The PTA is alerting its membership that the Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2025 Budget (released on February 29, 2024) proposes two staff cuts that, if implemented, would negatively impact Abingdon.
Proposed Elimination of Abingdon’s Second Assistant Principal #
For years, the Abingdon community has thrived under the leadership team of Mr. Horak, Ms. Oliveira, and Mr. Micael. But the Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2025 Budget defunds Abingdon’s second assistant principal. In other words, if the Superintendent’s proposal is adopted, Abingdon will lose Ms. Oliveira or Mr. Micael.
The Abingdon PTA Executive Board is gravely concerned about the proposed loss of Ms. Oliveira or Mr. Micael. They, along with Mr. Horak, fill many roles everyday: student advocate, crisis interventionist, community liaison, staff supervisor, and even substitute teacher. Those responsibilities are all-consuming when the three are working at full (and often excess) capacity. Take away one though, and Abingdon will suffer dramatically.
If Abingdon loses the necessary administrator support, teachers will have to try and fill the gaps. And if teachers’ time and attention is diverted:
- Students would suffer educationally and emotionally.
- Staff would suffer increased stress and risk of workplace burnout.
Abingdon is particularly susceptible to these problems because our school is exceptional in size—and the size of its needs. Abingdon is the largest elementary school in Arlington, with 740 students. About 292 students, or 40%, are English learners; more than 100 students have a disability. And Abingdon’s Title I status—over 40% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch—reflects our community’s higher levels of economic need.
By defunding Abingdon’s second assistant principal, the Superintendent suggests our school has the same administrator needs as Nottingham Elementary (374 students). It does not: The number of Abingdon students qualifying for free and reduced lunch nearly equals Nottingham’s total population.
And in the very same budget, the Superintendent proposes to maintain extra assistant principals at three middle schools (each school’s third assistant principal). Our school should not suffer, so others can benefit.
Proposed Elimination of Two Classroom Teachers #
The Superintendent also proposes to cut two classroom teachers at Abingdon. Abingdon is already the most underserved Title I school in Arlington district in terms of student:staff ratios. Removing two classroom teachers is not the way to fix that problem.
What You Can Do #
The Abingdon PTA Executive Board is working to stop these proposed cuts to Abingdon. I will speak out at Thursday night’s School Board meeting. But to succeed, we need your help! Here’s what you can do:
- Sign the petition against defunding Ms. Oliveira or Mr. Micael that will be available at Parent-Teacher conferences this week as well as digitally.
- Attend the Budget Work Sessions on March 19.
- Speak at a school board meeting or board member’s virtual office hours.
- Write to the School Board to make your opinion heard.
- Read the proposed budget.
If you have a special skill that you think would help us in this advocacy, please let us know. We would love to have someone with data analytics experience, written or oral advocacy. If you think that your skillset would be of use, please contact us as soon as possible.
If you’ve gotten this far, thank you! Please reach out to us at [email protected] or [email protected] with any questions.
How is the Second Assistant Principal Position Currently Funded? #
APS calculates each school’s budget and staffing using so-called planning factors. The FY 2024 planning factors are here. As you can see on page 1, each elementary school is assigned 1 principal and 1 assistant principal, regardless of size or need. By contrast, as noted on page 6, middle schools receive 1 principal and a base level of 1 assistant principal. But a middle school with 700-999 students is automatically staffed with 2 assistant principals. And if the population reaches 1,000 or more students, the middle school gains a third assistant principal. (Yes, if Abingdon were a middle school, it meets the criteria for 2 assistant principals by default.)
The planning factors are why past APS budgets and the Superintendent’s FY 2025 Proposed list Abingdon at 1.0 principals and 1.0 assistant principals. So where has our second assistant principal come from?
The APS budget includes a Human Resources Contingency Fund. This account funds additional, temporary positions beyond the permanent ones provided in the budget. Each year, Mr. Horak submits a request to the Contingency Fund for a second assistant principal and crosses his fingers it will be granted. Although it has been for several years, the position lasts only for that school year with no guarantee of sustained funding. Every year, APS can simply decline the request and there will be no position.
For FY 2025, the Superintendent proposes to maintain [slide 11 at the link] three extra assistant principals at the middle schools by converting the positions from contingency to permanent. But the Superintendent conspicuously declined to make permanent Abingdon’s second assistant principal, despite proposing [pages 3, 6] to do so for other positions. And given the reductions in the Contingency Fund, all evidence indicates that the second assistant principal position will no longer be funded. Indeed, the Contingency Fund exists to address unexpected staffing shortfalls (ex. a sudden influx of students to a school) rather than known, recurring needs.
