November 2013 President's Message

Dear PTSA Members,

During this month of being thankful, please remember how lucky we are to live in an area with fantastic schools, talented and dedicated teachers and staff members and people who have been creative with increasingly limited resources.  The current budget situation could bring some difficult changes and cuts to our schools. As you may have read, FCPS faces a potential $120 million budget shortfall. The cuts needed to meet this immense number will hurt across the board.  At the moment, nothing is off the table, so to speak.  Staff could be cut, class sizes could be increased, activities may be sliced from the offerings….the possibilities are all out there, and no one can yet predict where the scalpel or ax will fall.

To learn more about the FCPS budget process, please take a look at: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/documents/CitizensGuidetoBudget.pdf

You have an opportunity to be involved and let your voice and opinions be heard. Please consider one, or more, of the following:

 *Attend one of the listening tour meetings that Dr. Garza is holding. Monday, November 25^th at 6:30 pm at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly is the Sully District date OR the Dranesville District date is Saturday, December 7^th at 10 am at Cooper Middle School in McLean

*Share your concerns, priorities, etc with Kathy Smith (Sully District School Board Member, Kathy.L.Smith@fcps.edu), Jane Strauss (Dranesville District School Board Member: Jane.Strauss@fcps.edu), Ryan McElveen (At-Large School Board Member: Ryan.McElveen@fcps.edu), Ilryong Moon (At-Large School Board Member/Chairman:  ilryong.moon@fcps.edu), and Ted Velkoff (At-Large School Board Member: Ted.Velkoff@fcps.edu)

*Share your concerns, priorities, etc with Dr. Garza via: http://fcps.uservoice.com/forums/217796-making-fairfax-county-public-schools-the-very-best

*Share your concerns, priorities, etc with the Fairfax Board of Supervisors.  Sully District Representative: Michael Frey at sully@fairfaxcounty.gov;  Dranesville District Supervisor: John Foust at dranesville@fairfaxcounty.gov; and Chairman Sharon Bulova at chairman@fairfaxcounty.gov    The Board of Supervisors controls the majority of the funding for the FCPS budget. 

Thank you for being involved.

Cathy Pisarcik

WHS PTSA President