PEORIA — This November, 24 Maricopa County school districts are asking voters for a bond, override, or both.
A bond pays for buildings and equipment, safety upgrades, renovations, buses and more. An override pays for people and programs, including salaries and extracurriculars offered to students.
“Arizona's 49th in the nation for funding our public schools. This is one of the methods our state has put in place to allow some additional funding,” said Tahlya Visintainer, the interim superintendent for the Peoria Unified School District.
Peoria Unified knows what failure costs. It was one of a handful of districts whose measure failed last election, and it had to cut millions of dollars from its budget. Those cuts included staff and programs.
Visintainer said they had to make changes to cost structures, pass costs to families including increasing pricing for sports and more.
If the override fails this November again, they’ll have to cut out another $11 million next year.
“We're using this year to continue to research and plan and be as efficient as possible, so we don't have to experience as deep as cuts,” she said.
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Some parents in the district plan to vote yes, telling ABC15 they’ve seen the impacts the cuts have had on their children as well as other students.
“It's hard to watch because those are some of the things, those extracurriculars, those extra pieces that really make a difference for our kids’ education,” said Brittany Anderson, a Peoria parent.
Others say they’ll vote no. Some have told ABC15 districts need to live within their means as they also struggle with higher costs now. However, districts like Peoria are facing compounding pressures with costs as their last override failed and they also had to cut an additional $10 million due to declining enrollment.
“This is what competition looks like. And everyone in the pro public-school camp just needs to get used to it,” said Tiffany Benson, a Peoria taxpayer.
Peoria Unified has also been in the spotlight for controversy surrounding an investigation into two former educators accused of sexual misconduct with the same student. Some have said they’ve lost trust in the district with how they’ve handled the situation.
“We can’t control all the things that people are going to say on social media, but we’re going to do our best to put out the best information and share and highlight what our students are doing because they're the most important part of all of this,” Visintainer said of the controversy. “A couple of adults who made bad choices and did bad things should not define an entire district."
For more information on which Maricopa County districts are asking for what measures, click here.
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