The sheet of paper that Jen Brody held up during Monday’s Fredericksburg City School Board meeting was divided into red, orange and yellow portions.
Brody, FCPS’s chief financial officer, said she uses the document to track federal spending, “depending on how much I feel it’s on fire that day,” adding: “There really aren’t any greens.”
Uncertainty regarding federal funding sparked more conversation Monday, as officials worked to prepare a budget for FY2026 ahead of a March 3 public hearing and vote. The board will hold a joint work session with city council in early April.
Brody explained that Head Start, a federally-funded program that helps “America’s most vulnerable young children succeed in school,” has already encountered issues elsewhere.
“Some have February [start dates] and there are some school divisions nationwide that are operating unfunded,” she said, noting that FCPS’s Head Start funding resets April 1.
School board chair Matt Rowe (Ward 1) asked Brody how long it would take for the division’s Head Start program to be affected if it doesn’t receive funding in April.
“We can certainly operate unfunded for some time,” Brody said. “The city would help us with that.”
As an additional precaution, FCPS is requesting budget reimbursements every two weeks for its existing grants, especially pertaining to payroll.
“Typically, we’re not that quick about it, but we just don’t want to risk anything,” Brody said.
FCPS officials are also monitoring the effects of upcoming federal budget proposals on programs, with Brody noting that both House and Senate spending bills include a 25% cut to Title I, a federal grant program for low-income schools for which FCPS is eligible. According to demographic data presented at Monday’s meeting, 53% of the division’s students are economically disadvantaged.
Other programs that could be imperiled include school nutrition and the second round of a clean school bus program rebate totaling $3.4 million.
The board’s conversation then turned to the current culture wars, and the calculus school divisions must consider when it comes to drawing the federal government’s ire.
“What are we doing to try and proof ourselves from having federal funding withdrawn?” asked board member Jennifer Boyd (Ward 1). “I noticed in the document tonight that ‘equity’ was still in there. That’s a red flag with what we’ve seen. I know it goes against everything, but it’s also critical for us.”
Boyd, who works at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, shared messaging from her supervisors, who have been forced in recent weeks to respond to federal job cuts.
“Now is not the time for supervisors or school systems to become activists,” she said. “That’s just the sad truth, but it’s the truth.”
“I don’t think that we should be activists, but I don’t think we should compromise our values and our principles,” countered board member Katie Pomeroy (Ward 2). “I do think that words matter and the words in our goals and our documents do have impact.
“Obviously, funding our schools and getting the money is vitally important. It’s also important not to compromise to a bully. I don’t think that that kind of censorship is something I’m going to be OK with.”
Superintendent Marci Catlett said the division is developing “some kind of formula” to determine how official FCPS communications might clash with federal law.
“We’ve already started kind of an audit of language in an informal way, but we’ll tighten that up,” Catlett said. “We’ll be proactive.”
