Jane Strauss has been on the Fairfax County School Board for a long time. So her misrepresentation of the Board’s approved budget at the Board of Supervisors’ public hearing on April 10 not only angered her fellow board members, it left county residents scratching their heads in disbelief, and the executive board of the local teachers’ union calling for Strauss’ censure or removal.
First appointed as an at-large member in 1991, Strauss became the School Board’s Dranesville representative in 1995, when Fairfax switched from an appointed to an elected school board. She became board chairman last year. She was there when the Board adopted its strategic governance rules, which require the chairman, who serves as the Board’s “official spokesman,” to “reflect the spirit and intent of the Board in its deliberations.”
In February, after public hearings and a heated debate, a majority of the School Board – including Strauss – voted 7 to 5 for the FY 2013 proposed advertised budget that would increase school spending by $136 million, or 8.4 percent. The Board — including Strauss — also specifically voted 8-4 against a scaled-down budget request with a 5 percent increase, or $80 million.
Two months later, though, Strauss single-handedly took it upon herself to ask for the 5 percent transfer that she and a majority on the School Board had already rejected, which happened to be more in line with what the county executive has recommended.
Asking for less money in hard times is a good thing, but Strauss did not have the authority to unilaterally change the elected School Board’s official vote. As she subsequently told The Washington Examiner, “I have apologized. In hindsight, I should have been silent about the transfer request.”
Which goes to show that Strauss has learned nothing from her embarrassing mishap. Silence would have also been a misrepresentation of the School Board’s position, which was to ask for a politically unpalatable 8.4 percent increase. Her job as chairman was simply to present the majority budget to the supervisors and let them decide.
“If what Strauss did is ‘okay,’ and she has the freedom to ‘adjust’ [the budget], please tell me why we have a School Board,” one blogger noted in disgust. Good point. Were Strauss a student, you can bet her apology for breaking the rules would not spare her from the consequences.
Most of the extra money requested will go for cost-of-living raises, hiring more school personnel and covering what is supposed to be school employees’ own 5 percent contribution to the Virginia Retirement System. Instead of contributing to their own retirement, the School Board is asking county taxpayers to pick up the tab instead.
Because the schools already gobble up half of Fairfax County’s $3.5 billion budget, asking for even an $80 million increase is problematic. This is especially true because, as Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay noted, the School Board’s budget is not clear on how the extra money would be spent.
At the April 10 hearing, available on the BOS’ website, McKay asked Strauss whether certain programs to help underperforming schools become fully accredited would be restored if supervisors decided to limit the increase top 4.5 percent. Strauss replied: “It’s not clear.”
Not clear? If the full accreditation of Fairfax County schools is really the School Board’s “very top priority,” as Strauss claims, such programs should be funded even if the BOS doesn’t give the school system any budget increase next year.
If that isn’t clear, then this is: The School Board could use a new chairman.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
