Fairfax School Board Adopts No-Frills Budget: Plan Cuts Cost-of-Llving Teacher Raises
The Fairfax County School Board, squeezed by tight finances in the midst of a recession, adopted a budget for the 1991-92 academic year last night with the smallest percentage increase in more than a quarter-century.</br></br>The board barely tinkered with Superintendent Robert R. SpillaneÛªs $903.7 million spending plan, which represents a 3.2 percent increase over this year. However, the board did manage to restore several modest cuts Spillane had suggested and stashed $3.1 million in reserve to cushion the areaÛªs largest school district against future bad economic news.</br></br>With so little money available for initiatives, the board approved the budget in less than an hourÛÓapparently a record time, according to longtime officialsÛÓand with none of the serious donnybrooks of previous years.</br></br>Indeed, last night's unanimous vote was an anticlimactic finale to a budget season that started with fireworks.</br></br>When he first unveiled his proposal in January, Spillane resurrected a previously defeated plan to extend Mondays to a full school day for elementary students. The move sparked an uproar among some School Board members, who called it an act of insubordination, and among parents and teachers, who considered the issue decided.