Higley Unified School District’s classroom and instructional support spending declined during fiscal year 2023-24, according to the district’s annual financial support.
But neither result was surprising to district officials, who presented the AFR, an unaudited report required by the state’s Auditor General, to the district’s governing board at a public hearing Oct. 15.
While classroom spending, often the most scrutinized metric on such reports, declined 3.8% from the previous fiscal year, Chief Financial Officer Tyler Moore said that largely was due to the district having spent $2.7 million on a new science curriculum adoption during fiscal year 2022-23, an expense that was off the books the next year.
Instructional support had a slight decrease, but again it could be foreseen. That was due to the expiration of COVID relief funds, Moore said.
The AFR summarizes the district's expenditures for the past fiscal year, which in 2023-24 for HUSD totaled more than $182 million across 353,000 accounting transactions.
The report highlights the decommissioning of results-based funding, which has been integrated into the maintenance and operations fund.
Meanwhile, student support saw a slight increase, while administration costs rose by 6% due to a large number of payouts for tenured employees who retired or left the district, Moore said.
Plant expenditures increased due to rising insurance and utility costs, Moore said.
The district's budget balance carry forward is decreasing as COVID relief funds expire, with a focus on maintaining a healthy reserve, Moore said.
The capital budget has been used for significant projects, with a drastic decrease expected in future years unless, Moore said.
Cash-controlled funds, such as food service, are being managed to ensure sustainability, Moore said.
In response to a board question, Moore said he is working on an ending budget balance policy to maintain transparency and alignment with financial targets. He said he has draft language to bring to the board at a future study session.
Moore noted a large decrease in the community education preschool ending balance and said the board may need to consider a tuition increase, another topic for future board consideration.
He also said future capital expenses will be drastically limited unless additional capital funds become available.
The district has an $83.1 million capital bond on the November ballot, as recommended by a community stakeholder group, but its past two bond questions failed by large margins, which has stalled several capital projects in the district.
Moore said the district is working on getting grants to supplement the funding, including from the state’s school facilities board, and will be presenting a future update to the governing board.
The district also has had to transfer money from its maintenance and operations budget, which day-to-day operations including most salaries, to its capital budget, which goes to items like buildings, textbooks, technology and buses.
The district has regularly had to do that transfer to pay its middle school leases, a financial albatross that the district has been unable to get out from under, though it did refinance them to lower the payment. A bond question that included paying off one of the leases failed with voters in 2022.
But the transfers also recently have had to support some maintenance projects.
Vice President Anna Van Hoek asked if Moore expected more money to go into classroom spending in fiscal year 2024-25.
“I would like to be able to see those dollars going into the classroom because that is a major concern for community members,” she said. “They want to see our teachers paid well and they want to see money spent on instruction. And for the people that I've talked to, it's a matter of seeing educated students versus shiny new buildings.”
Moore said it is too early to predict what that will look like. Board Member Kristina Reese also said it is not shiny new buildings driving that spending.
“We're getting older as a district, and so we're needing to use these funds as far as HVAC and things like that go and maintenance and everything than when we were a brand new baby district growing,” she said. “So that's why that one goes up.”
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.
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