Fairfax County Public Schools may need to cut close to $153.9 million from its fiscal year 2028 budget, officials warned the school board Sept. 8.

FCPS Chief Financial Officer Leigh Burden told the board's budget committee that FY2028 spending commitments outweigh anticipated revenue, FFXnow reported. Officials expect the reductions needed will be closer to the $153.9 million slashed in FY2026 than the $117.6 million cut in FY2027.

James Madison High School, Oakton High School and Thoreau Middle School all fall under the FCPS budget. District-wide reductions would affect those schools along with every other in the system.

Shrinking county share

Fairfax County's share of disbursements to FCPS has dropped from 52.8% in fiscal year 2020 to 51.1% in FY2027. Burden called that decline "an erosion of nearly $340 million, with a nearly 100 million in fiscal 27 alone."

FCPS averaged roughly $135 million in reduced or avoided costs over fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Burden listed inflationary pressures, federal workforce instability in Washington, rising energy costs and a historically leaner second year of the Virginia state biennium budget as factors driving the gap wider.

Union contract in jeopardy

Superintendent Michelle Reid said the shrinking county transfer puts the district's three-year collective bargaining agreement, signed in December 2024, in jeopardy.

Reid told the committee that when the district bargained the three-year deal, officials did not anticipate the county's revenue share falling in the agreement's third year. "Right now, given the current 51.1%, that, I think, puts our ability to meet that CBA requirement in a bit of jeopardy at this point," she said.

In FY2026, a shortfall in county funding forced FCPS to renegotiate pay raises for unionized employees. A similar scenario could repeat.

What cuts could look like

Burden presented a hypothetical reductions slide showing potential impacts to staff compensation, class sizes, needs-based staffing and central office budgets. She stressed the slide showed the magnitude of possible cuts, not a recommendation.

Adding one student per classroom would save about $35 million, according to Burden. Central office departments have already been asked to prepare 5% reduction options.

FCPS may also need to scale back to Virginia Department of Education Standards of Quality levels in some areas where it currently exceeds state requirements.

What happens next

Reid will deliver a fiscal forecast in November and propose a budget in January. The school board will vote on adoption in February, before County Executive Bryan Hill presents his advertised budget to the Board of Supervisors that same month.

Sully District school board representative Seema Dixit described the Sept. 8 session as the start of the budget process. "The information here is for the community and all our stakeholders to kind of see where we are at," Dixit said.