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
Required Certification of Teachers
****
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.

US Census Public School Spending Per Pupil

Admin Cost Comparison

The following is a list of district and charter schools within or near the QCUSD boundaries. The QCUSD administrative cost data is from the Classroom Spending Report which is a summary from the Auditor General’s Office. The Office of the Auditor General does not complete a charter spending analysis, so below is charter administrative data compared to QCUSD using the State Superintendent Annual Financial Report for 2024.

Educational Institution
Admin Cost per ADM
% of Total Expenditures
QCUSD
$925
9%
American Leadership Academy, Inc
$2,504
27%
Legacy Traditional Academy - Queen Creek
$2,608
25%
Benjamin Franklin Charter School - Queen Creek
$2,006
23%
BASIS Charter Schools
$1,412
15%
Leading Edge Academy - Queen Creek
$3,080
29%
ASU Preparatory Academy
$3,496
22%
Happy Valley East
$1,536
14%
Heritage Academy
$2,710
13%
Unified School District Average
$1,276
Charter Average
$2,404
State Average
$1,185
District Peer Average
$1,116

Sources: QCUSD Classroom Spending Report 2024 and Arizona Department of Education – State Superintendent’s Annual Financial Report 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

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 2021–2022, 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 schools. Despite ranking lowest in administrative expenditure, QCUSD further demonstrated its commitment to fiscal prudence by reducing spending in this category from FY21 to FY22. 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.