Queen Creek school board approves $126M budget

The Queen Creek Unified School District’s governing board has voted to approve a $126.2 million budget for the 2026-27 school year.

At its Tuesday meeting, the board approved the budget by a vote of 2-1, with Board Member Kelli Anderson voting no. Board Members Patty Campbell and Matt Riffey did not attend the meeting.

The board also approved the primary and secondary tax levies for the district.

The budget will be revised in the fall to include state funds for Free Reduced Priced Lunch and District Additional Assistance programs. Both items were included in the state’s 2027 budget signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs. Last year, the money added about $1 million to the district’s budget.

The new district budget’s maintenance and operation limited expenditure is $121.2 million, with an additional $5 million carryforward, bringing the limit to $126.2 million. That’s a decrease of about 1% from the current expenditure limit for the 2025-26 school year of $127.5 million.

The M&O budget includes $16.5 million in override money approved in 2024 by voters. That money will fund:

• competitive teacher salaries
• academic programs that prepare students for post-secondary education and workforce success
• art and music classes throughout the district
• optimal student-to-teacher ratios across the district
• JROTC, Naval and gifted programs

The money will also be used for Summer Bridge programs to help elementary to high school students transition to the next level of their academic career and achieve their academic goals, as well as reading and math “interventionists,” and teaching assistants for k-3.

Also in the new budget, but not under the expenditure limit, is the unrestricted capital outlay fund of more than $14 million, plus a $3 million carryover from the past school year for a total of $17 million. That’s down almost 3% from the current year’s capital outlay of $17.5 million.

The unrestricted capital outlay fund pays for items such as library books, textbooks, furniture, tech hardware and software, and construction.

Under the proposed budget, the average annual teacher salary will increase to $66,694 from $65,386 during the 2025-26 school year. The budget also includes the teacher base salary of $56,125 that was approved this spring by the governing board.

Due to state statute, each year per-pupil funding increases by 2% or the inflation rate, whichever is less.

“The inflation still continues to be a little bit higher than 2%, so we have the required 2% inflation factor. That takes the per pupil base level support up to $5,215 per student,” Chief QCUSD Financial Officer Jessica Johnston told the board.

That number also includes transportation mile amounts.
The budget also reflects a flattening of the average daily membership, or student enrollment.

“We always like to budget on the conservative ADM growth and that gives us the ability to revise for growth throughout the school year,” Johnston said. “We’re currently seeing our growth at the secondary level and so there is a 100 ADM shift from the elementary to the secondary budget.”

The governing board also authorized a primary tax rate of $3.26 per $100 assessed value, down from $3.42.

The bulk of the primary rate is determined by the state Legislature. Districts can use the portion not set by the Legislature, known as the adjacent ways levy, for road projects related to schools and Crismon High School buildout requirements.

That levy amount in the new budget is $3 million for a rate of $0.216, down from $0.276.

Also approved was the secondary property tax rate of $2.03 per $100 assessed value, down from $2.23 last year. The 15% budget override and debt service on bonds make up the secondary property tax rate.

In voting against the budget, Anderson cited the ongoing legal battle with the East Valley Institute of Technology as it seeks to reduce the funds it distributes for career and technical education satellite programs on school district campuses.

QCUSD is one of nine East Valley school districts suing EVIT.
Under a now-expired intergovernmental agreement, districts received 87% of their funding for satellite programs from EVIT.

Under a new agreement proposed by EVIT, funding would be reduced to 83%.

Through the satellite program, students can take CTE classes on their high school campuses rather than going to the two EVIT locations in east and west Mesa.

“I believe it is irresponsible to take more taxpayer money while entangled in costly litigation over the district’s failure to meet an agreement for an IGA with EVIT. This issue has not only caused unnecessary stress for parents and students, it is costing our district tens of thousands of dollars,” Anderson said.

QCUSD boundaries span 48 square miles and include 10 elementary schools, two junior high schools and three high schools. The district’s student population is approximately 15,000.

The first day of school is Monday, July 20.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.