The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board approved a pair of budgets during the June 22 regular meeting, including a revision to the 2015-16 budget and a proposed draft of the 2016-17 budget.

Additional changes were needed for the 2015-16 budget due to the passage of Proposition 123. As for the 2016-17 budget, the approved draft will continue to be revised as needed throughout the next year.

A public hearing on the proposed budget and possible final approval will take place in the District Learning Center on Wednesday, July 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

2015-16 Budget

Before getting to the budget for the upcoming school year, the Governing Board had to first take another gander at the budget for the previous academic year.

With Proposition 123 approved this past May and Fountain Hills Unified School District scheduled to receive some additional funding from the state, the board needed to put its stamp of approval to a budget that reflected those changes.

In short, Prop 123 increased the base support level per student while the state also provided additional funds from the needed $50 million adjustment outlined in the proposition. Fountain Hills was granted a percentage of funding from that figure and payments will be made through 2020.

The base level amount per student went from $3,524.56 to $3,645.00 due to Prop 123, moving the base support level from $7.7 million to about $8 million.

As for FHUSD’s cut of the $50 million, it totaled $76,270 for this most recent academic year. All told, Prop 123 provided FHUSD with $337,748 for the 2015-16 budget that may be carried forward into FY2017.

That moved last school year’s general budget limit from $9.9 million in May to $10.3 million now.

2016-17 Budget

Looking ahead to the upcoming school year, the FHUSD budget is shrinking due to two factors. For starters, the unweighted student count, based on the 100 day count, went from 1,618.71 last year to 1,505.13 this year, or a loss of about 113.58 students. Since the Maintenance and Operations budget is based on student population, a smaller number of students means a smaller budget for the upcoming academic year.

The other big difference in budgets is monies provided by Prop 123. As FHUSD Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney explained, the previous year’s budget jumped by more than $300,000 due to the voter-approved proposition, which widened the gap between the 2015-16 budget and the one for the upcoming school year.

The base support level for students this school year has gone up by about $36, making a base level amount of $3,681.09 per student for 2016-17.

Another impact on this year’s budget is the teacher experience index. Due to a handful of retirees, FHUSD will see a slight decline from this portion of the equation.

In the end, the base support level for FHUSD this academic year is $7,324,313, down $625,450 from the previous year. Again, half of that difference can be attributed to the Prop 123 monies, as well as a drop in enrollment and the teacher experience index.

With all other monies, unrestricted capital, Title VIII-Impact Aid, etc. taken into account, FHUSD is this year looking at a total budget of $12,091,006.