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Wilson Elementary School District

—Among the highest-risk districts

District demographic information

General information
County	Maricopa County
Operational peer group (FY 2024)	9
Legislative district(s)	11

School information	FY 2024	FY 2025
Students attending	899	790
Number of schools	2	2

Summary of risks identified

Wilson Elementary School District (District) is identified as high risk, largely due to its incomplete and unreliable fiscal year 2025 annual financial report (AFR), preventing us from adequately analyzing the District’s risk. As shown on the measure cards below, the District is identified as high risk for the operating and capital budget limit reserve measures, all 3 financial position measures, and capital monies redirected to operations.

The District submitted its FY 2025 AFR to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) in November 2025. However, ADE has not processed the AFR because of errors in the District’s submitted files. In discussing the file errors with the District’s administration, they stated that the data in the FY 2025 AFR is unreliable, and they are working to correct their underlying accounting data before preparing a revised AFR to submit to ADE. As of our report issuance, the District has not submitted a revised AFR to ADE. As a result, we cannot adequately analyze 5 of the 10 financial risk measures that include or rely on the District’s AFR information.

Therefore, we must identify the District as high-risk for the following measures until reliable AFR data is available.

Operating budget limit reserves.
Capital budget limit reserves.
General Fund operating reserve ratio.
General Fund operating margin ratio.
General Fund change in fund balance.

For the other areas where the District provided reliable data and we were able to analyze that data, we noted risk in certain areas. Specifically, the District redirected 45.98% of its capital monies to operational spending in FY 2026, which could indicate the District is delaying necessary operational spending cuts or may be at risk of overspending its capital budget limit when large capital spending needs arise. In addition, the District’s weighted student count (WSC) had been declining 17.7% since FY 2022, except that for FY 2026 to date, the District’s WSC has increased 5.74%. Although the District’s current WSC increase is helpful, further declines could impact its student-count-generated revenues and budget limits and increase its overall risk for the WSC measure.

District action plan

The District has not provided an estimated date that it will submit its revised FY 2025 AFR to ADE. We will continue to follow up with the District until it submits a revised FY 2025 AFR. We will obtain the relevant AFR data once it is available and analyze it to determine the District’s updated risk status. If the District remains in the highest-risk category, we will begin periodic meetings with the District in early 2026 to discuss its plan and actions taken to lessen the District’s financial risk.

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.

Change in weighted student count

Analysis

5.74%	-17.70%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Group A WSC
2026	939
2025	888
2024	1,011
2023	1,116
2022	1,141

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

N/R	N/R
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY25 AFR data is incomplete.

Data

FY	Budget limit (in $)	Expenditures (in $)	Balance (in $)
2026	6,979,577
2025	7,175,263	N/R	N/R
2024	8,812,190	8,568,534	243,656
2023	9,920,589	8,779,804	1,140,785
2022	9,320,995	8,841,314	479,681
2021	8,804,896	8,434,433	370,463

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY25 AFR data is incomplete.

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.

High risk

Budget limit reserve—

Capital budget

Analysis

N/R	N/R
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY25 AFR data is incomplete.

Data

FY	Budget limit (in $)	Expenditures (in $)	Balance (in $)
2026	495,000
2025	1,402,999	N/R	N/R
2024	1,287,515	701,751	585,764
2023	1,046,548	790,353	256,195
2022	917,820	368,541	549,279
2021	1,036,201	945,033	91,168

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY25 AFR data is incomplete.

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.

High risk

Financial position—

General Fund operating reserve ratio

Analysis

N/R	94.54%
FY 2025 unaudited	FY 2024 audited

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY 2025 AFR data is incomplete.

Data

FY	Balance (in $)	Expenditures (in $)
2025 unaudited	N/R	N/R
2024 audited	9,859,933	10,428,953

balance ÷ expenditures = operating reserve ratio

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY 2025 AFR data is incomplete.

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

N/R	15.91%
FY 2025 unaudited	FY 2024 audited

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY 2025 AFR data is incomplete.

Data

FY	Revenue (in $)	Expenditures (in $)
2025 unaudited	N/R	N/R
2024 audited	12,401,420	10,428,953

(revenue - expenditures) ÷ revenues = operating margin ratio

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY 2025 AFR data is incomplete.

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

N/R	25.01%
FY 2024 to 2025 unaudited	FY 2023 to 2024 audited

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY 2025 AFR data is incomplete.

Data

FY	Change amount (in $)
2024 to 2025 unaudited	N/R
2023 to 2024 audited	1,972,907

N/R = Not reliable; District’s FY 2025 AFR data is incomplete.

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

45.98%	15.58%
(FY 2026)	(5-year average)

Data

FY	Capital monies (in $)	Amount redirected (in $)
2026	916,257	421,257
2025	974,781	179,000
2024	1,023,756	0
2023	989,708	0
2022	956,096	129,444

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	7,474,577
2025	0	8,578,262
2024	0	10,099,705
2023	0	10,967,137
2022	0	10,238,815

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	$1,866,300
	Federal Impact Aid	$0
	Small school adjustment	$0
	Voter-approved budget overrides	$1,462,334
	Total less common revenues per student	$4,213

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.

Wilson Elementary School District

Summary of risks identified

District action plan

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