AZ schools budget cuts (Tucson, Mesa: sales, leasing, day care)

[LocoAZnative]

Everyone wants to know where the best schools in AZ are. It really doesn't matter once they have to even more budget cuts.

School districts may lose $120 mil in state aid for bills

School districts may lose $120 mil in state aid for bills

Districts may lose $120 mil in state aid for bills

30 comments by Alex Bloom - Jan. 25, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The classroom lights could go out for students later this year as Arizona legislators consider cuts to battle the rising state budget deficit.
At issue is $120 million in excess-utilities funding for school districts, which the state could tap as early as July.
Cuts would force districts including Mesa Public Schools, Paradise Valley Unified and Scottsdale Unified to make millions of dollars of cuts just to cover electricity bills. And it's likely to affect the classroom, with districts having to increase class sizes and eliminate some teaching positions and programs to make up the difference.
Since 1985, Arizona school districts have been allowed to pay for a percentage of their heating and cooling, electricity and water bills through their local property tax. District budgets could not keep up with rising energy costs in the 1980s and the excess-utilities provision allowed districts to spend outside their budget to pay for skyrocketing utility bills.
But the ability to spend outside a district's budget by levying an increased property tax expires next year as part of language in 2000's Proposition 301, which increased teacher salaries. Proposition 301 declared that districts would need to start including all utilities within budget and the property tax was eliminated.
A law passed during last summer's budget negotiations provided future funding by calculating the average utility costs for the previous two years. The state will pay 90 percent of that cost. Districts have to come up with the remaining 10 percent as well as any increase in utility bills. Under that legislation, the 90 percent funding formula based on previous years' costs would last through 2021.
By forcing districts to find the 10 percent for the 2009-10 school year, it pushed them to reduce utility costs sooner rather than later, according to Chuck Essigs, director of governmental relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials.
"It was designed to provide greater incentives for districts to be energy efficient," Essigs said.
Excess-utilities funding amounted to $120 million in 2008-09, Essigs said. The budget formula passed last summer would fund $81 million under the best circumstances.
If the Legislature has to cut off excess utility funding to deal with the budget crisis, Essigs said he would like to have those cuts phased in over five to 10 years.
Essigs said he would like to raise districts' budgets, allowing districts to fund utility costs that way.
With a looming state deficit of $4 billion over the next two years, legislators have already forecast education cuts. Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said excess-utilities funding is in the crosshairs.
"I am trying to keep as much of it as I can because you can't blame schools for the current energy inflation," said Kavanagh, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.
Mesa Public Schools declared $6.4 million in excess utilities this year.
"Six million, even in a district our size, we can't just absorb that without it impacting our services or programs," said operations director Rick Michalek.
Dave Peterson and Katy Cavanagh, co-superintendents of Scottsdale Unified, said budgeting for next year has been a difficult task because of the uncertainty of utility funding. The two have worked with its staff on planning for 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent reductions.
"We're trying to say all these what-ifs and I could put 200 scenarios up there, but that doesn't do us any good," Peterson said.
The district is on the hook for $5.3 million in utility bills. Scottsdale, too, would have to increase class sizes and reduce staffs, they said.
Some districts have as much as 40 percent or more of their total utility costs declared in excess. Not even the best business officials could bring those costs down, Essigs said.
Exploring alternative energy

Many Arizona districts have worked for years to bring down utility costs. But only recently have schools explored the possibility of alternative energy.
Mesa has installed energy-efficient lightbulbs, more efficient chillers, reflective roofs and polished concrete floors to bring down energy costs.
Scottsdale, Deer Valley Unified, and Agua Fria Union High School District are developing standard contracts for their schools to acquire solar panels. With the Arizona Corporation Commission's approval of net metering last year, the three districts are considering leasing out school rooftops to third-party power providers.
"If all goes well, by March we'll start seeing some solar panels," Peterson said.
Cave Creek Unified School District had contractors drill a test well at Cactus Shadows High School recently to test the viability of geothermal energy.
Arizona Public Service Co. officials said they understand the plight of districts that need to reduce utility costs. School districts make up 7.5 percent of the electric company's customers, but districts have been the recipients of 22 percent of APS rebates over the past few years, amounting to $2.8 million for Arizona schools through its Solutions for Business group.
The Salt River Project offers funding for energy-efficiency assessments, working with districts to determine ways to reduce utility costs. But schools are sometimes slow to embrace conservation.
"Schools are reluctant to spend a lot of money on energy conservation issues," said Russell Smoldon, SRP's manager of government relations.
Essigs disagreed, saying many schools are working to reduce costs.
"I don't know of a district that hasn't taken a lot of steps to reduce their utility costs," Essigs said.
Michalek said districts will work to keep down costs regardless of the formula.

