So closing two schools at the end of this school year will solve the money problems for Scottsdale Unified School District, right?<\/p>\n
Not quite \u2026<\/p>\n
Indeed, even with the planned shuttering of Pima and Echo Canyon elementary schools, Scottsdale Unified is looking at a massive budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year.<\/p>\n
The projected money hole is so deep, the district is considering increasing class sizes and\/or moving to a four-day school week.<\/p>\n
Recap: Last month, the SUSD Governing Board voted to close the two schools in the Old Town\/South Scottsdale area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donna Lewis, Mike Sharkey and Matthew Pittinsky voted for \u201crepurposing\u201d the two schools. Amy Carney and Carine Werner \u2013 both up for reelection this year \u2013 opposed the closures, begging for time to look at other money-saving options.<\/p>\n
Carney filed a statement of interest, the first step in a reelection bid. Jeanne Beasley, who failed in a board run in 2024, and John Williamson also have filed statements of interest for SUSD board seats.<\/p>\n
Werner, who is also a state senator, is soliciting signatures of support for her Arizona District 4 senate seat. But she has not filed a statement of interest for her SUSD board position.<\/p>\n
Werner did not respond to a question from the Progress regarding her school board plans.<\/p>\n
As for district money problems tied to falling enrollment, SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel stressed over the last few months the Pima and Echo Canyon closures were just the first phase, with at least a half dozen other schools as candidates for \u201crepurposing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The process for additional closures is just beginning, with no other schools expected to close until the 2027-28 school year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, even with the Pima\/Echo Canyon closings saving a combined $2.5 million for a budget cycle that begins July 1 \u2013 the reductions only put a dent in a projected $8 million maintenance and operations (\u201cM&O\u201d) deficit.<\/p>\n
Shannon Crosier, the district\u2019s chief financial officer, unveiled budget projections at the board\u2019s Jan. 20 meeting.<\/p>\n
Her presentation included a 2% across-the-board salary increase for district employees, totaling $3 million.<\/p>\n
Even with a $5 million transfer from the District Additional Assistance (DAA) fund, the initial M&O budget has a $3.6 million deficit, according to Crosier.<\/p>\n
According to her presentation, enrollment that has dipped below 20,000 is projected to fall by nearly 500 next year. Though the largest reduction in the last five years was 411 and the five-year average enrollment decline is 367, the district \u201cassumes a larger reduction due to Pima and Echo Canyon closures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board has until June to pass a budget for the next school year.<\/p>\n
In the months ahead, they will ponder some of the \u201ccost-saving options\u201d Crosier put on the table.<\/p>\n
They include:<\/p>\n
Reducing the number of assistant principals;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Reducing the number of community specialists;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Increasing guidance counselor ratios;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Eliminating health assistants;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Eliminating Instructional support assistants;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Changing the work calendar for security guards from 12-month to 10-month;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Moving from certified teacher librarians to classified library resources;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Eliminating performance pay for the district\u2019s cabinet and superintendent;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Reducing the stipend for high school science safety;\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Reductions to hotspots, cell phones, and radio usage.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of concerns with these,\u201d Carney said, stressing as she has in the past she wants first cuts to be made at the district\/administrative level, including marketing.<\/p>\n
Since 2023, Menzel countered, \u201cwe have been shrinking the district footprint in order to protect what\u2019s happening in the (school) buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting he expected to be in the minority, Pittinsky said \u201cI don\u2019t believe we are cutting as many schools as we need to,\u201d calling for an expansion of schools in the Phase 2 closure pool.<\/p>\n
Chuckling, Pittinsky \u2013 who was voted to the board with Lewis and Sharkey in 2024 \u2013 commented, \u201cthis will insure I\u2019ll only be on the board for one term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pondering the initial options to keep the district from operating in the red, Lewis likely provided an understatement:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to continue to be difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel said he will provide grouped options for budget savings to the board prior to its Feb. 10 meeting.<\/p>\n
Discussion at this week\u2019s meeting focused on staffing and salaries, with concerns on impacts at libraries and in security.<\/p>\n
Many of Crosier\u2019s \u201ccost-saving options\u201d were not discussed, including two of the biggest potential cost cysts.<\/p>\n
Moving to a four-day school week would save $1.4 million, according to the presentation.<\/p>\n
Another option, increasing average class sizes by one student, would save around $1.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So closing two schools at the end of this school year will solve the money problems for Scottsdale…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":546352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,92783,116635,240279,205364,1589,151503,7600,25535,25540,165350,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-546351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-carine-werner","tag-echo-canyon","tag-matthew-pittinsky","tag-mike-sharkey","tag-phoenix","tag-scott-menzel","tag-scottsdale","tag-scottsdale-unified-school-district","tag-susd","tag-susd-governing-board","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115965965589310628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}