The proposed budget for the 2019-2020 school year that will be voted on by the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board tonight, June 26, is less than the previous school year’s budget, but an increase in funding from the state is helping offset slowing enrollment.

The general limit for the proposed budget is $10,426,358, down from the previous year’s budget limit of $10,569,151.

The reason for the decrease is the district’s lower enrollment numbers. In the proposed budget the estimated unweighted student count is 1,265, which is roughly 50 students fewer than the 2018-19 count.

However, the state is providing a significant amount more funding per pupil this year. Previously, Arizona provided $4,010 per student, but this year that number has increased to $4,202.

The reason for the state’s increase in funding was to reach the governor’s promise of “20 by 2020,” a 20 percent raise for the state’s public teachers by 2020.

Returning Fountain Hills teachers have received a five percent increase to their base salary but, because of additional factors that Superintendent Dr. Allen includes when calculating average salary, the budget only shows a three percent increase.

Dwindling enrollment is not a new problem for the district and is something that Dr. Allen has accounted for when writing, not just this budget, but previous year’s budgets.

“We still have to provide services and, specifically in the high school, we want to have the staffing to provide AP advance placement classes,” Dr. Allen said. “We want to continue the AVID program and the AP capstone, so how we are navigating through that is a bit tricky. At the K-6 level our future will be staffing-based on how many classroom sections you need. If a student population declines in a grade level, you naturally reduce a teacher at that level. At the high school level, that gets trickier with certifications for a specific subject area.”

The School Board is meeting tonight, June 26, at 6:30 p.m. in the District Learning Center where they will vote on whether or not to adopt the proposed budget.

The meeting is open to the public.