School may be out \u2013 but the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board is still cracking the books.<\/p>\n
At the end of a long June 9 meeting, board members Donna Lewis, Mike Sharkey, Amy Carney, Carine Werner and Matthew Pittinsky by a split vote approved a $14,850 bonus for SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel.<\/p>\n
The board also heard a presentation \u201cregarding Phase I and Phase II repurposing of schools\u201d from Superintendent Scott Menzel.<\/p>\n
That gets attention, as \u201crepurposing of schools\u201d is a euphemism for \u201cclosing schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was followed by \u201cstatus update regarding Phase III \u2013 Coronado Learning Community Strategic Growth Initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lea Mitchell, assistant superintendent of Educational Services, led the update presentation.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the \u201cPhase I\u201d closing of Pima and Echo Canyon elementary schools, at Pima, two of 25 teachers did not accept alternate positions. Four of 25 Echo Canyon teachers did not accept new positions.<\/p>\n
Mitchell said at Pima \u201cthe vast majority of students sorted out and re-enrolled\u201d at other district schools, with around 10 students at Echo Canyon still deciding on options.<\/p>\n
Regarding the closely-watched \u201cPhase II,\u201d Mitchell said the district has met with families of potentially impacted schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard from over 1,000 parents in response to a survey,\u201d she added, noting a committee is poring over the responses.<\/p>\n
She said she will present more information in August.<\/p>\n
In November, Menzel revealed six schools on his \u201cproposed implementation of restructuring in 2027-28\u201d list:<\/p>\n
Anasazi K-5 (407 students);<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Copper Ridge K-8 (440 students);<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Laguna K-5 (302 students);<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Redfield K-5 (376 students);<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Tonalea Middle 6-8 (364 students);<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Yavapai K-5 (345 students).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As for the nervously-anticipated \u201cwhat comes next?\u201d \u2013 Mitchell gave a brief overview of \u201cThe Coronado Learning Community Design Team is a representative stakeholder group \u2026 working to develop strategies that support enrollment growth, student<\/p>\n
opportunities, and organizational vitality while reflecting community perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
She promised \u201ccommunity engagement and support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two board members were sharply critical of the \u201cshrink the footprint\u201d process Menzel has led.<\/p>\n
Carney said she has been asking for growth plans for more than a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been critical of how we got here. We all knew we needed to do something, but this process has been awful to our community,\u201d Werner added.<\/p>\n
Budget passes<\/p>\n
The board also approved SUSD\u2019s 2026-27 $398 million spending budget.<\/p>\n
The district\u2019s \u201ctotal budgeted revenues for fiscal year 2026\u201d: $315 million.<\/p>\n
The soon-to-expire SUSD budget is just over $400 million, with the maintenance and operations (\u201cM&O\u201d) portion of the budget at $188.3 million, a 2.5% decrease from the current year\u2019s $193.2 million.<\/p>\n
The 2026-27 M&O climbs back up to $192 million, despite school closures.<\/p>\n
Crossier noted \u201c85-86% of our budget is salary and benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026-27 budget includes an average teacher salary of $72,309, a 3% increase.<\/p>\n
As for school levies, the board approved reducing the primary SUSD tax rates on homes from the current 2.2384% to 2.1509% and secondary from the current 0.9914% to 0.9771%.<\/p>\n
The total thus would fall from 3.2298% to 3.128%.<\/p>\n
The final step in the budget process is a public hearing followed by another board vote at 5 p.m. June 23 \u201cfor the purpose of adopting the fiscal year 2026-2027 expenditure budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
There won\u2019t be much time to waste, as, according to Shannon Crosier, SUSD\u2019s chief financial officer, \u201cDistricts are statutorily required to annually prepare a proposed budget no later than July 5.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board also approved a revised 2026-27 calendar highlighted by \u201cthe elimination of four early release days and the implementation of two full student release days \u2013 one each semester \u2013 to provide dedicated time for staff professional learning, collaboration, instructional planning, and teacher-directed professional responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the unanimous vote, Pittinsky said this reflects the view of the community of \u201chalf day followed by an expletive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vote was split on two items the board discussed privately in executive session.<\/p>\n
Carney and Werner voted against \u201cdirection to the attorney regarding potential lease options at Echo Canyon K-8 School as discussed in executive session.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two also opposed a $14,850 \u201cperformance-based pay\u201d\u00a0 Menzel.<\/p>\n
Details on the bonus were not provided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School may be out \u2013 but the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board is still cracking the books.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":872975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,165352,5643,1587,92783,240279,205364,1589,151503,25535,201586,25540,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-872974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-amy-carney","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-carine-werner","tag-matthew-pittinsky","tag-mike-sharkey","tag-phoenix","tag-scott-menzel","tag-scottsdale-unified-school-district","tag-scottsdale-unified-school-district-governing-board","tag-susd","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116764170512951755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872974","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=872974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}