan Alexander the new city manager for the city of Fairfax and we know that he'll be a great partner with our city schools, and I think his first day was today. So welcome to have him aboard. In terms of looking ahead, there's a few things we want the community to know about and to preview. On Monday, January 12th, Fairfax High School will have their community and curriculum night.

On Wednesday, January 14th, there will be the rising 7th grade curriculum night at KJMS. And on January 15th, there will be an orchestra concert at Providence Elementary. And by looking down the dais, I think I just took someone's announcements away. So I apologize. I'm new here. It is early

Carolyn Pitchesin the year,

Dustin Wrightstaffso

Carolyn Pitchesthere's not a lot for us.

Dustin WrightstaffBut get

Carolyn Pitchesit all out.

Dustin WrightstaffOkay. All right. We just

Carolyn Pitcheswon't have to repeat it.

Dustin WrightstaffAll right. All right. So blame the new guy. All right. So those are some of the things that we have looking ahead. And with that, Chair Pitches, that concludes the superintendent's report. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Bartlemay.

Lauren BartelmeI just wanted to say we're really glad to have you on board and appreciate how you have YOU HAVE DONE A LOT ALREADY IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THANK YOU. I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD. I THINK ALL THE UPCOMING EVENTS ARE... THEY'RE COVERED. ALL RIGHT. MS. KELSEY, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING?

Sarah KelseyNO.

Amit HickmanOKAY. MS. HICKMAN. I JUST WANT TO SAY MY THANKS ALSO TO THE ENTIRE TEAM FOR THEIR WORK ON THE BUDGET. I KNOW THIS WAS A LONG PROCESS AND IT WAS NOT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS OVERNIGHT. SO THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY WHO PUT IN THE WORK, BOTH DR. RIGHT AND ALSO THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES WHO'VE BEEN anybody who is available to either watch or attend the January 10th Fairfax County School Board meeting where Dr. Reed will be presenting the boundary review information.

Carolyn Pitches8th, yeah.

Amit Hickman8th, January 8th. And then there is a public hearing on January 10th. So everybody has that information and attends those. And then just wishing everyone a wonderful break and happy end to the second quarter, which is going to be over really soon.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Cessary I

Kristina Cecerejust want to thank also Dr. Wright for hitting the ground running I can't tell you how many texts I got saying the superintendent's here I had a moment where I was like Dr. Wright our city superintendent which is fantastic to see especially the swim and dive I'm going to plug that yeah

Carolyn PitchesI was pretty impressed with that one

Kristina Cecerewe definitely need volunteers by the way

Dustin Wrightstaffthey asked me to be a timer at the event it's very

Kristina Cecereeasy

Dustin WrightstaffI had to leave early otherwise I would have jumped right in

Kristina CecereI ALSO WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT, AND IT'S ELECTION SEASON, AND I JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT A CONVERSATION I HAD IN THAT OUR WORK SESSIONS BEFORE I JOINED THE DAY US USED TO BE ALL AT FAIRFREX HIGH SCHOOL, AND WITH THE BOARD HERE, WHEN WE MET DURING OUR RETREAT, IT WAS DECIDED THAT WE WOULD ROTATE THROUGH OUR DIFFERENT SCHOOLS, AND I'M REALLY EXCITED THAT OUR NEXT WORK SESSION WILL BE AT DANIEL'S RUN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ON THE 25TH. us to pop into schools as we see those. So if anybody is wondering where we are at, that's where we are. So thank you so much. And I'm so glad that you guys made it through the first day of school back. So all right. I'll pass it off.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. I'd just like to congratulate our students again this evening that we recognized. And congratulate Fairfax High School for their distinguished status. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO WARMER WEATHER. SO WE JUST NEED TO GET THROUGH THIS MONTH AND NEXT MONTH. AND THEN, YOU KNOW, SPRING SPORTS WILL BE STARTING. AND OTHER THAN THAT, I DON'T THINK THERE IS ANYTHING LEFT BEFORE THE BOARD. DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANYTHING BEFORE I ADJOURN THE MEETING? OKAY.

Abbey LucasI WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU FOR COMING TO OUR SWIM MEET. I was a little surprised to see you there after I swam. I think Kevin was too. But I was like, oh, my goodness. But it was great. Thank you so much.

Carolyn PitchesI got lots of pictures of Dr. Wright at various events that I would have never thought he was a gun. I mean, it was impressive, I will say. Very impressive. Thank you. You have to say that you were a band and are still a band person. Right? I'm not going to say.

Dustin WrightstaffYeah. We're not ‑‑ the superintendent is not allowed to have favorites.

Carolyn PitchesYeah.

Dustin WrightstaffBut I'll just leave it there.

Carolyn PitchesBut you do love a good band. Okay. I am going to adjourn the meeting at 738.