The Higley USD Governing Board gave a tentative approval to its fiscal year 2023-24 maintenance and operations budget and did a second review of its unrestricted capital budget at its March 8 meeting.
The maintenance and operations budget, which pays for the day-to-day operations of the district including most salaries, had been reviewed twice previously. The board approved the $124.18 million budget on a 4-0 vote with Amanda Wade absent.
The tentative approval allows the district to move forward on issuance of contract renewals. Final approval will come at a public hearing in June.
The budget represents a $4.31 million increase from the current revised budget, which stands at $119.87 million.
The budget includes a 2% increase for most employees, a $1 an hour increase for hourly employees, a 2% increase to the supplemental salary schedule, a $5 increase to the substitute rate, and a one-time $750 retention stipend to all employees. Those increases will cost the district $5.02 million.
The budget was built with an assumption of a 2% increase to the base support level from the state as a result of inflation. That increase is statutorily mandated at current inflation rates.
The district will realize a savings of $620,005 in debt service from refinancing its middle-school leases.
Though the district will have a number of fixed-cost increases in areas like utilities and insurance, it will actually realize an overall savings of $305,650 in fixed costs because it is bringing all of its custodial services back in house. The removal of contracted services there will save the district $1 million.
Because the salary increases are greater than the increase in the general budget limit and the overall fixed cost decrease, the district will have to transfer more than $399,000 from its budget balance carry forward to balance the budget. But the district has enough of that contingency money to absorb that.
The capital outlay review showed a $17.91 million budget with District Additional Assistance still being fully funded from the state.
The budget has an emphasis on major maintenance projects and phased security upgrades. However, to cover the middle-school lease payments and with the bond question failing, and thus bond money for major maintenance unavailable, the district is making a $6.61 million transfer from the maintenance and operations budget.
The board will consider giving the capital budget tentative approval at its April 5 meeting, allowing the district to start planning for summer capital projects. Final approval also would come at a public hearing in June.
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
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).
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