The Fountain Hills Unified School District governing board will host a public hearing on the 2016-17 budget this evening, July 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the District Learning Center. The remainder of the agenda will be a short one, including possible approval of that very same budget.

The Governing Board met on June 22 to get a refresher on how the 2016-17 budget was coming along. This year’s budget is down due to two main factors, including a drop in student population and a decrease in the teacher experience index, which provides additional funds based on the experience level of a district’s educators. FHUSD had several long-term teachers retire at the conclusion of the 2015-16 academic year.

In the end, the base support level for FHUSD this coming academic year is $7,324,313. With all other monies, unrestricted capital, Title VIII-Impact Aid, etc. taken into account, FHUSD is this year looking at a total budget of $12,091,006.

During the June 22 meeting, the Board also took a fresh look at a revision to the 2015-16 budget, which had to be altered due to funds provided by Proposition 123.

As of last week, those funds finally started making their way to Arizona schools after meeting with voter approval this past May.

This first payout was approved last week during a meeting of Arizona’s Board of Investment. Prop 123 funding is scheduled to continue through 2020.

In total, FHUSD is slated to receive $337,748 from this first round of payouts, which was applied to the 2015-16 budget and may be carried forward to 2016-17.