<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=43spcK_1GtsRU1600" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=43spcK_1GtsRU1600" width="697" height="383" ><figcaption>Higley Unified School District will face drastic cuts as it will no longer have override funding left next budget year.&nbsp; (HUSD)</figcaption></figure>Pink slips, larger class sizes and spending cuts are likely for Higley Unified School District, which is looking at a Fiscal 2028 budget with no more override money.Governing Board members are expected to give their spending priorities Nov. 17 to the administration, which will return in December with options for budget reductions, along with corresponding number of staff cuts.“The loss of the override has a huge impact on Higley Unified School District - $14 million a year is a lot,” said Superintendent Dr. David Loutzenheiser at the Oct. 27 board meeting. “It’s a lot that’s allowed us to have these quality programs, people and positions and provide those limitless opportunities for our students.“Since 2003, there has never been a year in which Higley doesn't have some portion of an override.”Voters in 2019 renewed a 15% budget override approved four years earlier, allowing the district to continue its increase in maintenance and operations spending for things such as increasing teacher pay, supporting all-day kindergarten, maintaining average class sizes and providing resources to classrooms. An override authorization is good for seven years with just the first five years fully funded, which then phases down the remaining two years and sunsets if not renewed.Higley received $14.1 million annually for the first five years, $9.3 million in the sixth year and $4.6 million in this current budget year, its final payout. The district in 2024 and 2025 failed to win voter approval to continue the override, which is funded by property taxes.Loutzenheiser pointed to other significant financial impacts on the budget, including an anticipated $3.5 million reduction in state funding due to declining student enrollment and an annual $3 million lease payment for its two middle schools until 2053.To close the spending gap, the board opted to dip into its carry-forward funds or savings to continue programs and positions.According to Loutzenheiser, unless the district makes some changes in its spending, there will be no savings left in Fiscal Year 2029.“It would be down to zero,” he said. “A common question that has come up to us is what’s an appropriate amount for a budget balance carry forward? From your own personal budget, you might look and say, ‘I’d like to have six months of savings. I’d like to be able to pay my bills for six months.’“For us, we’ve gone down. We are at about two months currently. That’s about $16 million. We have to make changes about what's happening otherwise we are going to spend all of our savings and that is not an appropriate thing to do.”Loutzenheiser noted that while the district has been adjusting its spending due to less state funding, it’ll be up to the Governing Board to determine how to reduce expenditures further in order to maintain its carry forward funding.He detailed cuts taken over the years by the district, including staffing reductions mainly among teachers either through attrition or not filling budgeted positions. Over the last two years district-wide, 103 positions were done away with.“Through attrition we have been able to go through and remove positions from a teaching perspective,” Loutzenheiser said. “We feel like because we’ve had less kids, we’ve cut a certain number of teaching positions.“Given what we anticipate in terms of what we're going to need to do this year, I don't know if attrition will get there. There's a possibility we have to do a reduction in force (RIF).” He said the board will receive information on the staff reductions in December and vote on the tentative budget and layoffs in March. If the RIF is activated, affected employees would be advised beginning Feb. 22, he added.And if further cuts are needed, the RIF process for classified employees such as custodians, cafeteria workers and library aides would begin in April, according to Loutzenheiser.“Typically, we've been budgeting for about a $3.5 million (staff) reduction based upon (average daily membership) loss,” he said; “$3.5 million is not going to get us where we need to go this year because of the loss of that override. And so we know that those reductions are going to have to be significantly more.”Board member Anna Van Hoek, reading from a prepared statement, blamed her peers for the district’s financial situation and singled out President Amanda Wade. The two often butt heads on the dais.“I've repeatedly raised concerns about our district's financial sustainability as enrollment declines and the override phases out,” Van Hoek said. “We knew these challenges were coming. We’re now discussing additional cuts, and that could have been better anticipated.“While declining enrollment and a failed override created revenue challenges, the majority's spending decisions have affected how prepared we are to address them.”She pointed out that she has opposed drawing down the district’s savings while two board members supported using that money.