Higley Unified superintendent announces student participatory budgeting program

David Lotzenizer, Higley Unified School District superintendent, announced a new districtwide School Participatory Budgeting program launched this year in partnership with the Center for the Future of Arizona. "We launched a new district wide program this year with the Center for the Future of Arizona called School Participatory Budgeting," Lotzenizer said.

The program is a civic-learning initiative designed to teach collaboration, financial literacy and critical thinking. Lotzenizer said students receive a designated budget to research, propose and vote on real projects intended to benefit their school community.

Last fall, student groups across the district proposed projects and student bodies held elections to select which ideas would move forward. Lotzenizer cited examples of winning proposals that ranged from playground equipment at Santana Elementary to replacing missing fans at Sossaman Middle School. He said students presented their process and winning projects to the HUSD cabinet and governing board last week.

Lotzenizer described the learning component as practical experience with fiscal constraints and project implementation. "Throughout the process, they've not only collaborated on ideas, but they've learned how far and not far their budget could take them, and just what it's like to take something from an idea to implementation," he said. He added that the district hopes the skills will follow students as they become future leaders.

The superintendent did not specify dollar amounts, the number of participating schools, or a timeline for full implementation beyond the examples cited. The district described the effort as part of its civic-education programming and did not report any formal board votes or budget approvals in this message. The next public updates on projects and outcomes were not specified.