In 2018 Arizona Governor Doug Ducey introduced the 20×2020 bill that would increase teacher’s salaries across the state by 20 percent by the end of this year. During an interview with Holbrook Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Robbie Koerperich, he explained how that would affect HUSD No. 3’s most valuable resources.
According to Koerperich, although the staff at the district are expected to see a substantial increase thanks to the bill introduced by Governor Ducey, it won’t be the 20 percent they’d hoped for. Koerperich explained, “Governor Ducey presented the teachers with a good faith effort. His marketing campaign was 20 percent by 2020, which meant that every teacher should have a 20 percent increase in their salary by the year 2020.”
Because the increase is tied to enrollment numbers and not directly to teachers’ salaries, HUSD No. 3 teachers are expected to see a near 13 percent increase by the end of this year instead of the expected 20. “I think it was a great thing that he made that promise. It was a way to sell something that wasn’t truly accurate. Because when you say you’re going to give teachers 20 by 2020 the only way to do that is to look at every teacher’s salary. The variables are so different district by district. Some will meet the 20 some will not,” said Koerperich.
The superintendent added that although they may not hit the 20 percent they’d hoped to by the end of the year, Koerperich said, “our teachers are well out in the front in the long run even though they’re not getting this boost because of our declining numbers.” Adding that HUSD has always made sure the teachers got some sort of increase, even when other districts did not.
“If we get monies from the state. We’re not building new schools, new gyms, new facilities. We are truly putting that money back into the teacher’s salaries. It might cost us a couple hundred thousand dollars to do a three or four percent increase to the teachers’ salaries but that’s where we take that new money and we put it. We are probably at about 10-12 percent increase which isn’t the 20 percent that Ducey promised but that’s because the enrollment is down. All the numbers are contingent upon student count.”
Koerperich explained that the school receives funding based on what is called Average Daily Membership (ADM). Average Daily Membership isn’t based off how many students attend but by more of a point system. Koerperich explained that each student has their own weight designation, which can either convert to a lower or higher count depending on the grade level and other factors. “There are different weights in the ADM. Special Ed gets a higher weight, high school gets a higher weight. There are different scenarios that each kid gets different weights.”
Koerperich said that another factor in assigning weights to each student is the amount of time they spend at school. “There are requirements. A high school student has to attend for at least four hours, if they take less than that then they aren’t counted as full time, but we do get fractional ADM for them,” which Koerperich clarified could be anywhere from .25, .5, .75 and one per student.
“We don’t receive any funding for preschool students unless they are special ed,” Koerperich added, “All of our pre-school students are either tuition funded or we just don’t receive any funding for them,” which he explained is the reason a lot of districts don’t provide pre-school services.
Koerperich explained that some students, like kindergarteners, only carry a .5 weight which basically counts them as half of a student. For example, if there were 150 kindergarten students attending Park Elementary, funding would only be received for 75 of them.
Because the enrollment numbers are the main factor in deciding the teacher salary increase, Koerperich was asked to shed some light on how enrollment looks for the district. “The dynamics of enrollment in Holbrook are unique because we get the flow off the reservation. We don’t have a lot of new people coming into the school district.”
The superintendent added that although areas such as Greasewood, Sanders, Dilcon, Sun Valley and other neighboring communities contribute to the numbers at the junior high and high school level, the district is more dependent upon the population of Holbrook for Park and Hulet elementary schools and both have seen reductions in enrollment.
Because of the enrollment decrease Koerperich explained that it also forces the district to reanalyze the space they are using and potentially shutting down areas of the schools that have less students.
To ensure there is money for the teachers, the district seeks out other financial means to fund larger infrastructural projects such as heating/cooling units, leaky roofs and floors to name just a few. The School Facilities Board is one of the main resources used by the district and they have very specific requirements a building and district must meet in order to receive funding in the form of a grant. Criteria such as the number of rooms being used, and the number of students utilizing them and the necessary resources needed to maintain and operate the classrooms.
In the last three years, the district has begun to close spaces. For example, park school used to utilize two modular buildings outside of the main buildings. They were shut down two years ago. Now they are not being heated, cooled or cleaned. What they call mothballing.
This year they closed three classrooms at Park Elementary. “We definitely don’t want to distract from the facilities we have should we have growth. The reality is that we don’t have that issue. We don’t know what the outcome is going to be.”
Koerperich said the district will continue evaluating the best ways to accommodate the spaces no longer being used. As for the teachers, Koerperich has assured that teacher of HUSD No. 3 will continue to benefit for their service to the district.
