GW PTA Advocacy

📚✨ ACPS FY 2027 Budget Update: Learn & Take Action! ✨📚

The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) has released its proposed FY 2027 Combined Funds Budget — a plan totaling about $406.5 million to support our schools next year. This budget includes funding for operating costs, school nutrition, grants, and special projects and reflects priorities like recruitment & retention, classroom staffing tied to redistricting, and competitive pay.

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💰 How the ACPS Budget Works

The budget is more than numbers! It reflects how we support what matters in our schools:

• 📈 A 3.7% increase over last year’s budget, driven mainly by salary and benefit changes and support for redistricting staffing.

• 👩‍🏫 Money goes toward teacher pay, benefits, student services, and supports for English Learners and students with disabilities.

• 📊 The district projects a slight enrollment increase and has set aside funds anticipating collective bargaining agreements and rising costs.

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You can explore the full budget documents and details here: ➡️ ACPS FY 2027 Budget Page 

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📚✨  ACPS FY 2027 Budget Released 📊🎒

The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) has released its proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Combined Funds Budget,  a $406.5 million spending plan that reflects real decisions about teacher pay, classroom supports, and staffing tied to redistricting and negotiated agreements. This budget isn’t just numbers…it shapes the everyday experiences of students, families, and educators in our community! 📘📈

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📥 Dive into the budget details:
➡️ Explore the official FY 2027 Budget Book (PDF or Interactive):  full breakdown of revenues, spending priorities, and assumptions:
🔗 https://www.acps.k12.va.us/departments/financial-services/budget (scroll to FY 2027 Proposed Budget Book)

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📊🎒 What Dr. Kay-Wyatt Proposed in the FY 2027 ACPS Budget 🎒📊

At last week’s School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt presented a proposed $406.5 million FY 2027 Combined Funds Budget for Alexandria City Public Schools,  a 3.7% increase over the current year. This budget supports the 2026-2027 school year and combines the Operating Budget, School Nutrition, Grants, and Special Projects into one comprehensive plan designed to serve Alexandria’s racially, linguistically, and economically diverse student population. 🌎🏫

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The largest share,  $374.5 million, is the Operating Budget, which funds the daily work of schools: teacher and staff salaries, benefits, classroom instruction, English Learner services, special education supports, and student wellness programs. Dr. Kay-Wyatt emphasized that the proposal focuses on maintaining stability across schools while making strategic investments, recognizing that ACPS serves students with a wide range of learning needs, languages, and life experiences. 📘✨

A key component of the proposal is planning for ongoing collective bargaining. While agreements are still being negotiated, the budget sets aside $11.44 million in a salary reserve for expected step increases, cost-of-living adjustments, bonuses, and other compensation changes. An additional $2.05 million is reserved for benefits, reflecting rising healthcare costs. These investments are intended to help ACPS retain experienced educators and staff who support students in increasingly complex classrooms. 🤝💼

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The proposed budget also includes school-based staffing tied to redrawn attendance boundaries, which will take effect in the 2026-2027 school year. These positions are intended to ensure schools remain adequately staffed as students from different neighborhoods and backgrounds transition to new buildings. 🗺️👩‍🏫

While the budget reflects a net reduction of 8.9 full-time equivalent positions, overall costs are rising due to salary and benefit increases. The plan proposes an average 5.4% salary increase and a 2.4% increase in benefits, bringing total salary costs to $236.64 million and benefits to $89.67 million. These investments are aimed at keeping ACPS competitive with other Northern Virginia districts while continuing to support students who require additional instructional, language, and social-emotional supports. 📈🍎

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The proposal assumes a modest enrollment increase of about 30 students (0.2%), reflecting a school system that continues to welcome students from many cultures, income levels, and language backgrounds. ACPS will also continue offering incentives for hard-to-fill roles, recognizing the importance of stable, skilled adults in classrooms serving high-need populations. 👧🏽🧒🏾🧑🏼📚

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🧠 How the Budget Works In Plain Language

• 💼 Total Proposed Budget: ~$406.5 M, including operating funds, grants, and school nutrition.

• 📈 Operating Budget: ~$374.5 M:  the engine that pays teachers, support staff, benefits, and school programs.

• 🤝 Collective bargaining reserves: millions set aside anticipating agreements on salaries and benefits.

• 📍 Redistricting support: Staffing included to help implement new attendance zones for 2026-27.

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Budget priorities highlighted by ACPS focus on: recruiting and retaining great educators, investing in instructional quality, and keeping stability through a tight fiscal environment.

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📝 Why State School Funding Shapes Alexandria’s Budget Choices

In advance of the Superintendent’s presentation of the FY 2027 Combined Funds Budget, School Board Chair Dr. Michelle Rief and Board Member Dr. Ashley Simpson Baird explain why so many local school issues– like class sizes, English Learner supports, and retaining experienced teachers — are ultimately driven by Virginia’s school funding system.

