At the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board meeting on June 13, the school board approved an operating budget of $14 million for the 2018-19 academic year.

The $14 million budget is allotted into three different funds including maintenance and operation, unrestricted capital and federal projects other than impact aide.

$10,352,925 is in the Maintenance and Operation fund. The money in this fund is used for expenses like salaries, benefits, supplies and other services. The maintenance and operation fund receives its money through student enrollment.

The unrestricted capital fund is $2,330,800, which can be spent on furniture and equipment the district needs, including vehicles. Two sources make up unrestricted capital. One is the capital override that was voted on by the community and the other is state funds called “district additional assistance.”

The funds receive from federal projects, such as grants, are $455,490. FHUSD applies for four grants including Title I, Title II, and then two I.D.E.A grants for special education.

The district, by law, is allowed only to spend money from a fund on its designated expenditures. Money from the unrestricted capital fund cannot be used for payment of salaries, for example.

The other $860,783 in the $14 million budget is holdover capital that Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations, Dr. Robert Allen, says will be used for building renovations.

“That is the largest carryover amount,” Dr. Allen said. “We are planning on doing some capital investments projects in the district. We are looking at a major air condition, heating and lighting investment.”

Dr. Allen will take over as interim superintendent of FHUSD starting in July.

The average daily membership (ADM) is the number that Dr. Allen uses when calculating the maintenance and operation fund. The ADM number is based off 100-day enrollment.

In previous years, Dr. Allen has been able to use the prior year’s 100-day count as the ADM when calculating the current year budget. But with the last two budgets, due to a change in the law, Allen had to use an estimated ADM for completing the budget.

This changed the way Allen approached the budget.

“It causes you to be conservative,” Allen said. “You don’t want to estimate the number too high and create a budget that has to be reduced later on.”

The estimated ADM for this year was 1,302.5, down compared to last year’s number of 1,358.5.

Despite the decline in student enrollment the 2018-19 budget is actually larger than the previous year’s budget, which was $12.3 million.

The reason for the increase, according to Allen, is the money carried over from previous years as well as an increase in state funding for students as a result of the Red for Ed movement.

Arizona used to provide $3,729 funding per student, but now provides $4,009 per student.

Along with major renovations to FHUSD buildings, the district is using the extra money to give its teachers a raise.

The average increase in teacher salary is 13 percent, but Allen said that number could change when vacancies are filled.

“All certified staff got at least a 10 percent increase in their basic salary,” Allen said. “Then we had an additional supplement for staff who has six years or more of service because, specifically, those staff member have had minimal to no raise for the last four to six years. So we took a percentage of their base salary and increased that by an additional amount.”

The 2018-19 budget will continue to be revised and updated as the year goes on and additional figures are finalized. The budget can be found online at fountainhillsschools.org/Business_Facilities.