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By James Hodl
Copper Area News
Voter approval last November of the 15 percent M&O (Maintenance and Operational) override will lessen the negative impact on the fiscal 2016 Education Budget enacted this spring by the Arizona legislature, according to Cindy Benson, board president of the Superior Unified School District (SUSD).
“Had the override allowing Superior to raise property taxes to raise additional revenues to provide a 15 percent increase over state-provided M&O school expenditures, Superior school would have been hurt immediately,” Benson said. “Now SUSD has time to consider more surgical cuts in its budget that do not impact the quality of classroom education.”
Under the fiscal 2016 Education Budget, the legislature voted to increase classroom spending by 1.6 percent but to cut non-instruction spending by 5 percent. Funding for JTED vocational and technical programs also were slashed by $30 million (a 7.5 percent reduction). And while funding for community colleges in Maricopa County were slashed to zero, those in Pinal County will continue to receive $2 million in state support thanks to the political maneuvering of state representatives T.J. Shope and Frank Pratt (16th District) and Doug Coleman (8th District).
The ability to have an override source of additional revenue is proving critical in Pinal County in weathering the latest round of state school funding cuts. Where overrides were enacted anew, school districts such as Superior and the Oracle Elementary School District have funding sources that for now lessen the fiscal pain. In towns where overrides were rejected by voters and are nearing or at zero override funding, more drastic cuts are being considered and approved.
Because of the state funding cuts, school boards in Apache Junction and Coolidge have voted to go to four-day school weeks, which trim expenses related to student transportation and food service are trimmed by 20 percent, as related employees are no longer needed for five days. But students do not lose classroom time as the Friday hours are distributed equally to the other four weekdays, extending the school day by about two hours.
There are no immediate plans for SUSD to go to a four-day week, but the school board is studying the idea, Benson said.
Being in a poor rural area with a declining population, SUSD will in the future face further revenue loss as state funding is allocated on a per student basis, Benson said. The board will have to devise ways to maintain educational quality on fewer dollars in the foreseeable future.
The four-day school week is already a reality in the Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District (HWUSD) and now with further reductions in state education funding more cuts are going to have to be made, said Superintendent Jeff Gregorich.
Rural school districts with declining enrollment have been hurting since state budget cutting began in 2009, but the recent cuts now even the big districts are hurting, he noted.
“When originally faced with a budget cut, you rally the staff with a call for doing more with less money, and everyone gets enthusiastic about accomplishing the goal. But when you do it four or five years in a row, the message gets awfully stale,” Gregorich said.
Six weeks after Gov. Doug Ducey signed the fiscal 2016 Education Budget, HWUSD is still examining its options and to where additional economies can be wrung from school operations, and it all has left Gregorich disappointed.
“All this budget cutting is sad and short-sighted,” Gregorich said. “We need to invest in our children for the future of the state. What good is cutting taxes to attract business to the state when one of the things businesses want most is an educated workforce and they see how little we prize education?
“The current budget may give extra money on one budget line but takes more funding away on the next line,” he added.
Some belt tightening due to state budget cuts also is expected in the JTED (Joint Technical Education Districts) programs offered to students at their local high schools and the central vocational school, Cobre Valley Institute of Technology (CVIT) based in Globe. Some JTED programs available to high school students in Superior, Hayden and Winkelman also are offered at Gila Community College in Globe.
“Like other JTEDs in Arizona, the state Education Budget cuts will hinder our ability to continue current vocational and technological programs in their current form,” said Beata Tarasiuk, CVIT executive program director.
“Past budget cuts have been disastrous. We lost funding for programs taken by ninth graders in 2011. And each year since we have had to do with fewer dollars, to the point we need every current penny to continue programs that our JTED students need. And now we are faced with a 7.5 percent reduction in funding for the overall JTED programs and a 50 percent reduction in revenues for the programs offered at participating high schools,” Tarasiuk explained.
“We will just have to adjust to the new reality,” she added.
The CVIT JTED currently offers a broad selection of vocational education programs. The most popular are Construction Trades, Nursing and Medical Assistance. But CVIT also offers programs in Agriculture, Fire Science, Welding and Geology related to mining. And CVIT is looking into creating a course in Modern Mining Techniques, now the Resolution Copper has announced plans to use robotics to mine copper near Superior.
James J. Hodl is a career journalist who has worked for newspapers, magazines and trade journals. A graduate of Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism, Hodl began his career as a reporter with the Palatine (IL) Herald and the Morton Grove (IL) Review before becoming editor of the trade publication Appliance Service News. In recent years, Hodl has had articles published in Consumers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Home Remodeling, Kitchens & Baths and Salute; and has contributed to trade publications serving the home furnishings, restaurant and casino markets. A native of Chicago, Hodl relocated to San Tan Valley in 2013.
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