TUSD spending percentages: Instructional up, administrative down

An Arizona Auditor General’s report showed Tucson Unified School District’s percentage of instructional spending increased last year — to its highest level since 2007 — while its administrative spending percentage is the lowest on record with the auditor.

The data comes from the School District Spending Analysis for fiscal year 2022, in which the auditor general largely focused on districts’ operational spending such as classroom instruction, administration, student and instruction support, food service and transportation expenses.

Unlike TUSD, more than half of Arizona school districts decreased the percentage of dollars spent on classroom instruction compared to the previous year, the report showed.

“The classroom spending was the highest amount that we’ve invested, percentage-wise, in the classroom in 15 years,” Ricky Hernandez, TUSD’s chief financial officer, told the district’s governing board March 14.

“The fiscal year 2022 was the lowest administrative spending percentage that we’ve had, ever,” in state auditor reports going back to 2001, he added.

Instructional spending: 54.3%

The state auditor general has tracked Arizona school districts’ spending since 2001. The most recent report showed that 118 of 206 school districts decreased their instructional spending percentage in 2022 compared to 2021.

Instructional spending refers to money invested in paying teachers, aides, substitutes and other instruction staff, resources and activities.

In TUSD, according to the state report, instructional spending totaled 54.3%, the highest since 2007 when the district invested the same percentage.

It’s also essentially on par with the statewide average of instructional spending for fiscal year 2022, which was 54.5% across Arizona.

In the state report, school districts were categorized into operational peer groups to help create meaningful comparisons across districts. Hernandez said TUSD’s peer group consisted of 11 very large urban or suburban school districts of 15,000 students or more, which included Mesa, Phoenix Union, Scottsdale and Chandler school districts.

TUSD’s instructional spending was lower than its peer group’s average of 57%.

Among the nine major Pima County school districts, TUSD’s instruction spending was sixth on the list, with the Amphitheater, Vail and Sunnyside school districts showing lower percentages.

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TUSD’s highest instructional spending percentage on record with the auditor was in 2005, at 55.4%.

Other categories that were also counted in overall classroom spending included student support, such as counselors and nurses, and instruction support, such as librarians and curriculum development services.

In 2022, a total of 9.7% of TUSD’s budget went towards student support, while 7.9% was put towards instruction support.

Adding those totals to TUSD’s instruction spending put its percentage of overall classroom spending at 71.9%.

Administrative: 8.6%

The administration spending percentage for TUSD was 8.6% in 2022. That was also lower than the statewide average of 10.2%.

TUSD was also the Pima County school district with the lowest administration spending percentage. The other local school districts with the lowest administration spending percentages were Marana with 8.7%, Flowing Wells with 9.6% and Amphitheater with 9.8%.

TUSD board member Natalie Luna Rose said she appreciated the information about administration costs, considering that there’s constantly talk about “‘too many administrators, too many people are getting paid over six figures’.”

Administration spending refers to money paid to superintendents, school principals, and other administrative personnel and services.

While the report did not include the administration spending percentage for TUSD’s peer group, the district spent more dollars on administration expenses compared to its peer group’s average. On average, the peer group spent about $921 per student for administration costs, while TUSD spent an average of $1,026 per student.

Hernandez said there were a couple of factors that contributed to that higher number compared to the peer group.

“A thing to consider is that administration expenses include school administrators, principals, our office managers,” Hernandez said. “In this peer group, TUSD has the highest number of school campuses out of all of the others.”