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Scottsdale Unified School District

—Not among the highest-risk districts

District demographic information

General information
County	Maricopa County
Operational peer group (FY 2024)	1
Legislative district(s)	3, 4, and 8

School information	FY 2024	FY 2025
Students attending	19,818	19,417
Number of schools	29	29

Approaching highest risk

Although the District was not identified among the highest-risk districts, review of the District’s data indicates that the District may be moving toward the highest-risk category. We notified the District of this status and will continue to monitor its risks along with all other districts.

Analysis and data

The Measures page describes how each measure was calculated, how districts were identified as high risk for each measure, and other measure-related information.

High risk

Change in weighted student count

Analysis

-1.84%	-7.19%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Group A WSC
2026	22,789
2025	23,216
2024	23,724
2023	24,156
2022	24,554

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows a district's change in group A weighted student count (WSC) over a 1- and 4-year period. A single-year substantial decrease in WSC, or smaller but repeated decreases over more years, may expose a district to higher financial risk due to the loss of student-count-generated revenue.

High risk

Budget limit reserve—

Operating budget

Analysis

-43.80%	-35.09%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Budget limit (in $)	Expenditures (in $)	Balance (in $)
2026	188,339,463
2025	193,850,467	183,249,607	10,600,860
2024	193,076,378	174,212,998	18,863,380
2023	184,190,508	169,848,782	14,341,726
2022	176,613,536	161,039,948	15,573,588
2021	167,497,802	151,165,575	16,332,226

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows how a district's Maintenance and Operation (M&O) Fund budget limit reserve has changed over a 1- and 4-year period. Declining, negative, or unfunded M&O Fund budget limit reserves indicate higher financial risk.

Budget limit reserve—

Capital budget

Analysis

30.40%	100.00%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Budget limit (in $)	Expenditures (in $)	Balance (in $)
2026	25,229,677
2025	39,790,406	22,280,599	17,509,807
2024	36,439,212	23,011,815	13,427,397
2023	29,725,459	19,692,897	10,032,562
2022	25,455,877	15,449,001	10,006,876
2021	23,821,762	16,697,546	7,124,216

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows how a district's Unrestricted Capital Outlay (UCO) Fund budget limit reserve has changed over a 1- and 4-year period. Declining, negative, or unfunded UCO Fund budget limit reserves indicate higher financial risk.

Financial position—

General Fund operating reserve ratio

Analysis

12.63%	18.52%
FY 2025 unaudited	FY 2024 audited

Data

FY	Balance (in $)	Expenditures (in $)
2025 unaudited	26,953,517	213,347,220
2024 audited	43,286,764	233,707,401

balance ÷ expenditures = operating reserve ratio

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the percent of General Fund monies held in reserve for future spending (i.e., fund balance), compared to total spending from the prior year. A negative operating reserve ratio indicates a negative fund balance, which means the district must use monies received in the following year to cover prior-year spending.

High risk

Financial position—

General Fund operating margin ratio

Analysis

-4.14%	-8.52%
FY 2025 unaudited	FY 2024 audited

Data

FY	Revenue (in $)	Expenditures (in $)
2025 unaudited	204,858,205	213,347,220
2024 audited	215,352,455	233,707,401

(revenue - expenditures) ÷ revenues = operating margin ratio

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the percent of district General Fund revenues not spent in the year received for each of the most recent 2 years. A district with below-average operating reserves exposes itself to higher financial risk each time its spending exceeds its revenues (i.e., negative operating margin).

High risk

Financial position—

General Fund change in fund balance

Analysis

-25.08%	-30.69%
FY 2024 to 2025 unaudited	FY 2023 to 2024 audited

Data

FY	Change amount (in $)
2024 to 2025 unaudited	-9,024,996
2023 to 2024 audited	-19,167,531

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the 1-year percentage change in a district's General Fund balance for each of the most recent 2 years. Declining fund balances or a negative fund balance in the most recent year indicate higher financial risk as less resources remain available for current and future needs.

High risk

Capital monies redirected to operations

Analysis

36.32%	7.26%
(FY 2026)	(5-year average)

Data

FY	Capital monies (in $)	Amount redirected (in $)
2026	11,563,040	4,200,000
2025	26,389,470	0
2024	26,604,475	0
2023	19,752,928	0
2022	18,331,660	0

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the percentage of intended capital funding the district has redirected to operational spending rather than capital spending in the current year and on average over the last 5 years. Districts that direct a substantial portion of their intended capital funding to operational spending may be at higher financial risk.

Small school budget limit adjustment

Analysis

N/A - District is too large to be eligible for adjustment.

Data

FY	Adjustment (in $)	Total operating and capital budget limit (in $)
2026	0	213,569,140
2025	0	233,640,873
2024	0	229,515,590
2023	0	213,915,967
2022	0	202,069,413

The small school adjustment is included in the total operating and capital budget limit.

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows a district's additional budget capacity from a small school adjustment in the current year and each of the prior 4 years. The loss of the ability to include a small school budget limit adjustment or an unfunded small school budget limit adjustment due to a frozen tax rate may indicate higher financial risk.

Frozen tax rate

Analysis

District's primary property tax rate is not frozen.

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows whether a district has a frozen primary property tax rate, limiting the District's ability to increase its property tax revenue to fund its allowable budget limits.

Receivership

Analysis

District is not in receivership.

What is this measure telling me?

This measure identifies whether a district is operating under a State Board of Education-appointed receiver due to gross mismanagement or insolvency.

Less common revenues in FY 2025

Some districts have access to revenues and budget capacity that are not available to all districts. These revenues may help lessen financial risks for some districts, but desegregation and small school adjustment revenues can contribute risk for other districts, if they result in a district's property tax rate being frozen, which can cause the district to accumulate unfunded budget capacity. Select the information icon to learn more about the revenues presented.

	Desegregation	$7,382,169
	Federal Impact Aid	$0
	Small school adjustment	$0
	Voter-approved budget overrides	$36,628,279
	Total less common revenues per student	$2,267

Source: Desegregation, small school adjustment, and voter-approved budget override amounts - FY 2025 Arizona Department of Education BUDG75 report. Federal Impact Aid amounts - FY 2025 district submitted, unaudited annual financial reports.

Scottsdale Unified School District

Approaching highest risk

Analysis and data

Change in weighted student count

Budget limit reserve—

Operating budget

Budget limit reserve—

Capital budget

Financial position—

General Fund operating reserve ratio

Financial position—

General Fund operating margin ratio

Financial position—

General Fund change in fund balance

Capital monies redirected to operations

Small school budget limit adjustment

N/A - District is too large to be eligible for adjustment.

Frozen tax rate

District's primary property tax rate is not frozen.

Receivership

District is not in receivership.

Less common revenues in FY 2025

Additional school district resources

Arizona Auditor General