Queen Creek Unified revises budget upward

The Queen Creek Unified School District budget for the 2025-26 school year has been revised to reflect additional state funding.

Moves late in the state’s legislative session brought more than $1 million to the budget than what originally was approved by the QCUSD governing board.

In July, the board approved a $120.8 million budget. The budget also included unrestricted capital funds and federal funding for a total of more than $148.7 million.

The revised budget, approved by the board earlier this month, comes in just north of $121 million. Also included in the budget is an increase in unrestricted capital funds and federal funding for a total of more than $150.5 million.

The budget approved in July did not include the state aid supplement and one-time money for Free Reduced Priced Lunch and District Additional Assistance programs because it was not known at the time whether the Legislature would renew the funding.

“I told you in June that we were hopeful that those pieces would make it into the adopted budget by the Legislature and they were in fact included,” QCUSD CFO Jessica Johnston said during the July board meeting. “Tonight’s (budget) adoption leaves those out still because we’re required to adopt exactly what was proposed in June.”

Added into the revised budget was $1.2 million in state aid, $377,000 in District Additional Assistance and $229,000 for the Free Reduced Priced Lunch program.

Overall, the budget added a 2% inflation factor, bringing the district’s pupil funding to $5,113.26 per student. That number includes transportation mile amounts.

The budget also reflects a 3% raise for teachers and staff paid for by the 15% maintenance and operations override voters approved in November.

Under the new budget, the average annual teacher salary will increase to $68,452 from $66,458 during the last school year. The budget also includes the teacher-base salary of $54,500 that was approved this spring by the governing board.

The $15 million in override money will also maintain:

• Academic programs that prepare students for post-secondary education and workforce success;
• Art and music classes throughout the district;
• School security;
• Class size at the kindergarten through eighth-grade level;
• ROTC and gifted programs.

The money also will 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.

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.

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