Apache Junction Unified School District board approves $19 million FY27 M&O budget over objections about packet discrepancies

The Apache Junction Unified School District Governing Board voted 3-2 on June 29, 2026, to approve its proposed fiscal year 2027 maintenance and operations budget, with board members raising repeated concerns about discrepancies in printed salary and benefits lines and corrected transportation data provided at the meeting.

Ms. Salazar, presenting the budget, told the board the district’s operating budget for FY27 is about $19 million and the capital budget is $1.4 million, down from roughly $21 million in operating funds in the prior year. “Our operating budget is going to be 19 million for M&O and capital is 1.4 million,” she said, and outlined reductions tied to average daily membership (ADM) changes and grant rollovers.

The board spent extended time on technical details. Ms. Salazar acknowledged a data-entry error on the transportation worksheet: an earlier print showed an implausible “2.16” but the corrected FY26 approved daily route miles figure is 2,888. She said updating the transportation miles did not change the overall budget totals because other inputs in the packet offset the correction. “The route miles changed, but it didn't affect the overall budget,” she said.

Two board members objected to proceeding without reconciling apparent differences between the version of the budget that had been posted and the packet at the dais. Mrs. Lane said she would vote no because, based on emails she had received, "the information for salaries was not correct." Mrs. Garcia repeatedly pressed staff to explain why several salary and employee-benefit columns in the printed packet did not match the figures in the version the board had been asked to review 24 hours earlier, asking, “How can we pass this if they're not correct? They're all different.”

At one point a board member cited Arizona posting practice and said the posted proposal must match the budget document under consideration; the transcript did not reference a specific statute or code section. Ms. Salazar maintained that the end totals in the budget were the same and that many of the apparent differences were layout and column-formatting issues between the Excel workbook and the printed PDF. Board members requested documentation and follow-up revisions: one asked staff to bring salary and position lists to the next work session and another asked for county paperwork to confirm a pending bond payoff.

After discussion the board voted to approve the proposed FY27 M&O budget as presented. Mrs. Ross and Mrs. Williamson voted yes; Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Lane voted no, citing the posted packet mismatch and concerns about salary figures; the motion passed 3-2. The board also recorded that the district anticipates a carryforward near $200,000 into the following fiscal year and expects one remaining bond payment in July before that debt is retired.

Next steps noted at the meeting included a possible budget revision later in the year once final grant carryforward figures are known, a work-session review of salary and position data, and staff follow-up to document the building renewal negative cash-balance history and the final debt-service payoff amount. The board adjourned immediately after the vote.