District will use Ak-Chin gift for long-term benefits

On May 7, the Ak-Chin Indian Community announced it was donating $2.6 million to the Maricopa Unified School District and $7.4 million to the city of Maricopa. Chairman Louis Manuel Jr., Vice Chairman William Antone and Council member Terry Enos made the announcement during the city council meeting that evening.

All three men spoke about the importance of all Maricopa students receiving a quality education.

On behalf of the Maricopa Unified School District, I thank Chairman Manuel, the Tribal Council and the entire Ak-Chin Community for this wonderful, generous gift, which will assist us as we continue to improve the quality of our K-12 programs.

Before the $2.6 million can be spent by MUSD, a formal memorandum of agreement must be signed by Ak-Chin, the city and MUSD. The three parties to the agreement will begin meeting soon to complete this task. 

The MUSD governing board is in the process of developing the budget for the 2013-14 school year. This budget must be adopted by July 10. To balance this budget the board has had to make $1 million in cuts compared to the 2012-13 school year. 

Personnel cuts have included three administrative positions, two middle school teachers, five middle school support staff and one district office clerical position. In addition, kindergarten will only be provided for half day. Parents wanting all-day kindergarten will pay a nominal tuition for the second half of the day.