Higley Schools approves final budget revision

By Tom Blodgett
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Twitter: @sp_blodgett

The Higley Unified School District Governing Board unanimously passed a third and final revised budget for fiscal year 2022-23 at its May 10 meeting. 

Under the revision, the district’s maintenance and operations budget increased $144,200 from $119.87 million to $120.02 million while the capital budget went from $28.24 million to $29.24 million. 

The maintenance and operations, or M&O, budget pays for the day-to-day operations of the district, including most salaries. The increase came from a small increase of 17.20 in average daily membership, a key enrollment figure in the state’s budget formula. 

Average daily membership is the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students, minus withdrawals, of each school day through the first 100 days of the school year. 

The M&O budget figure also reflects a $9 million transfer from that budget to capital to cover the district’s middle school leases ($4.4 million) and some capital projects ($4.6 million) now that voters defeated a district bond question the previous two elections. 

It also includes an adjustment of $283,029 from the district under-calculating the money from its M&O override for fiscal year 2021-22. State law allows districts to submit a correction in the calculation of the school district’s budget limits within the previous three years. 

In other items from the meeting:  

• The board approved a guaranteed maximum price package of $1.88 million to Chasse Building Team for weatherization of Higley High School this summer. It is part of the Higley High update project that includes a new academic building, restroom remodeling, additional lighting and security and modified traffic flow for the school. 
• The district reporting it paid the tuition of 80 special education students at area day schools during the third quarter. The schools offer services for Higley special education students that the district cannot provide. The cost to date is $1.74 million, but the district projects to be under budget for the year on the line item. 
• The district is in the midst of a Conceptual Physics textbook adoption, a process it plans wrap up in June. The textbooks are available for public review through June 7, and a community meeting on it is planned for May 16. However, board members asked the district to do more communication with the public on getting the word to parents about the textbook review. 
• The district informed the board it is working on an update of its student code of conduct, which will be presented as part of the student handbook in June. 
• The board approved on a 4-1 vote increasing the annual cumulative spend for 14 vendors on cooperative contracts over $100,000 for the current fiscal year. Board Member Anna Van Hoek voted in dissent after objecting to the contract for Nearpod, which she accused of being associated with Social Emotional Learning and other “ideologies” to which many parents object. Associate Superintendent Sherry Richards told the board that the district uses Nearpod for training to align curriculum with state standards and not for any SEL components. 
• The board also approved on a 4-1 vote the expenditure of $145,119.92 for the purchase of an assessment package from Renaissance Learning for one year. Van Hoek again dissented, objecting to potential data mining done by Renaissance Learning. District officials told the board that the district does not subscribe to the components to which Van Hoek objected and they are disabled from teachers’ views. 
• The board unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement between Greater Phoenix Educational Management Council and AZ Educational Management Council and Higley Unified School District that will run from July 1 through June 30, 2028. They provide educational management services, programs, and activities in a cost-effective and educationally sound manner for mostly smaller school districts, Foley said. 

Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter.  We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert
@sp_blodgett

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).