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Schools not happy with Forest Fee allocation

GC VILLAGE — The Coconino County Board of Supervisors shocked rural school superintendents early last week when it announced a plan to allocate the majority of Forest Fee funds to roads over education.

Grand Canyon School District’s allocation could range from nothing to $75,795, depending on which formula being examined. Dale Fitzner, school superintendent, expressed outrage over the county board’s actions.

"We put all these hours and time and effort in there and those guys aren’t listening," Fitzner told the Grand Canyon School Board last week, saying the supervisors had their minds made up even before the work session. "I was surprised with Paul Babbitt. I didn’t think that would be his attitude about education."

Fitzner said rural school districts will be hurt the most.

"If you go by the 90-day counts ... the ones who benefit the most would be Flagstaff, Tuba City and Page," Fitzner said. "Those are the bigger school districts. Two of those towns don’t even have trees."

Cecilia Owen, Coconino County superintendent of schools, said education should be "right up there as a top priority," adding that Arizona ranks 49th in the country in terms of what schools receive from the state.

"Our big disappointment was there’s an increased amount of money but the board of supervisors changed the way they allocate the money between roads and schools and changed the percentage of the split," Owen said. "In doing so, the local school district superintendents didn’t really feel their recommendations and requests were listened to very well."

Babbitt, who was heavily criticized at the local school board meeting, said education has benefitted from the majority of Forest Fee funds over the years.

"The schools wanted a split that favored their obligation over county roads," Babbitt said. "The figure was 60-40. Obviously, that would give the districts more money but at the expense of the county road system. When looking at the net over the years, the schools have been the beneficiaries of over 50 percent of those Forest Fee funds."

Babbitt said counties have a lot of latitude with designating the funds.

"We take the money, take the county school superintendent’s budget off and then we split the money 50 for roads, 50 for education," Babbitt said. "And we ask the school superintendents to find equity among themselves since we all recognize that school funding varies a great deal from school district to school district."

Owen said the supervisors need to look at the issue from a different perspective.

"Roads are important, but when you have a tight budget, education is an investment in the economy and is farther reaching," Owen said. "I was hoping they would see the broader picture, rather than just a broad picture of the county."

Two other factors add fuel to the fire for the school superintendents. The board allocated $135,200 to fund charter schools, which takes more money out of the hands of public school districts. However, the legal definition of a charter school designates them as public.

"In law, they are public schools, that’s the discussion at the board of supervisors level," Babbitt said. "Well, our level is to provide for public schools, therefore charter schools, despite of what your philosophy might be, is probably entitled to this money."

To arrive at the $135,200 figure, Babbitt said the board added up the number students in Coconino County public schools and students in charter schools represented about 10 percent of the head count. As a result, the board feels 10 percent of the money should be allocated to them.

"The superintendents as a whole, the people responsible for educating all the children in the county, fell that appropriation is not appropriate," Fitzner said. "The charter schools have the capacity, if they have over-run budgets, they are rescued by the state legislature. And we don’t have the authority or ability to do that. This comes close to being a gift of public funds to charter schools."

Esperanza Academy’s funding takes even more funds out of the Forest Fee pot. Fitzner said "it’s the county’s responsibility to raise taxes to run accommodation schools."

Babbitt said the board was trying to find a way to continue Esperanza without penalizing the districts that do not participate in the program, such as Fredonia, Page and Tuba City.

"We’re trying to keep the alternative school no matter how we keep it going," Babbitt said.

"That shrinks the pot even smaller for these local school districts," Owen said. "The law is saying ... OK counties, you can establish a school for at-risk kids and fund it yourselves. The supervisors don’t want to raise the tax rate."

Still another controversial aspect of the Forest Fee allocations involves the funding of students who live in Coconino County but attend schools in Yavapai County. Specifically, those are Sedona and Ash Fork area students.

Fitzner said he heard from Owen that the county attorney’s office plans to inform the board of supervisors that they would not recommend providing funding for those students.

"Basically, their legal opinion is that’s not legal and could be challenged," Fitzner said.

"We worked for hours on proposals for use of those funds," Fitzner added. "Our representative was not supportive at all."


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