EVIT board approves nearly $51K to send up to 15 staff members to Hawaii conference
The East Valley Institute of Technology governing board is facing scrutiny about its travel expenses after it approved spending nearly $51,000 to send board members and faculty to a conference in Hawaii.
On Monday, the governing board approved the funds to send up to 15 board members and teaching staff to attend the Association for Career & Technical Education Region V Conference in Honolulu in April. Along with that, the board also approved another 17 overnight trips for staff and board members to take place over the next fiscal year, which amounted to another roughly $121,000, bringing the total to nearly $172,000.
The board chose to put all anticipated travel for the year on one agenda “rather than scattering the items throughout the year on separate agendas,” board President Shelli Boggs said in a prepared statement to The Arizona Republic.
“The EVIT Governing Board takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are spent wisely and in support of our students and teachers. It is also a priority of this board to be transparent with how tax dollars are spent,” Boggs said.
EVIT offers tuition-free career and technical education to high school students in 11 East Valley school districts and adult career training.
In June, the board had initially approved to send up to 10 board members and facility members to the Hawaii conference but on Monday upped the number of participants by five. The estimated cost for each participant is $3,368.
Because of the wide range of specialized programs offered at EVIT, the school may want to send more teachers to this conference, said CeCe Todd, an EVIT spokesperson, in an email. Programs taught include automotive technologies, digital animation, medical training, among various other trades that don't naturally overlap with each other.
Throughout the year, EVIT has sent anywhere from one to 10 people to other conferences in Prescott, Orlando, Salt Lake City and other cities. The Hawaii conference has the most approved participants.
“All of EVIT’s travel requests have more slots approved than we anticipate using. The requests were made so we could begin the process of identifying who will attend which conference and after doing so, be able to secure travel and lodging early to reduce the overall costs, ” Superintendent Chad Wilson said in an emailed statement to The Republic.
The board’s “policy is supported” by state law, which allows “a superintendent or principal or representatives of the superintendent or principal to travel for a school purpose,” with a majority vote of the board, Todd said.
The board is not required to follow Arizona's accounting manual, which has more detailed guidelines on out-of-state travel.
How much the board approved for conference travel throughout the years
EVIT provided the total amounts the board approved for conference travel throughout past years. Todd clarified it was not expenditures and said in many cases the full amount was not used because not everyone attended.
The school pays for these conferences out of the maintenance and operations fund, grants, adult education funds and enterprise funds.
2018-19 ― $12,853.50
2019-20 ― $108,446.25
2020-21 ― $15,484.00
2021-22 ― $139,328.00
2022-23 ― $258,718.00
2023-24 ― $175,140.00
The approved amount for fiscal year 2021 was lower than usual because conferences were virtual due to COVID-19. The board has allocated $188,000 in the budget for outside travel for fiscal year 2024, according to Todd.
Reporter Maritza Dominguez covers Mesa and Gilbert and can be reached at maritza.dominguez@arizonarepublic.com or 480-271-0646. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @maritzacdom.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: EVIT board could spend nearly $51,000 on Hawaii conference
