Fountain Hills Unified School District looks to suffer a $1.2 million shortfall in funding compared to 2008-09, according to the recently adopted budget.

The School Board June 24 considered a budget that will, according to Superintendent Dr. Bill Myhr, see revisions in the coming months.

“We have to adopt a budget by July 15,” Myhr said. “The legislature has not provided us with formal figures yet, so there will be changes to the proposed budget.”

Assistant Superintendent Tim Leedy agreed.

“The current budget, at best, is a draft,” Leedy said. “Once legislators finish, we’ll incorporate any changes and bring it back to the board.”

What has been proposed, though, looks pretty grim.

The current maintenance and operations budget is set at $13,075,926, down $628,277 from 2008-09’s $13,758,203.

The district is also expected to take a $206,000 reduction in the Classroom Site Fund, as well as a loss of $262,000 in soft capital and $65,000 in capital outlay. Combined, this adds up to a $1.2 million difference from the last academic year.

Facing such a big loss, Myhr said a chunk of the cost will come in the form of teachers and classified positions the administration had hoped to bring back to the district.

“With these numbers, we will not be able to bring back any reduction in force positions unless one is vacated by another employee,” Myhr said. “We are already seeing this happen and will continue to move quickly in filling any further available positions.”

According to this first version of the budget, the primary tax rate will dip from $2.2335 to $2.1200 per $100 assessed valuation while the secondary looks to shift up from .9292 to .9596 per $100 AV.

How close these numbers will fall to the actual finalized budget, though, Leedy did not know.

“Without knowing what the legislature is doing, I don’t want to speculate,” Leedy said.

The hardest hit areas for the coming year’s budget will be maintenance and operations with the loss of staff positions and the absorption of all utility costs, making November’s recently approved override election even more crucial for the district.

“The upcoming overrides are an essential part of our funding structure to help us keep lower class sizes and improve instruction in K-3 as well as for the M&O override to provide funding for programs that help us achieve our goal of excelling status in our schools,” Leedy said.

While the current budget was approved, the board will likely see another set of figures shortly.

“It’s dependent on the legislature sending a budget to the governor that she will accept,” Leedy said. “When the legislature produces a budget and we get the final numbers, then we can revise our budget to the correct figures.”