Transparency and Accountability
The Queen Creek Unified School District (QCUSD) demonstrates its commitment to fiscal responsibility by diligently adhering to both state and federal laws and guidelines, ensuring that every dollar allocated is directed towards maximizing student benefits and educational outcomes.
Accountability Measure | District (QCUSD) | Charter | Private ESA Voucher |
---|---|---|---|
Annual External Financial Audits | • | • | |
Annual Arizona Auditor General Compliance Questionnaire Review |
• | • | |
Food Service Compliance Audits | • | ** | |
Arizona Auditor General Performance Audit | • | ||
Arizona Auditor General Classroom Spending Report |
• | ||
Follow Uniform System of Financial Records | • | • | |
Comply with Public Record Requests | • | • | |
Convene Governing Board monthly while school is in session |
• | ||
No family members on Governing Board | • | ||
Required to pay into Arizona State Retirement System |
• | ||
Complete proposed, adopted, December revision and May revision of budgets and post on ADE website with link on the district website |
• | • | |
Annual Financial Report posted on ADE and district website |
• | • | |
Annual Comprehensive Financial Report | • | ||
Adhere to Arizona Title 15 | • | *** | |
Arizona Procurement Laws | • | * | |
Federal Procurement Laws | • | * | |
All Students Accepted | • | ||
Teacher Certification | • | **** | |
School District Employee Report | • | ||
Track and Submit Transportation Data | • | ||
School Facilities Board minimum adequacy guidelines |
• | ||
Limitations on contracting (Board Members, Employees, and their family) |
• | ||
Report student enrollment and attendance to ADE |
• | • |
*Unknown
**Only if they choose to participate in the federal program
***Partial participation
****Special education required
Classroom Spending
QCUSD exemplifies a premier educational choice by prioritizing students above all else, with administrative costs per student lower than similar-sized districts. Additionally, classroom spending in QCUSD ranks among the highest, reflecting our commitment to investing in each student's path to excellence.

Admin Cost Comparison
The following is a list of district and charter schools within or near the QCUSD boundaries. Even though the data is collected, the Office of the Auditor General does not complete a charter spending analysis, so below is charter administrative data compared to QCUSD from 2023.
* The data below is factual information. QCUSD does not take an official position on the information displayed below. Source: Arizona Department of Education - State Superintendent's Annual Financial Report 2023.
Educational Institution | Admin Cost per ADM | % of Total Expenditures |
---|---|---|
QCUSD | $874 | 9% |
American Leadership Academy, Inc | $2,428 | 26% |
Legacy Traditional Academy - Queen Creek | $2,338 | 24% |
Benjamin Franklin Charter School - Queen Creek | $1,803 | 23% |
BASIS Charter Schools | $1,413 | 15% |
Leading Edge Academy - Queen Creek | $2,936 | 34% |
ASU Preparatory Academy | $3,165 | 22% |
Happy Valley East | $1,585 | 14% |
Heritage Academy | $898 | 13% |
State Average | $1,207 | |
District Peer Average | $1,116 |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is classroom spending?
- What does classroom spending look like in QCUSD?
- What are administrative costs?
- What is ADM?
What is classroom spending?
Each year, the Arizona Auditor General provides a school district spending analysis based on the district's annual financial report and other sources of district financial data. Throughout the analysis, terms and categories used are from the "United States Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) which prescribes requirements for district and state reporting, providing the ability to compare individual Arizona school districts’ spending to Arizona peer districts’ averages and Arizona’s spending to national averages, as well as monitor Arizona’s and individual Arizona districts’ spending over time. Specifically, total spending represents a district’s combined operational and nonoperational spending which are broken down by their respective areas below. Operational spending, which is the focus of many of the graphics on the state and individual district results pages, includes instructional spending as well as spending for student support, instruction support, administration, plant operations, food service, and transportation.” (Cited from OAG report glossary) Classroom spending is the combination of instructional, student support, and instruction support spending.
What does classroom spending look like in QCUSD?
In fiscal year 2022–2023, QCUSD demonstrated exemplary fiscal responsibility by maintaining one of the most modest administrative expense levels among its peer group and the state average. This data underscores QCUSD's efficient management practices, as it indicates a lean administrative structure compared to other district/charter schools. Despite ranking lowest in administrative expenditure, QCUSD further demonstrated its commitment to fiscal prudence by reducing spending in this category from FY22 to FY23. This strategic allocation of resources suggests that, even as QCUSD expands its enrollment and teaching staff, the growth in administrative positions has been carefully managed, allowing for a greater portion of the budget to be directed towards classroom investments.
What are administrative costs?
Based on the Office of the Auditor General, the following is a definition of administrative spending for school districts in Arizona. “Superintendents, principals, business managers, clerical, and other staff who perform accounting, payroll, purchasing, warehousing, printing, human resource activities, and administrative technology services; and other costs related to these services and the governing board.”
What is ADM?
Arizona schools are funded on average daily membership (ADM). ADM is the number of days a student is enrolled with the school for the first 100 days of school. For example, if a student enrolls on day 11 of school and remains enrolled for the rest of the year, the school will be funded at .9 for that student because they were enrolled for 90 of the first 100 days.