Librarians ask Fairfax County School Board to restore national-board stipends after classification error
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Summary
Six FCPS librarians who hold national board certification were denied annual stipends after being classified as "other public school employees," and speakers requested a $15,000 reallocation from the Office of Professional Learning to cover the stipends.
Multiple speakers at the Feb. 10 public hearing told the Fairfax County School Board that six FCPS librarians who earned national board certification were denied their annual stipend this year because the Office of Professional Learning (OPL) classified them as "other public school employees." Speakers said the VDOE and OPL have blamed one another for the exclusion and urged the district to reallocate about $15,000 from OPL to fund the six stipends.
Casey Hoffman Blaylock described how librarians were classified on state paperwork in a way that excluded them from funding, and that the VDOE did not direct the classification. Maura Madigan, an FCPS librarian who said she is one of the six excluded, reiterated that only FCPS and Chesterfield County librarians were denied awards and urged the board to correct the misclassification.
Speakers asked the board to address both the financial harm and the symbolic harm of excluding national-board-certified librarians. They framed the reallocation as a small county budget adjustment with a large impact on the affected teachers.
The board will take up the proposed FY2027 budget on Feb. 26, and speakers requested prompt corrective action or an assurance that the issue will be resolved in the budget process.
