11:00 AM—Thursday January 7, 2016, Dr. Karen Garza, Superintendent of Schools for Fairfax County Public Schools announced the Proposed FCPS Budget for FY (Fiscal Year) 2017, which starts on July 1 of this year, and runs until July 1 of next year. The budget, which calls for a $121.4 million dollar spending increase, to be paid for with a 6% increase in funding received from Fairfax County. This spending increase would be put to use to grant FCPS employees, including teachers, both a step increase in their salary, along with a 1% market scale adjustment, costing an estimated $40 million. The spending increase would also allow $10 million increase in spending to reduce Elementary school class sizes below thirty students in a class. The remaining $71.4 million would be spent to eliminate the cuts to school programs that had threatened FCPS, and to reverse the trend with the cutting.

Thanks to this budget plan, FCPS would be able to sustain its lead as one of the best school systems in the nation, with every single ranked high school in FCPS winning a Gold or Silver Award from the US News High School Rankings, the top two awards given by US News Rankings. In addition, the fears that FCPS would be forced to cut programs like music, journalism, or even a full class period (having six classes, instead of seven), would become unfounded and unnecessary.