[lola8822]

I heard about this.......very disturbing as we are already at the perverbial "bottom of the barrel" when it comes to per-student spending and public school funding. Any lower and i'm thinking.....3rd world country?? Okay, that's a bit extreeme but seriously?!!

[shiphead]

makes you wonder what all the money is going to? Not talking about the schools, but the state government...

[ihatetucson]

Great I just applied to 2 school district jobs here in Tucson. Hopefully they won't cancel them entirely!

[Finger Laker]

yeah - my wife is a teacher and they had thier fun letter home pretty much saying at best expect a flat contract next year - all incentives for continuing education and classroom performance are being cut and probably some positions as well

the state universities are getting clobbered as well ....... they're cutting the education budget with a hatchet

our legislators have done a crap job fiscally - really, really poor job - that's the #1 thing that bugs me about the speed camera thing - everyone gets caught up arguing about speeding, while letting the legislators off the hook for putting us in a position to even discuss having them

[bluebelt1234]

Some schools in Yuma are running low on basic necessities such as toilet paper, pencils, and copy paper. One day, at the school where I work at, they had to even shut the water off. Our bathrooms don't always get cleaned either so the kids are using filthy bathrooms. We are pretty close to Third World conditions down here near the border. I think that everyone needs to write their state legislatures and urge them not to cut so much from the education budget. There are other places where the state is spending money unecessary money. Like, for example, here in Yuma they just widened a road that didn't really need to be widened. Not only that, they even spent more money to make it look "pretty."

[buckeyenative01]

I'm really in shock by how little value is put on education in this state and how the legislature can't wait to slash the budgets for K-12 and the universities (as screwed up as the Board of Regents are). Its borderline sociopathic.

[Valley Native]

I'll probably get some disagreement here, but I'm glad they're considering cuts in the education budget. Taxpayers are forced to subsidize this monstrous beast known as public education because it's "for the children". However, we have all seen the statistics that public education has been a disaster in many ways ... despite how much of our tax money is being shoved into the system. As Arizonans, we pay not only local property taxes for school districts, but also a state sales tax (approved in 2000, which became the largest sales tax increase in state history) to support public schools. No matter how much money is thrown into the system, the bleeding hearts always complain that schools are under funded.

The state is facing one of largest budget deficits in the nation. If you look at the state budget, we spend MORE on public education than anything else ... far far more! Therefore, if the state is serious about reducing the size of the budget, cuts will have to be made. So why not target education, which is extremely costly in general, and swallows up more government money than any other social service??? Napolitano left her job as Governor with a huge mess, and lots of expenses (such as all day Kindergarten) that now need to be eliminated as a result of the inability to maintain a prudent budget.

I give a thumbs up to cutting public education ... and furthermore, a nod to moving the schools from the public sector to privatization. That way, the state's burdening budget crisis would be practically eliminated, the quality of education would be substantially improved, taxpayers would receive a much needed break, and parents would be flipping the bill for their own offspring's education ... which is the way it should be!

[Finger Laker]

I completely disagree with most of that - there is a public benefit to education and there should be some level of public subsidy to it ....... if left fully private families wouldn't be able to afford to educate their kids, which would pretty much leave generations trapped into no hope, no education, no advancement .... that would kill communities

there should be budget trimming - all day K is pretty much subsidized day care and I'm fine with cutting that, schools need to look at how they are spending money - however, the axe that is being wielded right now is way too large

i'm not a bleeding heart by any means, but education is so important ..... i think there should definitely be reform to the system (one thing I'd like is to offer more vocational training to HS kids who know the college/white collar route just isn't their deal)

there should also be more transparency not only in how the districts spend their money, but also how the state allocates their budget

[markas214]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

I'll probably get some disagreement here, but I'm glad they're considering cuts in the education budget. Taxpayers are forced to subsidize this monstrous beast known as public education because it's "for the children". However, we have all seen the statistics that public education has been a disaster in many ways ... !

And what would our country be like without it? All those who couldn't afford private schools during the past 2 centuries in this country would have been illiterate. The public system may not be perfect but it does insure education for all.

This post is the perfect example of why the education budget is being cut. There is an ideology that abhors public education and will do everything possible to ruin it.