The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board celebrated several athletes for their accomplishments this past spring at the School Board meeting on Wednesday, June 7. Track and field coach Kevin Clancy praised his team for breaking over 400 personal records (PR), and by the end of the night, the Board set a new PR, too.

The Board ended its meeting after over five hours of deliberation. It was actually a six-hour meeting for the members, since they gathered for an executive session at 5 p.m. They were supposed to review the Superintendent’s Performance Incentive Goals in order to determine if Dr. Cain Jagodzinski deserved up to 5% of his salary as a bonus, but when it came time to vote on the matter in the regular business meeting, the Board tabled it for later.

Member Libby Settle said it’s hard to vote on the matter without seeing Jagodzinski’s contract. Although the contract is public, it has to be requested from the district office. Member Dana Saar said he had no issue approving a 5% bonus for Jagodzinski, but he understood Settle’s concern and backed her and member Madicyn Reid.

That was one of the six 3-2 votes by the Board on 15 action items. Reid and Settle also moved to approve the proposed budget without an Adjacent Ways Levy. President Jill Reed was the deciding vote.

Proposed budget

The Board approved the revised budget for 2022-23 last month on May 15, and they approved the proposed budget for 2023-24 last Wednesday, June 7.

The Arizona State Legislature approved several increases to the overall education budget, such as a 2% increase in the Base Support Level (BSL) for inflation. FHUSD will receive $152,912 as its share of the increase, and the district will also receive $337,284 in specific one-time state aid supplements this year.

In total, FHUSD will receive $605,298 thanks to fiscal legislative changes. The Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) creates a spending limitation on schools and would have cut over a billion dollars from the state’s education fund had it not been exempted this year. The legislature also exempted the AEL for next year, but it will return in 2025.

Tyler Moore, the representative from True Professionals LLC, presented the proposed budget to the Board. Moore’s PowerPoint presentation included consolidation expenses and pointed out there was more than $2.1 million in the budget. The presentation can be seen through the Governing Board “meeting files” tab at fountainhillsschools.org.

Moore recommended the one-time state funds be allocated for a Maintenance and Operations contingency fund. That fund helps with unexpected emergencies, like the water main break that interrupted in-person learning for a week at the high school last fall.

Moore also presented an Adjacent Ways Levy initiative. The levy would have been a one-year tax on property taxes to raise $300,000 for FHUSD to use on sidewalks, bus lanes and parking lots. The levy would have cost residents a twentieth of one cent for every $100,000 of assessed value, but the Board voted 3-2 to approve the proposed budget without the Adjacent Ways Levy.

“[Moore’s] job is to tell them all the ways that they can utilize funding,” Jagodzinski said. “It's their call to make the decision of what they want to do. I think all [Moore] was trying to do is say, ‘this is available to you if you want to do it. Here’s the cost that goes with it, and it’s your choice if you want it part of the budget or not.’ [The Board] voted to not have that as part of the budget.”

Resolution

The Board approved purchase orders for playground equipment and a new marquee sign for the middle school by 3-2 votes. The Times will have reports on the playground installation and costs in future editions. The Board also heard presentations about the new trimester schedule and senior internship programs, and The Times will cover those in depth in the future as well.

Toward the end of the meeting, Jim Giel from Gust Rosenfeld Law Firm offered the Board clarity on the bond resolution and the resolution to sell, lease or exchange the Four Peaks Elementary School building.

The Board already voted to bring both measures up for a vote, and the resolutions provide the language that will be seen on the ballots this fall. Reid and Settle opposed both resolutions and lost both, 3-2.

The next scheduled Board meeting will be at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 28. They are not scheduled to meet again until their Board retreat on Wednesday, July 26, at 4 p.m.

All Board meetings are held in the FHUSD Learning Center and are recorded and livestreamed on the FHUSD YouTube channel. Old videos can be found under the ”live” tab at youtube.com/@fhusdyoutube130.