Committee presses district on apparent doubling of custodial budget and use of contractors

Committee members seized on a single budget line to ask for more clarity: custodial staffing and contracted services.

A committee member said the district’s slide showed custodial salaries in fiscal 2023‑24 totaled $827,000 while the FY25‑26 custodial request was roughly $1,790,000. "The request is more than double what we paid last year," the member said.

Administrators explained the gap is driven partly by contracted services. Matt said the district pays about $500,000 annually for contracted custodial work and that salary accounts were underexpended when positions remained unfilled, while contract‑service accounts were correspondingly overexpended. "We are not budgeting twice," an administrator said, explaining the district reports expenditures by object (salaries versus contracted services) so the true nature of the expense is transparent in accounting.

Administrators also said hiring remains difficult: they are actively recruiting but face regional workforce shortages that have driven districts to rely on contractors. Committee members asked for year‑to‑date expenditures, a clearer comparison between budgeted and expended figures, and a reconciliation that shows how contracted services and vacant FTEs alter reported totals.

Why it matters: an apparent more‑than‑100% increase on paper in a single line item drew public and committee attention because it intersects with broader affordability concerns and with contractual/union rules. The administration noted the MESA collective‑bargaining agreement limits substituting union positions for outside contractors without negotiation, a constraint that complicates short‑term staffing and budgeting choices.

What’s next: administrators agreed to provide a clearer side‑by‑side of expended FY23‑24, budgeted FY24‑25, and requested FY25‑26 custodial and contracted services lines for committee review.