District overview
Arlington County Public Schools
How Arlington's schools are funded and governed, and what is underway now
Who pays for Arlington's schools, and who decides?
Arlington Public Schools enrolls a projected 27,776 students. Like every Virginia division it cannot levy a tax: it depends on an appropriation from the Arlington County Board, plus state aid under Virginia's Standards of Quality formula and federal grants. Arlington leans on local money far more than most divisions. In the FY 2027 adopted budget, county transfer is 76.2 percent of revenue against 15.6 percent from the state, 2.6 percent federal, 3.2 percent other local and 2.4 percent other sources. That means Arlington's schools rise and fall with Arlington County's tax base rather than with Richmond, and it is why the School Board and County Board hold joint budget and capital work sessions each spring. Of what the division spends, 87.8 percent goes to schools themselves. Staffing is set by a published book of planning factors, formulas that convert each school's enrolment into a number of teachers, counsellors and clerical staff, so a school's allocation is largely mechanical once its roll is known.
Enrolment is shrinking, and the budget follows it
FY 2027 is built on 27,776 students, 646 fewer than the 28,422 projected for FY 2026. The adopted budget cuts a net 29.30 instructional positions, 28.40 of them attributed directly to the enrolment decline, while adding special education, safety and student activity staff. It leans on $16.37 million of reserves to hold the rest steady.
Five members, elected county-wide
The Arlington School Board has five members elected at large by county voters to overlapping four-year terms that begin on January 1 after the election. One or two seats come up most Novembers, so control changes gradually rather than all at once.
Staff pay is set by collective bargaining
Arlington is one of a small number of Virginia divisions where school employees bargain collectively. The board approved agreements with the Arlington Education Association and Arlington School Administrators in December 2025 and an AEA support-staff agreement in June 2026. FY 2027 carries $25.63 million for compensation including step increases, a cost-of-living adjustment and negotiated changes.
Planning factors decide what each school gets
The published planning factors set staffing by formula: one elementary counsellor per 325 K-5 students, art and music teachers on a sliding scale starting at 1.0 for up to 400 PreK-5 students, clerical staff by enrolment band. The board ran a phase 2 implementation work session on them in September 2025, and FY 2027 continues implementing the FY 2024 planning factor study.
A shrinking roll is not by itself a sign of trouble. Arlington still spends $26,548 per pupil, it is protecting special education and student wellbeing staffing while cutting elsewhere, and its board publishes an unusually detailed record: 71 meetings and 436 agenda items in a single year, with a standing monitoring item on a different strategic-plan priority at almost every meeting.
Where the division stands
Down 646 from the 28,422 projected for FY 2026. The division expects continued growth in special education and English learner numbers even as the overall roll falls.
An increase of $15.71 million, or 1.9 percent, over the FY 2026 adopted budget. The board amended this budget on July 30, 2026.
The whole adopted budget divided across projected enrolment, so it includes transport, benefits, facilities and central services, not only what is spent inside a classroom.
Against 15.6 percent from the state, 2.6 percent federal, 3.2 percent other local and 2.4 percent other. County revenue rose $7.97 million in FY 2027.
With 4.6 percent to facilities and operations, 3.9 percent to management and support services, 2.8 percent to instructional support and 0.9 percent to leadership. Separately, WABE data cited by the division puts school-based positions at 91.7 percent of School Operating Fund positions in FY 2026, up from 91.3 percent in FY 2025.
$10.74 million compensation reserve, $3.00 million capital reserve for minor construction and major maintenance, and $2.64 million from the future budget years reserve. Reserves spent once cannot be spent again.
28.40 of these are attributed to declining enrolment. The budget separately adds 6.50 student wellbeing positions and 10.12 operational positions, including 8.50 custodians.
Counted from the board's own published index. Includes regular meetings, work sessions, closed meetings, the policy subcommittee, the audit committee, committee of the whole sessions and retreats.
Every item the board listed, including procedural ones such as the call to order and the pledge.
Minutes appear as a consent item at essentially every regular meeting and the index records their approval, but the minutes files sit behind BoardDocs attachment paths that are not publicly readable from outside the portal.
Major projects
Grace Hopper Center (new Arlington Career Center facility)
Construction finishing; site opening and programme consolidation funded in FY 2027The Grace Hopper Center is the new home of the Arlington Career Center. Through the year the board cleared the legal and construction ground for it: a right of way agreement with Dominion Energy, a construction contract change order, and a deed of easement for the campus. The FY 2027 adopted budget funds the site opening and the consolidation of programmes onto it, and the board held a work session on what will be taught there.
- Right of way agreement with Dominion Energy presented for information
- Board approves the Dominion Energy right of way agreement
- Work session on Grace Hopper Center programming
- Board approves a construction contract change order
- Board acts on the deed of easement for the campus
Funding
Capital Improvement Plan, funded by Arlington County bond authority
FY 2027-36 Capital Improvement Plan
Adopted June 18, 2026The board's ten-year plan for school construction and major maintenance. It set direction in autumn 2025, received the superintendent's proposal in May 2026, adopted its own proposed plan on May 28, took public comment on June 2, met jointly with the County Board on June 3, and adopted the plan on June 18, 2026. The FY 2027 budget adds a $3.0 million one-time investment in minor construction and major maintenance to tackle deferred maintenance.
- Work session on FY 2027-36 CIP direction
- Board adopts its direction on the superintendent's proposed CIP
- Superintendent's proposed FY 2027-36 CIP presented
- Joint CIP work session with the Arlington County Board
- Board adopts the FY 2027-36 CIP
Funding
County bond authority and the division's minor construction / major maintenance reserve
Redesign of non-traditional secondary programs
Approved February 2026, implementation updates continuingArlington's non-traditional secondary programs are the alternative settings for students who do not thrive in a comprehensive high school. The board held a work session on them in November 2025, received proposed changes in January 2026 and approved them in February 2026, then took implementation updates in April, June and August 2026. In the same period it signed a lease with Amazon for Arlington Community High School, which serves adult and non-traditional learners.
- Work session on the non-traditional secondary program
- Proposed changes to non-traditional programs presented for information
- Board approves the proposed changes
- Board approves the Amazon lease for Arlington Community High School
- Further update on changes to non-traditional secondary programs
Funding
Operating budget; the FY 2027 budget records savings from eliminating a virtual learning teacher and lower virtual learning vendor costs
Planning factor study implementation
Phase 2 under way; FY 2027 continues implementing the FY 2024 studyPlanning factors are the formulas that convert a school's enrolment into its staffing. A study commissioned for FY 2024 has been implemented in phases since. The board held a work session on phase 2 in September 2025, and the FY 2027 budget records continued implementation as a source of savings alongside updated English learner planning factors, which drive a net reduction of 7.50 positions in the workforce section of the budget.
- Work session on planning factors and phase 2 implementation
- FY 2027 budget adopted with continued planning factor implementation and updated English learner factors
Funding
Operating budget; implementation produces savings rather than requiring new money
Recent news
Built from two official sources. The first is the Arlington School Board's own BoardDocs meeting index, an XML feed covering every meeting it has posted since 2010; the trailing-year slice, Sept. 4, 2025 to Aug. 24, 2026, contains 71 meetings and 436 agenda items with their categories, titles, action types and recommended actions. The second is four durable listing pages on the division's own site www.apsva.us: the budget page, the capital improvement plan archive, the adopted planning factors archive and the Washington Area Boards of Education guide archive. Forty-seven documents were collected and reviewed, including the FY 2027 adopted budget and its summary, capital plan reports and school bond information back to 2012, planning factors back to FY 2018 and WABE guides back to 2017.
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