APS in recent years has added additional midweek days off and early releases. In SY 2023-2024, of the 42 weeks from the first to the last day of school, there were only 18 weeks with five full days of school. Neighboring jurisdictions collaborate with their public school systems to provide coverage on Out of School Time (OST) in school buildings. Arlington County, however, only offers camp spots in the hundreds for the 13,600 PK-5 students on days off. Arlington also does not offer Extended Day on these days. Should expanding OST options be a priority for the County and what would you do to support working families as we see in other jurisdictions?

The County Board recently raised property taxes by 2 percent – in part to help fund APS’ structural budget deficit. For the last 2 years, teachers and parents alike have called for a repeal of the pandemic era leave policy that effectively granted 20% of staff (not teachers) an additional 3+ weeks of paid holidays above and beyond federal holidays and annual leave. As APS faces continuing structural deficits, do you support our request for the APS internal auditor to consider both the budgetary and operational cost of this practice that is well beyond paid leave for neighboring districts, federal employees or even our County employees? See our letter requesting an audit.

According to Arlington County’s FY2024 Budget, 39% of the County's budget is allocated to APS, which represents 46.8% of ongoing local tax revenues. As the County Board, what do you believe is your role with regards to evaluating whether APS is spending that money wisely?

The bonding capacity available to both the County and APS is quite constrained for the coming decade and yet the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) process reveals major facilities’ needs throughout APS, but particularly in schools with high percentages of children eligible for Free and Reduced Price Meals. At the same time, APS has a surplus of seats at the elementary, middle, and high school1levels for the coming decade because APS's enrollment growth is leveling off. The data strongly suggest we do not need to add additional seats for the coming decade. How should the County and APS better collaborate to fund our significant facilities’ needs in the short-term while also managing our leveling off in enrollment growth?

Note: APS’ Pre-CIP report estimates that in three years APS will have a surplus of 1,000 elementary seats, 540 middle school seats, and 800 high school seats.

We appreciate the County’s increased investment in and funding for teen and youth programming in the FY25 budget. Youth and teens are still recovering from the impact of lost support and opportunities during the pandemic. How will you ensure the implementation of and success of these new investments?

Chronic absenteeism has become a major post-COVID problem in schools throughout the country, including in APS and is a significant hindrance to learning.How can the County support efforts to combat chronic absenteeism?