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They outline how Virginia funds public education through the Standards of Quality (SOQ) formula, a decades-old, staffing-based model that determines how many teachers and staff the state believes schools need and how much those positions should cost. That total is then split between the state and local governments using the Local Composite Index (LCI), which relies heavily on property values and income to estimate a locality’s ability to pay.

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According to a 2023 state study by JLARC, the formula significantly underfunds schools statewide. Virginia spends about 14% less per student than the national average, and school divisions must spend billions more locally each year to meet real needs. Every division in the state operates above SOQ staffing levels because the formula does not reflect today’s instructional, mental health, and student support demands.

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Alexandria is disproportionately impacted by this system. Because the city is labeled “wealthy” and assigned the highest possible LCI, the state assumes Alexandria can fund about 80% of school costs locally. As a result, ACPS receives the lowest per-student state funding in Virginia, despite serving a student population with high levels of need, including large numbers of students from low-income families and English Learners.

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The authors also explain that the funding formula fails to account for Northern Virginia’s higher labor costs. While the state uses a Cost of Competing Adjustment (COCA) to reflect regional wages, it has not been meaningfully updated since the 1990s and provides only limited relief — most of which is reduced again by the LCI. This means Alexandria taxpayers must absorb the difference between state assumptions and real-world costs.

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They address the common misconception that Alexandria’s per-pupil spending is “too high,” noting that state research shows spending appears higher mainly because it costs more to educate students here, not because schools are inefficient or overstaffed.

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Finally, Dr. Rief and Dr. Simpson Baird explain why this matters now: funding constraints directly affect staffing levels, teacher retention, and student supports. With nearly 87% of ACPS’s operating budget devoted to salaries and benefits, there is little flexibility without adequate state investment. The School Board’s legislative priorities therefore focus on reforming the state funding formula, updating cost assumptions, and allowing a local 1% sales tax referendum to help fund school construction — since the state provides no capital funding through the SOQ.

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They conclude by encouraging the community to stay engaged by participating in budget hearings, contacting School Board members and state legislators, and following FY 2027 budget discussions, emphasizing that strong schools depend on sustained advocacy at both the local and state levels.

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Check out the blog post  here on the School Board’s new website: https://www.acpsschoolboard.com/post/why-virginia-s-school-funding-formula-matters-for-alexandria

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🏛️📣 ACPS Leaders, Families & Students Advocate at the State Capitol

On Friday, January 23, 2026, School Board Chair Michelle Rief, Board Members Abdulahi Abdalla and Alexander Crider Scioscia, and Student Representative Darwin Salazar joined ACPS parents and students at Virginia PTA Capitol Day in Richmond.

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Together, they met with state legislators to advocate for stronger, fairer funding for Alexandria’s public schools, focusing on three key priorities:

• 🔄 Modernizing Virginia’s K-12 funding formula by shifting from a staffing-based model to a student-based model that better reflects real student needs

• 💰 Sending more state funding directly to schools without reducing it through the Local Composite Index (LCI)

• 🏗️ Allowing localities to levy a 1% sales tax dedicated to school construction, since Virginia provides no capital funding through its education formula

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This advocacy builds on the School Board’s 2026 Legislative Priorities and the recently published blog post, “Why Virginia’s School Funding Formula Matters for Alexandria,” which explains how the current system underfunds schools and disproportionately impacts high-need, high-cost communities like Alexandria.

ACPS leaders, families, and students continue to show up — locally and statewide — to ensure funding policies reflect the realities of today’s classrooms and support every student’s success. 💪📚

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📣 Advocate for Fair Public School Funding in Virginia

Below is a form letter developed by ACHS PTSA leaders Missy Santoro Estabrook and Marguerite Rippy to help families advocate for meaningful updates to Virginia’s school funding formula, an issue that directly affects Alexandria City Public Schools.

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The letter reflects careful analysis of the Local Composite Index (LCI) and state funding formula, as well as information shared in the School Board’s recent blog post. While Alexandria appears “wealthy” on paper, ACPS serves a high-need student population, with more than half of students from low-income families and over one-third English Learners, yet receives the lowest per-pupil state funding in Virginia.

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The current formula does not adequately reflect real costs, regional affordability, or student needs, shifting an inequitable burden onto local taxpayers and families while undermining the goal of equitable, needs-based school funding statewide.

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📬 Take Action

Families can personalize and send the letter below to their Virginia State Delegate and Senator:

• 🔍 Find your Delegate & Senator:
  https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov

• ✍️ How to write to your legislators:
  https://vga.virginia.gov/…/writing-to-your-legislators/​

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✉️ Sample Advocacy Letter

(Developed by Suzie O'Brien, a GWMS parent and George Mason PTA President)

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Dear [Senator/Delegate] [Last Name],

I am a resident of the City of Alexandria, a public school parent, and a community member who cares deeply about the future of our public schools. I’m writing to ask for your leadership in revisiting Virginia’s school funding formula, which does not accurately reflect what communities like Alexandria can truly afford.

