Higley voters defeat school district override

Voters in the Higley Unified School District decided against a budget override Tuesday that would help the district's youngest students.

With early votes and all five precincts reporting, 65 percent of voters said no, while 35 percent said yes, according to unofficial results posted on the Maricopa County Recorder's elections department Web site.

The special maintenance and operations K-3 (kindergarten through third grade) override election would have given Higley an estimated $1.4 million annually for seven years, starting in the 2010-11 school year.

This amount was 5 percent of Higley's revenue control limit, which is the amount the state will allow a school district to spend in its maintenance and operations budget.

Higley superintendent Denise Birdwell said although the district is "disappointed" the override didn't pass, she understands that these are "difficult financial times for our community."

"We believe that there will be continued cuts from the state in funding education next year," Birdwell said. "As a result of the reductions and the failure of the override, Higley Unified may see increased class sizes and possible teacher staffing reductions. We are committed to doing the very best for our students with or without the override."

Stacy LaGoy, the committee chairwoman for the Yes for Higley Kids K-3 override committee, agreed that this is a "tough time" to have voters approve an override.

"It's too bad for the students of Higley," LaGoy said. "I do hope that the school board comes back and asks for this again. Our schools are underfunded as is, and this was a small measure that voters have to increase the funds for our schools."

LaGoy said she can't speculate on why voters didn't approve the override, although she said Yes for Higley Kids could have done more advertising.

She also said voters are apprehensive about raising taxes, although she said with lower taxes this year, the extra tax from the override would still not have bumped the tax higher than last year.

The majority of voters turned in early ballots, with only 277 people coming out Tuesday to vote at the polls.

The total number of voters who turned down the budget increase was 2,371, while 1,292 people voted for the override, according to the unofficial results.

The Higley override was seen as a way to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.

It could have also provided instructional assistants and additional instructional materials, and improved instructional support in kindergarten to third grade.

This was the first time the district asked voters to approve a K-3 override and was the last time Higley can call for an override specifically for K-3 grades because of a change in the law.