SAFFORD — A proposal by Bonita School to change the formula for distribution of some federal funds was not put into play by the Graham County Board of Supervisors, but the door was left open to possibly make the change in the future.
During Monday’s meeting, the board unanimously voted to keep distribution of National Forest Funds for rural schools at 20 percent allocation based on the acreage of forest land within the district, and 80 percent on school population.
Bonita had requested changing the formula to 50/50.
“Only two school districts would benefit from this — Pima and Bonita,” Supervisor Paul David said.
Graham County will receive $410,311.42 as an offset to untaxable public lands in the rural school districts. Almost all the money goes to the districts, with Graham County holding on to $50,000 to maintain roads on which school buses travel.
Originally, the funding was allocated based solely on student population, changing to the 80/20 formula in Fiscal Year 2021. Under the 80/20 formula in use by the county, distribution is:
- Bonita $18,607.67
- Dan Hinton $1,753.63
- Fort Thomas $32,169.77
- Pima $63,875.73
- Safford $142,349.52
- Solomon $8,290.12
- Thatcher $93,264.99
Under the Bonita proposal, the districts would receive:
- Bonita $73,063.36 (up 293 percent)
- Dan Hinton $1,096.02 (down 38 percent)
- Fort Thomas $24,225.18 (down 25 percent)
- Pima $86,036.59 (up 35 percent)
- Safford $93,182.09 (down 35 percent)
- Solomon $5,181.33 (down 38 percent)
- Thatcher $77,526.85 (down 17 percent)
“This needed to be a discussion with all the people at the table, but I don’t think there’s going to be a school or a district that going to say, ‘Hey, I don’t want that money anymore,’ ” Supervisor John Howard said.
However, the board agreed that if all the school districts in the county favored a different funding formula, the issue could be brought back for further consideration.
