Higley Unified ponders bond, override elections in 2024

Oct. 16—Citing aging buildings and postponed projects, Higley Unified School District staff last week asked the governing board to consider holding a bond election next year and possibly an operating budget override.

Higley Unified School District's (HUSD) bond elections in 2021 and in 2022 both failed to win voter approval and the 2013 and 2019 bond money has all been spent.

"I do think the district should consider evaluating an option for a 2024 bond election going into next fiscal year," said district CFO Tyler Moore at the Oct. 11 board meeting.

This Nov. 18, Maricopa County school districts are seeking approval of bonds totaling $3.09 billion, according to the Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools Office.

Among them is Queen Creek Unified School District, which for the third consecutive year, is seeking bond approval after its requests the last two years were voted down.

According to Moore, Higley Unified buildings are getting older with an average age of 18 years, increasing stress on the maintenance budget that funds major repairs.

"We're working on making those repairs and prioritizing those," he said. "But with the limited capital budget we are doing the best we can."

He said HUSD tried to get help from the state's School Facilities Board, which administers renewal grant funding for K-12 school districts' building repairs but "received word that they are already out of money for fiscal year '24."

"They currently stated that they are only funding life safety right now, as they should," Moore said.

Projects that include weatherization and exterior painting for Chaparral Elementary and Sossaman Middle School and roofing for Cooley Middle School are on hold, he added.

Williams Fields High School, which serves grades eight through 12, is scheduled to receive new construction funding by the School Facilities Board as enrollment for grades nine through 12 has drastically exceeded the district's projections, Moore said.

"Enrollment is growing and we are out of capacity," he said.

He said the agency's new construction budget will fund the necessary needs such as four walls, floors and carpet but that anything extra is on the district's dime. That includes technology, which is not deemed to be educational space.

"That begs to consider how we are going to fund those extra needs," Moore said. "We get this new construction funding, but how are we going to make it match what is currently existing and keep those spaces equitable?"

Moore said the district's remaining bond monies were exhausted last school year with $48,777 going to technology upgrades and $3 million dedicated to build, remodel and improve school facilities.

HUSD also is drawing down on its override funding, which pumped into the budget an additional $13.6 million last fiscal year and $13.7 million this fiscal year due to an increase in student count.

According to Moore, even though the override is for seven years, it's only fully funded for five years and then phases down.

The 15% budget override voters approved in 2019 is in its fifth year. An override allows a district to increase spending for its day-to-day operations, such as staff salaries and supplies.

The district has used the funding to increase teacher compensation; maintain and improve elementary specials such as arts, music, physical education and district athletics; provide staff to maintain average class sizes; support gifted, special education and all-day kindergarten; and provide education resources to classrooms.

Moore said the board is going to face a decision this coming year on whether to renew the override.

"If we do not pass a renewal on the 2024 November ballot, we will start a reduction of 33% in year six," he said.

Moore said that in fiscal year 2025, the override will begin phasing down with a $4.5 million drop in funding to the maintenance and operation budget. In fiscal year 2026, the funding will decrease by $9.2 million and then sunset the following year.

Both the override and bond are funded by property taxes.

Board member Anna Van Hoek advised staff to look for savings before taxing voters in the district's boundaries.

"We all have a budget in our lives and we can't keep going to the bank and asking the bank to give us more money to be able to redo our bathrooms and redo our kitchens," Van Hoek said.

"And so I want to ensure that we utilize everything we possibly can within our budget before we go to the community," she continued.

"With the current inflation and everything else that is happening, people are having a hard time putting food on their tables and living paycheck to paycheck. ... We have senior citizens on fixed budgets and every time we increase the property taxes, it impacts their income. So I want to be mindful of that."

Board member Amanda Wade recalled the cuts the district had to make when she taught at HUSD between 2011-15. Although voters approved a 10% override in 2003 and 2008, they rejected it in 2012 and 2013.

"We cut things like paper," Wade said. "We got six reams of paper for an entire semester. That was really hard.

"As a teacher we would talk about when Staples had a remarkable deal on paper and go as departments to go horde them because we needed the paper. Especially this was before Chromebooks."

Wade recalled teaching in packed classrooms, with 49 students in chemistry and 50 in Spanish.

"I literally did not have enough desks in my classroom," she said. "To be able to have all of these students sit, we had people sit on the floor, we had people sitting on my desk.

"These things are hard. I had students where I couldn't provide the books that they needed for some of the stuff and supplemental. We had to do the best we could to find other resources and those types of things."

Wade acknowledged the importance of staying within a budget but that the district was under a legal obligation to provide for the community.

"We are also under the legal obligation to provide safety, and unfortunately the things that get cut the most do impact the students directly and by extension then impacts the community," she added.

Van Hoek said that she didn't want to see student programs such as music cut, and again raised concerns that the district used federal pandemic relief funds to hire counselors because once that money is gone, the cost of their salaries falls on the district.

HUSD received three allotments with the last grant, north of $7 million, expiring June 30, 2024.

Moore responded that one of the stipulations required community input on how the district spent the School Emergency Relief Funds, and hiring counselors was overwhelmingly supported.

He added that the cost of the three counselors and an assistant director was roughly $400,000, including benefits.

"That is the conversation that we'll have to have going into next year's budget as it's completely funded by an ESSER grant this fiscal year," Moore said.

He also said Proposition 123, approved by voters in 2016 and provides $3.5 billion to Arizona's public schools over 10 years, goes away in fiscal year 2025.

Higley's share is $900,000 annually.

"There are several fiscal cliffs coming the next fiscal year," Moore warned.