City of Fairfax Schools Superintendent Presents FY 2023 Budget

City of Fairfax Schools Superintendent Dr. Phyllis Pajardo presented the FY 2023 City Schools Budget on Monday, December 6, 2021 at the City of Fairfax School Board Meeting. The $63.6 million budget includes $53.4 million in tuition payment to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), $5 million in debt services and $310,000 in supplemental school funding for student remediation support, student transition programs and professional development for teachers.

Breakdown of City School Budget

Tuition Payment: The majority of the City of Fairfax Schools budget is in form of a tuition payment to FCPS. Fifty three million dollars is designated to FCPS to pay for the approximately 2884 City of Fairfax students. Through the School Services Agreement (SSA), the City of Fairfax contracts FCPS for educational services for city students, while the City of Fairfax Schools owns the four city school buildings: Fairfax HS, Katherine Johnson MS, Providence ES and Daniels Run ES. The schools welcome both city and county students in the four schools. To learn more about this agreement, please see our page on the SSA.

Capital Improvements: The FY 2023 Schools budget provides $3.79 million in Capital Improvements for the city school buildings and facilities. Improvements include updating air conditioning units, maintenance for roof and other infrastructure updates, ground improvements, turf fields and transitioning carpet to tile floors in our schools.  

School Supplemental Funds: The Superintendent allocated $310,000 in supplemental school funding for the four city schools. These funds are designed to create opportunities for student remediation such as summer enhancement programs, transition programs to help students when they enter a new school such as freshman orientation and kindergarten readiness camps, professional development time and opportunities for teachers and funding for individual school initiatives such as technology enhancements or literacy programs. In addition, it allocates tuition reimbursement for teachers pursuing their National Board Certification, one of the most prestigious certifications an educator can earn.

Additional Funding Sources: Dr. Pajardo also showed the additional funding from the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief funds (ESSER) and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) from the federal and state spending for pandemic recovery. ESSER and ARPA funds are not included in the City of Fairfax Schools budget, but working with FCPS and the individual schools, these funds will be used on school facilities and student and staff support. To see how our schools are using their ESSER funds, please see the school’s plan on their website, and go to the FCPS website for their ESSER spending.

The City schools ARPA funding proposed projects include a new concession stand and field enhancements at Fairfax High School and a turf field at Katherine Johnson Middle School. To provide support on the City of Fairfax’s ARPA’s spending, please go to their engagement site.

To see a complete breakdown of the proposed FY 2023 budget, please see Dr. Pajardo’s presentation made to the City of Fairfax School Board on Monday.

Helpful Links:

Important Future Dates:

City Meetings – ESSER funding dates

  • September 13, 2021 – Regular School Board Meeting FCPS update on ESSER spending
  • January 24, 2022 – Work Session School Based Updates and ESSER Spending Updates

Other Links: