71 FCPS Central Admins Make Over $200K

Before Cutting Classrooms, Downsize the C-Suite

By Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

(EdNews Virginia) — Earlier this month, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Chief Financial Officer Leigh Burden told the budget committee that Fiscal Year (FY) 2028 would be “a difficult budget year.” Despite declining student enrollment, the number of the district’s central administrators has grown right along with its budget. From FY2021 to FY2027, that budget increased by $1 billion — from $3.1 billion to $4.1 billion. It is becoming increasingly clear that Virginia’s largest public school district doesn’t have a funding problem. It has a spending problem.

In a $4.1 billion budget, $17 million in salaries for the district’s 71 most senior central administrators might seem like a rounding error — a rain shower over an ocean, roughly 0.4% of the total budget. But it’s a symptom of a much larger problem. When district leaders fail to get as much money as they request from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, they tend to cut student services while their bureaucratic fiefdom keeps growing.

In her presentation to the budget committee, Burden advised members to prepare for a shortfall similar to FY2026’s, which came in at $154 million. Among her recommended cuts: increasing class sizes to save $35 million. But before any cuts are made that touch student outcomes, district leaders need to address their abundance of administrators who never set foot in a school.

Superintendent Michelle Reid, who pays a great deal of lip service to “equity,” makes $469,936 a year, plus a $12,000 car allowance. She also has four around-the-clock personal security staff. By comparison, a starting FCPS teacher makes $63,599. That means Reid’s compensation—salary, car allowance, and private security combined—is roughly equivalent to 14 new teachers’ salaries.

Three other central administrators make more than $300,000 this year. How many more teachers could FCPS hire if it weren’t paying all of these bureaucrats?

FCPS’s leaders have a choice to make before FY2028 arrives, and so far they’ve been making the wrong one. Every year the district cries poverty to the Board of Supervisors, and every year the checkbook somehow finds room for six-figure “Chiefs” of everything from equity to experience and engagement. A district that has lost enrollment and still needs a $154 million bailout has no business protecting 71 administrators’ $17 million payroll while floating the idea of larger class sizes to save $35 million. If FCPS wants taxpayers and parents to believe FY2028 is truly a “difficult budget year,” it should start by proving it has already looked in the mirror — trimming its own bureaucracy before it touches a single classroom. Until then, “equity” will keep sounding like a talking point reserved for press releases, not a principle applied to the district’s own org chart.

SEE THE DATA:

This article was made available to WMAL via EdNews Virginia. Ms. Lundquist-Arora is a Fairfax parent and leads the county’s Independent Women’s Network chapter.