In case you haven’t heard, the U.S. seems to be in a bit of financial trouble. This trouble, it turns out, trickles into all facets of life, from unemployed parents to automakers needing a boatload of extra federal dollars just to stay afloat.

No one and no place is safe, it would seem, and this includes local schools.

Since the New Year kicked off, it seems as if bad news in the area of funding has hit Fountain Hills Unified School District, along with every other district in the state, on a regular basis.

However, thanks to early planning and forward thinking, these cuts might not be as devastating locally as they are elsewhere.

FHUSD this year announced it will essentially be able to absorb more than $250,000 in budget cuts imposed by the Legislature at the state level, but “absorption” in this case means several cuts to both staff and services.

Back in February, Assistant Superintendent Tim Leedy proposed a reduction in maintenance and operations (M&O) and the transfer of unrestricted capital money to M&O to make up the difference.

If further cuts come in 2010, however, such as the proposed $892 million statewide for education, everything from excess utilities to building renewal and beyond would be affected.

To handle this year’s cuts, Leedy and the FHUSD budget committee put together a set of proposed reductions in the 2009-10 budget.

One of the hardest hit areas is a reduction of employees totaling approximately 27 positions (seven administrative, eight classified and 12 certified).

As for the current 2008-09 year, Leedy estimates the budget reduction at approximately 2.5 percent of FHUSD’s base support level, or roughly $206,000.

These cuts will also affect the district in the form of a 10 percent reduction in soft capital allocation, totaling $50,100 for the current academic year.

Student population

While the 2010 budget is still looking worrisome, some federal relief may be on the way.

Taken as a percentage, the 2010 budget could see a 13 percent cut from M&O as well as 100 percent cut in both Soft Capital Allocation and Building Renewal.

Broken down, this will account for several projects and programs being altered or eliminated completely. If current figures hold, the district is looking at a lump sum loss of $205 per student from the state, a total of $617,800.

This will also mean no increase in basic support level (estimated at $200,860) or the constitutional limit of $221,756.

This could be even more troublesome if the FHUSD student population continues to slide backwards.

By mid-March the 2008-09 100th day count had been reached. The Arizona Department of Education released the figures and Fountain Hills saw yet another drop in student population.

The 40th day count was released earlier this academic year, totaling FHUSD with 2,204 students; down from 2,230 at the 2008 100th day.

Figures fell again with the 2009 100th day totaling 2,199 students, a loss of 31 from the previous year.

At present, Superintendent Dr. Bill Myhr said the economy has kept the district population in constant flux as families move in and out of the area on a weekly basis.

With only so much state funding coming from student population, and the district set to receive less per student, a continued decline in student count could hit the district hard.

Stimulus/RIF

However, federal stimulus money for 2009 may provide funding for Title I Grants, which are directed toward helping low-income students, and IDEA Grants, which provide programs for students with disabilities, as part of the $400 million the Department of Education is releasing in two installments.

Locally, FHUSD is expected to see $127,400 in Title I stimulus funds, $570,600 in special education stimulus and $210,100 in construction infrastructure stimulus funds.

Into April of this year, despite possible funding from the federal level, things were still looking pretty bleak.

With the state facing a deficit of $1.6 billion in 2009 and a possible $3 billion shortfall in 2010, local schools have proven one of the primary sources for fixing the problem.

By the April 15 School Board meeting, there was still no clear picture of expected funding.

With new contracts due, the board was left with no option save to grant Myhr permission to proceed with the 26.4 employee reduction in force (RIF).

While Myhr said the district would do its best to bring back as many of those positions as possible, nothing is guaranteed.

Looking ahead

Along with the recently implemented RIF, less district-wide projects and the like, subsidization of athletics and clubs became a primary concern earlier this year.

An early April proposal for hikes in athletic and club fees left parents and board members experiencing sticker shock.

Several revisions later and a compromise may have been reached with a committee establishing new figures falling in the middle ground that should be ready for approval in the coming weeks.

Along with the possible evolution of bus and Web site advertisements, FHUSD is still looking to bring more funding into the district to help counteract those dollars going out.

One such method of raising extra funding has come in the form of the tax credit program.

Despite the dwindling economy, tax credit funding was actually up this year, accounting for an overall increase in excess of 13 percent.

While the program raised $315,917 back in 2007, the 2008 figures totaled $359,014.

“This [funding] is essential to the functioning of our extracurricular programs,” Leedy said.

With participants able to allocate their tax credit donations to the school/program of their choosing, this means an additional $360,000 in funding will find its way to bands, clubs, sports and more in the coming year.

While the tax credit program was being looked at by the Legislature earlier this year, Leedy said he feels confident residents will be able to continue to support the district in this manner in the future.

“I don’t suspect tax credits are going away, at least for this year,” Leedy said. “They talked about it early on, but it has since been dropped.”

Overrides

This November, FHUSD will have another chance at keeping local programs running.

This year’s override election is a renewal of the 2005 overrides passed for K-3 and maintenance and operations.

Next year is the last year of full funding from the override, which must be renewed this year to allow the district to continue to offer the same programs in grades K-3 and in the M&O budget as before.

“The numbers will be similar to what they are this year, approximately $320,000 for the K-3 override and approximately $1 million for the M&O override,” Leedy said.

If unsuccessful, the district would have to reduce the budget by over $320,000 for the K-3 override and more than $360,000 for M&O in addition to the cuts already being imposed by the 09-10 budget.

That totals additional cuts of nearly $700,000.

With so many question marks hovering around the district’s budget, Leedy said it will still be a while before any harder numbers can be nailed down.

“I went to a conference [recently] and there really isn’t any new news coming from the Legislature,” Leedy said. “Now it looks like it may be June before anything is done on the 09-10 budget.”

Leedy said it is hard to determine what all of this will mean until the Legislature finally adopts a budget.

“Even then, the way things are going with the 2009 budget still slipping away from the state, I’m not real optimistic that once we get budget figures that they will hold,” Leedy said.

“I think we are in for a few years of rough roads from a budgeting standpoint.”

Review: 
Economic series, Part One: Surviving financial fallout
Economic series, Part Two: Sanitary District
Economic series, Part Four: Construction industry
Economic series, Part Five: Town surviving
Economic series, Part Six: Laid off teachers
Economic series, Part Seven: Stimulus money
Economic series, Part Eight: Food Bank
Economic series, Part Nine: Retailers
Economic series, Part Ten: Mayor impacted
Economic series, Part Eleven: Real Estate