On paper, Alexandria appears wealthy. In reality, Alexandria City Public Schools serves a high-need student population. More than half of ACPS students come from low-income families, and over one-third are English Learners—one of the highest percentages in the Commonwealth—yet Alexandria receives the lowest amount of state funding per pupil in Virginia.

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The formula also sends the wrong message about growth and investment. Communities that add housing, build schools, and welcome more families should not be penalized for doing so. Density brings real service demands—for classrooms, transportation, and support services—but those demands are not adequately reflected in how the state calculates local responsibility.

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At the same time, our schools face higher costs simply because of where we are. Competing for teachers in a high-cost region, serving students with complex needs, maintaining older buildings, and transporting a diverse student population all require more resources. These realities are obvious to families and educators here, but they are largely invisible in the funding formula. School divisions with similar or even lower levels of student need receive significantly more state support simply because they are not labeled “wealthy” under the current formula.

Perhaps most concerning is that the formula assumes that if two communities tax at the same rate, the burden is the same. In Alexandria, families are already stretched by housing, childcare, and everyday living costs. Even a small tax increase here lands very differently than it does in lower-cost parts of the Commonwealth.

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If Alexandria funded and staffed schools only at the state’s minimum requirements, class sizes would increase, English Learner teachers would carry unmanageable caseloads, and students who need the most support would receive less. The City funds above those minimums because our students require it, not because the state formula reflects actual needs.

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When the state overestimates what the City of Alexandria can contribute, it shifts responsibility onto local taxpayers and weakens the promise of equitable school funding. That result is not just unfair to our city—it undermines the purpose of having a statewide formula at all.

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I respectfully urge you, particularly in your role as [Finance and Appropriations Chair/state legislator], to support meaningful updates to the school funding formula so it reflects real capacity and real costs. Our students should not be shortchanged because a formula mistakes paper wealth for actual ability to pay.

Equity in school funding should be driven by student needs, not by assumptions about community wealth. Thank you for your time and for your service to the Commonwealth.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[City of Alexandria / GWMS parent / personal connection]

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📣 Your Voice = Real Impact

🗣️ 1. Sign Up to Speak at the School Board Public Hearing

📅 Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026 – 6 p.m.
👉 Register to speak or submit a written comment:
🔗https://www.acps.k12.va.us/school-board/watch-school-board-meetings/speak-at-a-school-board-meeting
⬆️ Use this link to tell the board what matters most to you, from class sizes to teacher compensation, support for students with disabilities or for English Learners, course of study and offerings, including foreign languages and dual language programs and middle school athletics and extracurricular activities. 

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🍕 2. RSVP for the ACPS/Parents Teachers Association Council (PTAC) Budget Forum: “Partnering for Progress”

📅 Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2026 – 6:30 p.m. (pizza served at 6 p.m.)
👉 RSVP here:
🔗 https://www.acps.cc/ptacforum

This interactive session gives families a chance to connect with ACPS staff in small groups and ask questions about how funds are allocated.

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3. 🏛️📣 City Council Is Next: Your Voice Matters for ACPS & Our Community! 📣🏛️

As the ACPS FY 2027 budget moves through the process, the Alexandria City Council now takes center stage in shaping how local tax dollars are allocated –including support for our schools. Because City Council decides how much funding ACPS receives from the City budget, advocating here is just as important as speaking up at School Board meetings and with the state legislature! 💬📊

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📅 Upcoming City Council Budget Meetings & Public Comment Opportunities
City Council welcomes input on the City’s FY 2027 budget — including the portion that funds ACPS and proposals like the local 1% sales tax referendum for school construction (which would create a dedicated revenue source for capital needs). 📈🏫

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👉 Submit public comments on the City budget online:
➡️ City of Alexandria Budget Public Comments form — https://www.alexandriava.gov/Budget#FY2027BudgetPublicComments

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👉 Register to speak at a City Council meeting:
➡️ City Council “Speak at a Meeting” form — https://www.alexandriava.gov/city-council/communicate-with-city-council

📢 Speakers are typically asked to register at least one day before the meeting.

You can also email written comments directly to the City Clerk and Council at:
📧 CouncilComment@alexandriava.gov (this address is routinely used for written comment submissions)

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4. Email VP of Advocacy Bridget Shea Westfall and let her know your priorities in the Budget Book. What does our PTA need to advocate for our Prexies? 

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💡 Why It Matters

Budget choices influence teacher retention, class sizes, mental health services, support for English Learners and students with disabilities, and how our schools reflect community values. Your engagement helps ensure that ACPS invests wisely, fairly, and in ways that reflect our priorities, not just numbers on a spreadsheet. 💪📚📣