Council unanimously approves tentative budget of $97,963,222

Sedona City Council unanimously set the city’s uppermost spending limit at $97,963,222 for Fiscal Year 2026-27 at its May 26 Tentative Budget meeting, adding a last-minute commitment of $225,000 to maintain the baseball field at Sedona Red Rock High School, which will add a full-time equivalent employee and $45,000 to brush and refill the school’s artificial turf football field.

“We could put everything that we have into these fields to make them look similar to what they have in the city properties,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ed.D., said. “But what that would mean on the other end is we would likely not be able to offer our Advanced Placement classes, we would not be able to offer theater, we would not be able to offer additional highly trained instructional aids at our primary level or greatly reduced rate for our preschool.”

While Arizonans pay property taxes to the state for school funding, a slice of the city’s income from transactions such as local sales tax revenue will now flow to SRRHS.

“It all benefits the community anyway, and you know the ideas have shared spaces available not only for our students during the day but for community members as well, and I think that’s a positive for everybody,” Swaninger said to the NEWS.

SOCSD will have its work cut out for itself because SRRHS did not have a baseball team this spring.

“I didn’t feel comfortable that that field was playable anyway,” Swaninger said.

Additionally, only two players were committed to play, according to outgoing Athletics Director Peter Brock, whose position will need to be filled along with hiring a new head coach and recruiting players before the program can retake the field.

“With baseball, the earlier we can get kids involved with the sport, the better off we’re going to be,” Swaninger said. “That’s one of the key components of this, is having little league T-ball and that is something that I think Parks and Rec are really trying to push in the coming year. Each year builds on top of the other. I do remain optimistic — it’s just a matter of getting kids involved at a younger age, so by the time they get to high school, they’ve already fallen in love with the game and they’ll be excited to take the field.”

Council weighed two other options to also repair the high school’s soccer practice and softball fields: A $394,000 one-time cost plus $200,000 annually to hire two full-time employees for the school’s field maintenance, or an $811,028 one-time cost plus $290,784 annually for a private contractor to repair all three fields. Additionally, council weighed $37,000 for cleaning of SRRHS’ tennis courts and the construction of wind screens and $20,000 for new fencing of the school’s batting cage.

The city budget also includes $76,000 to hire a school security consultant for both SOCSD campuses; $23,000 for new playground equipment at Sedona Charter School, which is not part of SOCSD; $10,000 to relocate an electric gate at the SRRHS administration building; $6,000 for landscaping updates at both SOCSD campuses; $5,000 for a Wi-Fi and cellular booster project at West Sedona School; and $5,000 for signage at SRRHS.

“We don’t have a cost estimate yet,” Swaninger said about additional security fencing at SRRHS. “We had a meeting with the Sedona Police Department while walking the campus, and having some broad discussions on what could be done on our campus, specifically at SRRHS to further secure it.”

Swaninger said he does not have an update on the $10 million sale of the district’s former Big Park Community School property to Basil and Mimi Maher, the proceeds of which must go toward capital expenses.

Swaninger has repeatedly said security upgrades are his biggest priority for those proceeds, and said the district will decide on fencing and potentially additional security cameras once the security consultant’s recommendations are complete.

Additionally, by the start of school in the fall, Swaninger said he anticipates the district will have an update on its capital needs.

City Budget

In the tentative budget, the city of Sedona will be hiring a full-time recreation coordinator — with that position currently taking applicants — and a full-time custodian for a new city-run after-school extracurricular camp program at an annual cost of $214,775.

With the full-time employee from field maintenance, that brings the total to five new full-time equivalent employees in the tentative budget.

The city also plans to convert a part-time Public Works bike and pedestrian coordinator to full-time for an ongoing cost of $89,543; a new IT tech support position at an ongoing cost of $153,560; and a part-time court specialist at an ongoing cost of $28,369, with a one-time cost of $21,603.

Council also voted to pay off an estimated $655,000 to $700,000 arbitrage rebate liability early, a federal obligation created when the city’s unspent bond proceeds earned more interest than the bonds’ own yield.

Originally, council was looking at a $94.7 million budget that was introduced during its April 15 work session and it is scheduled for its final budget approval on Tuesday, June 23.