The Higley USD Governing Board approved 2% raises for most district employees at the board’s March 8 meeting, but the vote was not unanimous.
Anna Van Hoek voted in dissent on the raises, expressing a desire to have seen more options for the board to consider that would have given employees smaller increases. Board Member Amanda Wade was absent for the 3-1 vote.
Van Hoek said her concern was the looming expiration of the district’s maintenance and operations override and the impact that could have on the district’s programming.
“I 100% support our teachers, all of our staff because they're just as important, but I don't want to be using this as a form of pulling the parents' heartstrings, going, ‘your kid's music's going to be cut if you don't approve a bond or override in 2024 when we make this decision,’” Van Hoek said.
Van Hoek said she wished the district had given smaller increases last year, when teacher raises were 7%, so that larger increases could be given this year.
District voters approved a 15% maintenance and operations in 2015 and renewed it again 2019 before it begins to sunset. The maintenance and operations budget pays for day-to-day operations of a district, including most salaries, and is limited by law. However, an override allows voters in a district to approve additional M&O funding for their local schools, earmarked for specific educational purposes and generated through local property tax levies.
Overrides run for seven years, but the funding is phased out in the final two years without a renewal. Thus, the override from 2019 will be cut to 10% in fiscal year 2025-26 and 5% in 2026-27 unless it is renewed on the 2024 ballot.
The funds from HUSD’s override are earmarked for eight uses:
Academic program choice;
District arts;
Smaller class sizes;
Competitive salaries;
Classroom resources;
Elementary specials;
All-day kindergarten; and
School athletics.
The ballot question passed with nearly 64% of the vote in 2019. Since then, however, the district has had two bond measures, which fund specific capital needs, overwhelmingly defeated.
Board Member Kristina Reese said she cannot vote against a pay raise because of what might happen in two years.
“We don't have those options (on different levels of pay increase) this year,” Reese said. “We're not as fortunate, but everything is going up and we need to try and stay competitive with salary. Unless we do, the greater the gap (with other districts) becomes because they're still going to do it (increase pay).”
President Tiffany Shultz agreed, noting that the increase was low already and did not keep up with inflation, and she pushed back against using the override’s sunset as reason not to give teachers an increase.
“We won't be tugging on heartstrings,” she said. “We will have to have real conversations in 2024 and 2025. I've seen our budget and where we're at.”
The district will supplement the 2% increase in salaries for returning teachers and other certified staff from the M&O budget with an additional $1,250 from Classroom Site Fund money, making teachers’ raises about 4% overall, Chief Financial Officer Tyler Moore said.
Others getting 2% raises are returning preschool teachers, school counselors, instructional coaches, educational professionals, classified exempt staff, community education exempt staff and administrators.
Classified and community education non-exempt staff are getting an additional $1 per hour as officials said they are among the district’s lowest paid workers and thus most affected by the difficult economic environment.
In a separate but related action, the board approved an updated salary schedule and base rate adjustments. That also was approved on a 3-1 vote with Van Hoek dissenting.
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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