The Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board approved on March 25 a second revision to its fiscal year 2024-25 budget, this one aiming to maximize financial flexibility.
The district aims to maximize revenue earnings by transferring $11 million from the maintenance and operations budget to district additional assistance, which falls under the capital budget, Associate Superintendent Bonnie Betz said.
State law does not allow the district to increase its budget capacity in maintenance and operations associated with interest earnings, Betz said.
By moving the $11 million into unrestricted capital, GPS can generate interest revenue, which can be used for facility upgrades. Betz said the district has enough funds to continue its operations uninterrupted by the transfer.
Betz highlighted the district's recent success with interest income, as the district earned just over a million dollars in interest earnings for unrestricted capital. This year to date the district is at about $825,000, earning about $125,000 a month.
As a result of the revision, the M&O budget decreased from $293.13 million to $282.13 million. Meanwhile, the unrestricted capital budget capacity increased from $56.2 million to $67.2 million.
This shift allows the district to generate more interest income over the next few months, which could amount to approximately $1.5 million.
“You can imagine that a $67 million bucket of money will be able to earn a fair amount of interest over the next three to four months,” Betz said.
The board also learned that the district plans to reallocate some DAA funds back into M&O in the next fiscal year to maintain sufficient budget capacity for operational expenses.
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
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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