The Snowflake Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board met on July 12 and approved the 2018-2019 budget, annual agreement renewals and project updates.
At last month’s meeting the board approved the tentative $15.3 million 2018-2019 budget and as required the budget was publicly posted. The budget had an overall increase of 10.8 percent over last year. The bulk of that increase was the $667,000 teacher salary increase, which includes the 12 percent, or $500,000, approved by legislature. This brings the average base teacher pay from $35,000 to $44,000 annually. The money the state provided did not have to go towards teacher pay increases. That was left up to each district to decide.
The public hearing regarding the budget opened the meeting and SUSD Business Manager Mark Ollerton presented the budget information to the public and the board. The entire budget is published on the SUSD website for public viewing.
The budget is built on assuming the number of students the district will have. Ollerton indicated that they have looked at previous trends to estimate these numbers. “We are using the forecast that we will have no growth next year,” said Ollerton. The budget does include a rainy-day fund of approximately $1 million. No one in attendance spoke at the public hearing and the budget was approved.
SUSD Superintendent Hollis Merrell provided updates on several projects. Two Snowflake High School (SHS) classrooms have been remodeled and converted to be ready for use as SHS added two additional full-time teachers for the coming year. The Snowflake Junior High School (SJHS) road project continues but weather has been causing a delay. SJHS also recently purchased $75,000 worth of new desks. The old ones were an estimated 20 years old.
In other business, the board:
* Approved the TALON agreement renewal. This is an agreement with Northland Pioneer College that delivers general education college courses to SHS students during the regular school day at the high school location.
* Approved the renewal of the Vail agreement for the Beyond Textbooks program. Beyond Textbooks is the online resource and collaborative community used by teachers and administrators in the district. Most schools in Arizona use the program so it creates a cohesiveness especially for students who change schools.
* Tabled a facility use agreement with the towns of Snowflake and Taylor regarding lighting at Taylor Intermediate School. The town of Taylor operates the recreation programs for both towns and wants to be able to expand by installing lighting at Taylor Intermediate School. It is proposed that the district would maintain the lights and fields in exchange for the Town of Taylor donating the fixtures and paying the irrigations fees of approximately $6,000 a year. The board chose to table the agreement until exact details could be worked out.
The next regularly scheduled SUSD Governing Board meeting will be at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 9, at the SUSD conference room, located at 682 School Bus Lane in Snowflake.
