At the Oct. 16 meeting of the Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board, Superintendent Dr. Robert Allen delivered an update on the status of bonds and overrides passed by the voters of Fountain Hill.

Arizona law requires school districts that have increased their budgets through public bonds and overrides to give a yearly update for the public on the use of these funds.

FHUSD currently has one bond and two overrides in effect.

M&O Override

The Maintenance and Operation override was passed in November 2017 and took effect in July 2018.

This override allows the District to exceed its M&O budget by 15 percent of the revenue control limit and will be in effect until June 2025.

Dr. Allen reported that the M&O override budget for the 2018-19 school year was $11,257,275.

He reported $427,545 was spent on teacher salary increases this past year, including retirement benefits. Another $50,587 was spent on professional development for staff.

The override was also used to fund full-day kindergarten ($69,549), along with adding additional staff for the reading literacy support program ($23,734).

Additional M&O override expenditures for this previous school year included funding programs like Beyond Textbooks and AVID ($440,844), as well as providing financial rewards for staff ($111,466).

In total, the district spent $1,123,725 of its M&O override budget.

Bonds

This $8 million bond was originally passed in November 2013 with $4 million issued in spring 2014 and the rest of the money being issued in spring 2015.

The District’s statement calling for the bond election stated FHUSD’s “need to install more energy efficient lighting, energy management systems, new air conditioning and upgrade facilities to extend the useful life of its buildings.”

There are five fields that bond money can go toward: safety and security, renovations/improvements, athletics, transportation and, finally, safety and security (admin purposes).

To date, $785,349 has been spent on safety and security. Renovations/improvements have used $3,797,280 of the bond money.

Athletics expenditures total $1,944,076 and transportation has accumulated an expenditure amount of $793,457.

Lastly, $154,775 has been spent on safety and security (admin purposes).

No bond money was spent in the 2018-19 school year and Dr. Allen reports that there is $559,119 remaining.

Dr. Allen doesn’t anticipate the District putting another bond on the ballot until 2021 at the earliest.

Capital override

The capital outlay override was passed in November 2014 and will be in effect for seven years, from July 2015 to June 2022.

This override allows the district to exceed the District Additional Assistance budget limit by $750,000, which allows the district to purchase capital expenses such as online textbooks and technology upgrades.

Dr. Allen reported that a total of $476,716 of override monies were spent this past school year.

Technology upgrades for instruction came in at $16,042 and $159,053 was spent on non-instruction technology upgrades.

The next largest expenditure was $166,018 for textbooks and online resource. Student transportation also saw an expenditure of $11,563.

Finally $124,040 was spent from the capital override on furniture and equipment.