Investing in our Priorities: Students, Staff, Schools

Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán proposed a $746.1 million needs-based FY 2023 budget on Feb. 24. The budget focuses on investing in APS priorities—students, staff and schools. The FY23 budget is a 6.4% increase over the FY22 budget.

The FY 2023 Superintendent’s Proposed Budget is aligned with the School Board’s direction and reflects the school division’s greatest needs and highest priorities to:

• Ensure student well-being and academic progress,
• Advance the 2018-24 APS Strategic Plan goals with a focus on innovation and equity,
• Develop a phased plan to improve employee compensation and recruit, hire and retain a high-quality and diverse workforce and
• Improve operational efficiency.

“We built this budget by focusing on our core priorities and limiting new budget requests to those that are needed most to directly serve our students, invest in our employees and maintain excellent schools in Arlington,” said Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán. “This year’s budget prioritizes resources to foster student well-being and academic success and reflects our commitment to hiring and retaining the very best staff to serve our diverse student body.”

Priority 1: Ensuring student well-being and academic progress
Funding for this priority includes:

• Class size reductions (reducing class size by 2 students at the elementary and 1 at the high school level)
• New funding to invest in additional middle school teachers and enhance the middle school model to better serve students
• Increased staffing for students with disabilities
• Additional resources for English Learners, and
• Other instructional resources and supports

Priority 2: Advancing 2018-24 strategic plan goals with a focus on innovation and equity

• Funding for additional school-based equity and excellence coordinators and an equity data dashboard
• Policy support through the hiring of a Director of Policy
• Expansion of the sustainability program, by providing stipends for all remaining schools

Priority 3: Recruiting, hiring and investing in a high-quality and diverse workforce

• Provides funding to implement a compensation plan that makes employee compensation market competitive
• Establishes a new collective bargaining office

Priority 4: Improving operational efficiency

• Includes funding for additional investments for network infrastructure and increased funding to maintain and improve system-wide operations and a new online student registration system.
• Also includes funding for the opening of the Washington-Liberty Annex (old Education Center)

View last night’s presentation and the FY 2023 Proposed Budget-at-a-Glance pamphlet to learn more. The School Board is set to adopt the proposed budget on April 7 and act on the final budget on May 12. Additional details regarding community engagement opportunities and budget dates are available online.