The Higley Unified School District revised its final budget Aug. 6 for fiscal year 2024-25 to correct a budgeting error and reflect the final appropriations that the Arizona Legislature approved after the district’s budget adoption.
The revised budget shows no change in maintenance and operations, which remains at $128.06 million, where it was at final adoption June 26. The maintenance and operations budget pays for the day-to-day operations of the district, including most salaries.
However, the capital budget changed from $15.33 million to $15.02 million after the Legislature’s final budget forms were adopted, Chief Financial Officer Tyler Moore said. The capital budget pays for items like building maintenance, transportation and technology.
The error related to special education transportation costs, which the district put at $102,000 on forms but should have been $1.2 million. The revision of the typographical error reflects the proper total.
Answering a question from board Vice President Anna Van Hoek, Moore said the error did not impact the total budget as the special education transportation costs do not have a relationship to the overall budget formula. Rather, the error was just on an indication of where funds are budgeted.
But Moore said the error did cause the state to cut off certain grant funding, saying that HUSD did not meet or exceed its special education funding.
However, the revision corrects that issue, he said, as the budget cell now properly reflects what the district intended to budget.
The governing board approved the revision on a 4-0 vote with President Michelle Anderson absent.
Moore said a second revision will be made in December when the district has a better handle on its average daily membership, an enrollment-based figure that is a key component in the state’s education funding formula, and its budget balance carry forward and other cash funds.
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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