The Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board unanimously approved the district fiscal year 2022-23 annual financial report, but did so with a caution to anyone who wades into it.
The report, required by the state, summarizes revenues and expenditures for the district from the year and shows beginning and ending cash balances for all the district’s various funds. The board approved the report on a 4-0 vote with Board Member Chad Thompson absent after devoting a study session to it.
The report also breaks down that spending on school-by-school basis, and that is where district officials said people can misinterpret the report.
Finance Director Jackie Mattinen told the board that comparisons of spending between two schools are perilous because each campus and its population are different in their composition and needs.
To illustrate both what the report shows and how comparisons can be off, district finance officials showed what the report had on two similarly sized elementary school campuses within the district, Gilbert Elementary and Carol Rae Ranch Elementary.
The two are only 11 students apart in unweighted student count, but Carol Rae Ranch has a much larger special education student population and so its needs are different.
Mattinen showed the breakdown of the spending at the two schools, explaining how spending at Carol Rae Ranch was at $9,329 per student while at Gilbert Elementary it was $8,590. That could lead someone to conclude that the district was supporting its students at Carol Rae Ranch more.
“I think what I'd want (the public) to take away is there's more to the story, period,” Superintendent Shane McCord said. “And hopefully it would help them ask questions, and we'd be willing to answer any of those questions related to any of those types of things.”
Associate Superintendent Bonnie Betz said people reviewing the report should contact Mattinen or her or someone else in the district to get the context around the numbers.
Board Member Jill Humpherys said the district is making sure everyone gets what they need.
“Each student is unique, so we're trying to meet their needs in a unique way, which doesn't necessarily mean equal dollars,” she said. “It's addressing needs equally, but not in a way that everybody gets the same."
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@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).
Gilbert Public Schools,
Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board,
Jackie Mattinen,
Shane McCord,
Bonnie Betz,
Jill Humpherys,
Gilbert Elementary School,
Carol Rae Ranch Elementary School
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