A. Subject to legislative appropriation, the legislature shall determine and appropriate the amount of state aid each fiscal year to each district possessing the qualifications as prescribed in this chapter.

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 15-1466

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Community college: means an educational institution that is operated by a district board and that provides a program of not more than four years' training in the arts, sciences and humanities beyond the twelfth grade of the public or private high school course of study or vocational education, including terminal courses of a technical and vocational nature and basic adult education courses. See Arizona Laws 15-1401
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • District: means a community college district that is established pursuant to sections 15-1402 and 15-1403 or Section 15-1402. See Arizona Laws 15-1401
  • District board: means the community college district governing board. See Arizona Laws 15-1401
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Fiscal year: means the year beginning July 1 and ending June 30. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Full-time equivalent student: means student enrollment for fifteen community college semester credit units per semester. See Arizona Laws 15-1401
  • Full-time student: means :

    (i) For common schools, a student who is at least six years of age before January 1 of a school year, who has not graduated from the highest grade taught in the school district and who is regularly enrolled in a course of study required by the state board of education. See Arizona Laws 15-901

  • including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association or public or private organization of any kind. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Student count: means average daily membership as prescribed in this subsection for the fiscal year before the current year, except that for the purpose of budget preparation student count means average daily membership as prescribed in this subsection for the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Subject: means a division or field of organized knowledge, such as English or mathematics, or a selection from an organized body of knowledge for a course or teaching unit, such as the English novel or elementary algebra. See Arizona Laws 15-101

B. The state shall determine the amount of state aid, as prescribed in subsection D of this section, appropriated to each district for the fiscal year before the fiscal year for which the state aid is being calculated.

C. Each district qualified under this chapter shall have its state aid adjusted in an amount that reflects the growth or decrease in the full-time equivalent student count of the district calculated as follows:

1. Calculate the growth or decrease in the actual, audited full-time equivalent student count between the second and third most recent fiscal years before the fiscal year for which the state aid is being calculated for each district.

2. Calculate the average appropriation per full-time equivalent student for all districts by dividing the amount determined in subsection B of this section by the actual, audited full-time equivalent student count for all districts in the most recent fiscal year.

3. Multiply the amount calculated in paragraph 1 of this subsection by the average appropriation calculated in paragraph 2 of this subsection. This amount equals the adjustment required pursuant to this section.

D. The total amount appropriated to each district each fiscal year in accordance with this section shall serve as the amount of state aid to be adjusted in the next fiscal year. A district is eligible for growth funding pursuant to this section only for the portion of its most recent audited full-time student equivalent count that exceeds the audited full-time student equivalent count recorded for the district for the most recent fiscal year in which an adjustment was previously made pursuant to subsection C of this section.

E. To be eligible for state aid, a district shall:

1. Be equipped with suitable buildings, equipment and campus.

2. Have at least three hundred twenty full-time equivalent students attending in the district.

3. Have complied with all of the requirements of the district board, including budgets and curriculum.

F. The total amount of state monies that may be spent in any fiscal year by a district for operating state aid shall not exceed the amount appropriated or authorized by section 35-173 for that purpose. Notwithstanding section 15-1444, this section does not impose a duty on an officer, agent or employee of this state to discharge a responsibility or create any right in a person or group if the discharge or right would require an expenditure of state monies in excess of the expenditure authorized by legislative appropriation for that specific purpose, including any duties prescribed in an employment contract entered into pursuant to section 15-1444, subsection A, paragraph 6.

G. In addition to the formula to determine the state aid appropriations prescribed in this section, this state may pay additional amounts for state aid to a district based on requests included in the district’s budget request.

H. This section does not entitle a community college operated by a qualified Indian tribe to state aid for community colleges pursuant to this chapter.