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Classroom Site Fund (CSF)

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1. How may districts use CSF monies?

CSF monies cannot be used to supplant existing school site funding and may be used for only the following purposes (A.R.S. §15-977):

  • Class size reduction–Maintenance and operations expenditures that are designed to reduce the pupil to teacher ratio, including employees who serve as aides to teachers.*
  • Teacher compensation–Including a base pay and performance pay component.
  • Assessment intervention programs–Before school, after school, summer, and tutoring programs that are specifically designed to ensure that pupils meet the State academic standards prescribed by A.R.S. §15-741.*
  • Teacher development.
  • Dropout prevention programs.*
  • Teacher liability insurance premiums.
  • Student support services–Expenditures correctly classified in the function code 2100—Support Services—Students range.


* Eligible expenditures must be correctly classified in function code 1000—Instruction, including 1900, but cannot be used for school-sponsored athletics.

2. Are districts required to adopt a performance-based compensation system?

Yes. A.R.S. §15-977(B) requires district governing boards to adopt a performance-based compensation system at a public hearing to allocate funding from the CSF. In addition, A.R.S. §15-977(C) contains the required elements of a performance-based compensation system.

3. What information should districts consider when budgeting CSF monies to ensure they do not supplant other existing school site funding sources (e.g., federal, State, and local)?  

CSF monies may be used for the same purposes as many other district monies, including those in the M&O, UCO, and federal and State grant funds. Therefore, to prevent supplanting when budgeting CSF expenditures, districts should analyze prior year spending and continue to support their operations with non-CSF monies at or above the same level as prior years. For example, a district generally cannot decrease teacher salaries paid from non-CSF monies while increasing the amount paid from CSF monies. However, if a particular non-CSF revenue used in prior years is no longer available to the district, such as a budget override, the district may be faced with eliminating a position. In this case, using CSF monies to pay the teacher’s salary may qualify as class size reduction.

Districts that add teacher positions due to student population growth, without reducing the student-to-teacher ratio, should use non-CSF monies to support those positions at a similar level rather than using CSF monies for the full teacher salary to avoid supplanting.

Every district has unique circumstances and should determine and document that CSF monies are not being used to supplant non-CSF monies. Districts should retain detailed payroll records and salary schedules for employees, and expenditure records for any programs that may be funded with CSF monies in the future to support that CSF expenditures have not supplanted non-CSF spending. The following example situations may appear like supplanting:

  • A district used CSF monies to fund additional teacher positions as class size reduction, but the student to teacher ratio did not decrease from the prior year.
  • A district increased CSF monies used for a teacher’s salary, but the teacher’s total salary did not increase.
  • A district used CSF monies for assessment intervention or dropout prevention programs, but non-CSF spending for these programs, in the aggregate or per student, decreased from prior years.
  • A district experiencing growth in student population and a corresponding increase in non-CSF revenues used CSF monies for teacher salaries and allowable programs, but the district’s non-CSF spending for teacher salaries and the same programs did not increase.
  • A district used CSF monies to pay for a portion of a school psychologist’s salary that had been paid with non-CSF monies in the prior year (i.e., the psychologist’s total salary did not increase).
  • A district used CSF monies to add a guidance counselor position to a school while decreasing M&O Fund spending for other guidance service costs.