“I warned against using a lot of our reserves for re-occurring expenditures because once that money is gone, the obligations remain,” Van Hoek said. “Administration has also confirmed that $4.9 million of the $7.5 million in carry forward allocated to cover our 2027 deficit supports recurring expenditures previously funded by the override. We are using savings to pay ongoing expenses without a plan for sustaining them.” She added that while she supported teacher raises and smaller discretionary increases for hourly and exempt employees in the current budget, it was Wade who proposed a 4% hike.The board majority in June ultimately approved a 3% pay raise for district employees.“Administration has confirmed that the approved compensation package costs $422,000 more annually than my proposal,” Van Hoek said. “Those are reccurring obligations. At that meeting, Board President Amanda Wade said that she would always support people. I agree.“But supporting employees isn't about approving raises. It's about ensuring that they have jobs year over year.”Van Hoek also faulted the district for not having a comprehensive facilities utilization plan in place, which is not the same as a capital maintenance plan, which the district says it has, she said. According to Van Hoek, seven schools are below 60% capacity and some are even less than that.“We continue paying to operate and maintain these buildings while considering additional staffing and program cuts,” she said.“I've repeatedly requested a five- to 10-year facilities plan evaluating enrollment projections, operating costs, boundary adjustments, leasing partnerships, repurposing and potential consolidations. “Our responsibility isn't simply to get through another budget year. It's to keep the district financially sustainable five to 10 years from now. I've been raising these concerns for years. We should have started this work much sooner and I don't want us sitting here a year from now discussing another round of cuts because we failed to address the underlying issues.”Wade defended against claims that the district is not budgeting or financing appropriately. “We as a district – and every year it is proven with our audits – are responsible financial stewards of our tax dollars,” she said. “It is disingenuous to say that we are making mistakes.“And again, Miss Van Hoek, I appreciated your efforts and your conversation when we had them in the past and you are correct. The majority of the board disagreed with you.”Wade said using the carry-forward funding delayed harmful cuts to students.“We as a board absolutely prioritize staff,” she said. “We do not have an override in place and we are going to hurt. We knew that option last year: we could hurt last year or we could wait as long as we can to try to save the staff that we have.”She said that employees can drive 10 minutes to another school district such as in Chandler, Mesa and Queen Creek for higher paying jobs.“We cannot pretend as if we do not exist in the real world here in education,” Wade continued. “Staff needs to be paid and they need to be paid competitively if we hope to have competitive staff.That's how this works. We have done everything we can to protect and shield classroom experience.”She said that classroom sizes will increase, which is a “direct harm to students.”“We lose staff when this happens,” she said; “because again we are already taking an overburdened staff and asking them to do yet again even more. We have protected the student experience by working to make competitive jobs knowing that again we exist in a world where people can just drive someplace else.”Wade said the district took appropriate steps for the sunsetting of the override.“We are now in a position of this is what we have warned about,” Wade said. “We said it was going to hurt and here we are. I do not live in regret for the decisions I made to center the classroom and I don't believe the other individuals who supported that decision live in regret either.“If we always knew this was coming, why rush to it? This gives us an opportunity to maintain the wonderful programs that Higley offers, the wonderful staff that continue to show up for our students, help our students be successful because we are across the board outperforming across the state.”She said that the students will feel the cost of losing the override that the voters felt was not important enough to continue.“I'm angry and sad that we are having this conversation,” Board member Tiffany Shultz said, adding that she stands behind her votes. “I will always choose students first and continuing programs that benefit them and putting off the inevitable was the right decision for me and for our community."An override is not additional funds for fun things," she continued. "It is to replace air conditioning units, for fields for our students to have the things that they should have in Gilbert in a community that is affluent. We shouldn't have to be worrying about having these conversations and what amazing teachers we're going to have to lose.” </div></body>

Block Source: East Valley Tribune

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Ink slips, larger class sizes and spending cuts are likely for Higley Unified School District, which is looking at a Fiscal 2028 budget with no more override money. Governing Board members are expected to give their spending priorities Nov. 17 to the administration, which will return in December with options for budget reductions, along with corresponding number of staff cuts.

Higley facing staff cuts, larger class sizes

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Ink slips, larger class sizes and spending cuts are likely for Higley Unified School District, which is looking at a Fiscal 2028 budget with no more overri

Higley facing staff cuts, larger class sizes

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