This is the second part in a four-week Q&A series that candidates in the Fountain hills Unified School District Governing Board election are participating in.

The school board election will be a part of the Nov. 6 General Election, with early ballots being mailed out on Oct. 10.

This week, candidates Wendy Barnard, Nadya Jenkins, Judy Rutkowski and write-in Bob Shelstrom responded to the following question:

Considering the maintenance and operations budget, as well as capital funds, how would you prioritize the school district’s spending?

Judy Rutkowski

School district monies are allocated to funds, or “pockets.” Capital fund money is spent on items such as new construction and equipment, such as school buses, computers, or heating/cooling systems. Maintenance and operation (M&O) funds are for day-to-day operations of the schools, such as teacher and staff salaries and electricity. Monies from one fund cannot be used to pay expenses assigned to the other fund.

The district budget determines how the money is spent. Whether a budget is for a family, a small business, or a governmental agency, it’s not wise nor financially responsible for expenses to exceed income. That is especially important in government.

In FHUSD, our income is mostly from your hard-earned tax dollars. The administration and the Governing Board must be excellent stewards of your money. Whatever we spend must be spent prudently and with the overriding goal of maximizing the educational success and safety of our students.

There are wants (“nice-to-haves”) and needs (“must-haves”). In cooperation with district administration, the governing board must clearly and responsibly identify the “must-haves” and provide them in the most economically sound manner. We must also objectively evaluate the list of “nice-to-haves,” determining which, if any, of them offer a recognizable benefit and would contribute to our students’ educational achievement, provide valuable additions to curriculum or yield substantial improvements in student and staff safety.

In the past almost four years, the board has successfully provided sound fiscal oversight for the district. I welcome the opportunity to continue this work.

Bob Shelstrom

Life safety/health/security infrastructure must be our priority. This includes “hardened” entries and security camera systems to monitor threats and identify bullying so that swift corrective action may be taken.

We need to ensure buildings don’t have rain or plumbing leakage to prevent unhealthy mold conditions.

As a senior project manager for renovations in the largest school district in Illinois and a Finance and Building committee member for my local schools, I learned the value of periodic, comprehensive life safety evaluations performed by a licensed architect to establish any facility safety issues with code compliance and hazards requiring remediation. I was surprised to find that such a study has not been performed in FHUSD recently.

I believe these evaluations are necessary for student and staff health and safety and is money well spent.

Recently the district approved a risky turnkey contract for an energy “savings” audit, bloated with “public relations” and unnecessary architectural projects. The contractor also requires the district to “sole source” design and construction of their recommended projects to them or face excessive penalties.

Curiously, the audit and recommendations have already been provided at no cost to the district by SRP, making the new audit unnecessary. It would be far more prudent to proceed with the SRP recommendations for better returns on our investment at the lowest competitively bid cost.

There are better ways to run capital programs than are being practiced by the board. I hope to be able to assist improving that process with your support.

Wendy Barnard

School finance contains two distinct components. Maintenance and operations (M&O; also referred to as the general budget) and a capital budget. M&O is spent on everyday expenses and the capital funds are spent on building needs.

The majority of the M&O budget is expended on human capital: teachers, aides, specialists and administrators. I would argue that those with direct student contact are the epicenter of schools. Recruiting and retaining teachers is critical to the success of our schools. It is estimated that the costs of recruiting and training new teachers is close to $10,000; therefore, it is a cost savings to reward high quality teachers with professional wages, increasing retention.

Capital expenditures include equipment costs. Interestingly, expending dollars in this category frees up money in the M&O budget to pay teachers. For example, while an electric bill is paid out of the M&O budget, an energy-efficient upgrade saving electric bill costs is paid out of the capital budget. Understanding the distinctions between funding streams allows for adequate funding in the M&O budget to pay for our most valuable resource, teachers.

Prior to serving as a Governing Board member, I was part of the FHUSD Budget Advisory Committee. These experiences provided insight into the complexities of school funding and budgeting, as well as the importance of setting appropriate priorities on spending. As such, the priority of the district should always be funding for children’s educational experiences, including well-paid and highly qualified teachers, the availability of specials and access to technology.

Nadya Jenkins

Students and instruction are the top priority. We need to make conscious decisions about where the district spends its money with student achievement being at the forefront of the conversation.

We as a district must make sure we have clearly evaluated, defined and quantified our instructional priorities and strategic goals — such as improving student achievement, retaining teachers, building improvements for energy efficiency. Then, determine the cost to implement priorities and goals, and where those dollars will come from, through comprehensive analysis of current resources and expenditures in order to find capacity.

Trade-offs need to be weighed to examine whether the costs, financial or otherwise, of implementing a priority are viable. A long-term strategic financial plan can then be created with careful planning and smart spending tactics to pay for those priorities across multiple years.

Every expenditure has to be followed by a return-on-investment check that considers not only the initial cost, but the expense during the life of the purchase or service and ultimately how it aligns with our stated priorities. This check will also ensure that the stated goals remain relevant and are prioritized when dollars are allocated each year.