The Superintendent’s proposal ignores how the circumstances and rationales for making permanent extra assistant principals at the middle schools equally apply to Abingdon. First, the proposal reflects how the planning factors are just considerations—not immutable laws. The three middle schools admittedly did not meet the planning factor criterion (1000 students) for the third assistant principal yet they would receive one anyway. So too should the budget depart from the planning factors for Abingdon. After all, if Abingdon were a middle school, it would automatically receive two assistant principals.
And the Superintendent says the middle schools need a third assistant principal to “continue existing instructional resources and supports” for “student well-being and academic progress.” We know that’s true for Abingdon as well.
Advocacy Example #
Below is an email sent from Abingdon parent Maureen Harlow to the Arlington School Board.
Dear Honorable School Board Members,
I am writing today in opposition of two points in the Superintendent’s Proposed Budget for 2025 as they pertain to Abingdon Elementary School, specifically the lack of funding for the second assistant principal that we have had for the last four years and the elimination of two classroom teachers. These changes would be devastating to the school, which is exceptionally large and exceptionally high-need.
As you undoubtedly know, Abingdon, the neighborhood school that serves all of Fairlington, Claremont, Columbia Forest, and surrounding areas, is both the county’s largest elementary school and the largest Title I elementary school. Its current enrollment is around 740. Of those students, over 300 are eligible for free and reduced lunch, a number which nearly equals the population of some other elementary schools in the district (Nottingham, for example, has an enrollment of only 376). There are also over 100 students with IEPs, who are classified as having a learning disability, and nearly 300 who are English Learners.
To illustrate some of the harder-to-quantify extraordinary need at the school, I also want to note that Abingdon has been the proud home of significant refugee populations for decades, a history that dates back to the 1970s. Our population includes students who have recently arrived in America from all over the world, including displaced people from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Ethiopia, Central and South America, and many other countries and regions. To them, and to all of us in the community, Abingdon represents safety, security, and a place where someone cares about them. We are proud of the fact that we are a home to so many in search of one, and proud that we can provide a welcoming, supportive community for people who really need it.
For the last several years, because of these and other reasons, Abingdon has had two assistant principals. One is a permanent position and the other has been funded out of the Superintendent’s Discretionary Budget. This year, the proposed budget would cut that second AP position as well as two classroom teachers.
It is worth noting that, based on the district’s own population planning factors, if Abingdon was a middle school, it would automatically qualify for a second AP because its population is over 700. We would not be having this conversation at all.
The recommendation to cut an assistant principal and two classroom teachers is short-sighted and unreasonable. With two assistant principals, Abingdon falls right in the middle of all Arlington schools in its administrator-to-person ratio (the total population, including staff and students). If one AP is cut, Abingdon will have the highest number of people per administrator, which is completely out of step with all sense of equity. To prove this, I have pulled data from the district’s own proposed budget document (https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2024/02/FY-2025-Superintendents-Proposed-Budget-Document.pdf) and aggregated it here. In these charts, the Arlington Title I elementary schools are highlighted in red.
2024 actuals:
2025 proposed:
Indeed, Abingdon also has by far the highest number of students per staff member of any Title I school in the county.
What is particularly disappointing is not only that we are being treated as equal in size and need as other schools who are much smaller and have much smaller populations in need of exceptional intervention, but also that three “extra” middle school assistant principal positions, which have similarly been funded out of the Superintendent’s Discretionary Budget for the last four years, are being converted to permanent positions, while the additional AP at Abingdon is being eliminated. In short, there had been four assistant principals that were funded out of the Discretionary Budget. Three are being converted to permanent positions, but the fourth, at Abingdon, is slated to be eliminated.
We are extraordinarily proud of our school and the community that we have built. We have a staff that cares about our students and each other. We do not want to lose them, but I am confident that this change would be devastating for staff retention and recruitment as well: what would motivate someone to stay at Abingdon when they could work in a much less challenging, appropriately-staffed school in the district?
As I noted earlier, Abingdon is a safe haven for its community of learners. Please help us to keep the staffing levels we have. The needs of this community are great and cutting an AP and two classroom teachers would result in learning loss, greater inequity among the schools, and unmet mental health needs among students. For staff, retention would plummet, recruitment would be stymied, burnout would skyrocket, and mental health issues would proliferate. Please help us.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you further. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.
Thank you for your time and attention to this incredibly important issue.
Sincerely,
Maureen Harlow