Scottsdale Unified School District No Dream Too Big . . . No Challenge Too Great

Governing Board members, parents and the community heard Chief Financial Officer Bob Flach’s presentation on the fiscal year 2004-2005 budget.

Mr. Flach made revenue generating recommendations, including Community Schools, increasing parking fees at the high schools to $100 per year and paying for sports and activities at middle schools to $25. These revenues would bring the district an estimated $1.1 million.

Additional recommendations suggested by Mr. Flach included paying teachers a stipend for sponsoring clubs; small advertising signage on the exterior of buses; bidding of all vending machines by the district and retaining upfront cash from successful bidding; creating a Category 5 Open Enrollment for unorganized areas and open up Copper Ridge Elementary, Copper Ridge Middle and Cocopah Middle; using interest to balance the budget from the Plant Fund 500, which is $200,000; bid and market advertisements on the outside of school district fences at all ball fields; and produce a district newsletter, selling advertisement to pay for the cost of producing the newsletter and as a potential for generating additional revenue for the district.

“We’ve called a Boston school district to see how much they charged for advertisement on their buses. We estimate an $80,000 to $100,000 in revenue for the district,” said Mr. Flach. “In order to receive an actual dollar amount, the district will need to put out a bid,” added Mr. Flach.

Dr. Bill Johnson, chief of Facilities & Operations, spoke about the district’s ability to increase revenue by targeting parents and students in unorganized areas.

“The decline in enrollment equals a loss of $2.2 to $2.4 million. This is the single biggest challenge to the budget,” said Dr. Johnson. “We need a targeted promotional campaign to attract students from outside of our district. Each additional student from the unorganized area would bring $3,100 to the M&O (Maintenance & Operation) fund alone,” he added.

Mr. Flach also made recommendations in reductions of expenditures, including reducing payment of flex accounts from $2,169 to $1,000; reduce horizontal movement with an estimated reduction cost of $200,000 by moving up the date for the submission of documentation; and staff for efficient use for fine arts classes at elementary schools while keeping all programs in place, which is an estimated reduction cost of $100,000. The total revenue and reductions are estimated at $2.8 million.

Items for further study include a reduction of graduating credits from 22 to 20. This study needs to be completed by May 1.

“We need to make parents aware of the graduation credit requirement changes four years prior to making the change,” said Mr. Flach.

Other studies the district will conduct include a study to increase librarians’ teaching periods per week from the current 10 periods to 15 or 20 and using Service Learning students and volunteers to assist the librarians; and to study information of enlarging physical education classes from current levels to 40 to 60 students and utilization of an aide. The timeline regarding staff notification is not feasible for the 2004-2005 school year. After the studies are completed, action can be taken through natural attrition. The reduction in force timeline will be followed due to the decline in enrollment and the potential impact it could have on staffing.

The deadline for the budget to be sent to the state is July 15.

The next Governing Board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 16 at the Education Center.

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