First week controversies: Speech & Fees

The first surprise of the new school year: angry emails to the School Board about President Obama's education speech dwarfed (in both number and intensity) those about the anticipated controversy of new & higher fees for parking, sports & AP tests. Since the announcement last week that all schools would show the speech to all students, with an opt-out provision, the Obama speech emails have evaporated.

Below is the response sent to one parent by the LCPS Public Information Officer regarding the fees. It's a good summary of information. Note that the Board made the fees, not LCPS administration.

This year's budget fell $70 million short of the amount we would have anticipated during usual economic conditions. For the first time in 18 years, the local contribution to the school system went down. This downturn came in the face of adding 2,500 new students and a new school to the system. We realize how tough times are and did months of budget analysis and preparation so that we would put as small a strain as possible on local funding.

No LCPS employee received a raise, no programs were added and no new administrative staff were hired. LCPS already had the leanest administrative staff in the Washington Metropolitan Area according to the Washington Area Boards of Education (WABE).

There was nothing easy about the deliberations the administration and School Board went through in the decision to impose fees. Budget deliberations started in September and continued through April.

The fees imposed will bring in the following amounts to help balance the budget:

Parking: $525,000

AP Test: Fees $880,000

Athletic Fees: $770,000

Such fees are commonplace in other jurisdictions and do not cover the expenses of the services provided.

Part of the reasoning for parking fees is that driving to school -- for most students -- is an option. Bus transportation is provided to all our schools.

The staffing of LCPS schools is done under guidelines and ratios provided by the Virginia Standards of Quality. We exceed these ratios (not by much) in areas such as deans and counselors, but we feel the educational results merit such costs.

Outside organizations used LCPS facilities for a total of 245,304 hours last year. We are a public entity and open our buildings for public use. Some entities, like Parks and Recreation, are not charged for use because they are a part of the county government and also funded by taxpayer dollars. Churches are charged between $16.50 (for a classroom) and $88 (for an auditorium) per hour. Last year, churches paid $1.3 million in rent to LCPS.