Tucson school districts brace for legislators' decision on spending limit

School administrators in Pima County are bracing for the consequences if the Legislature doesn’t act in time to increase schools’ aggregate expenditure limit for the current academic year.

The Arizona House voted Tuesday to avert a shutdown of the state’s K-12 public school system by approving a waiver of a constitutional cap on spending that would be exceeded by March 1. But the Senate president says she does not yet have the votes.

A 45-14 House vote provided the required two-thirds majority to give schools the ability to spend $1.54 billion lawmakers appropriated last year that would have put them over the constitutional spending limit. All 28 Democrats present voted for the waiver, but 14 of 31 Republican House members voted no.

If the Senate doesn’t follow suit in time, districts throughout the state would be instructed to cut their current budgets by an average of 16% across the board for the current school year, says an advocacy group called Education Forward Arizona.

“It could look completely different for every district, but the impact could be very significant,” said Erin Hart, the chief of policy and community impact for Education Forward Arizona. “You could see schools cut programs or services. You could see hiring freezes, staff furloughs, students going to school less than five days a week. You could see school closures.”

“All of these are within the realm of possibilities,” she said.

For the Vail Unified School District, the current spending cap would imply a $16.2 million cut to its budget for the remainder of the school year.

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“If we were to cut $16 million out of our fourth quarter budget, it would be devastating,” spokeswoman Darcy Mentone said. “We have determined that we will be able to keep our schools open no matter what, but if we lose this money, it will have long-term consequences for the Vail School District.”

At the Sunnyside Unified School District, the second-largest in the county, Superintendent Steve Holmes said during the board’s Feb. 8 meeting that the district had an estimated $13 million it could carry from the current fiscal year to the next for future finances.

However, if the district were to cut the projected $16.2 million from its current $95.6 million budget, it would leave administrators fumbling for cash to make up for the remainder of this year’s expenses.

And given the uncertainty, the Sunnyside governing board decided to postpone discussion regarding recruitment and retention incentives that included distributing cash to school employees.

At the Tucson Unified School District, Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said the district would need to cut $58.1 million if the expenditure limit is not increased.

“It would compromise our ability to keep class sizes safe and low for everybody,” he said. “It would compromise all the wonderful programs that we have instituted across the district from early childhood education to all-day kindergarten to the arts and sports.”