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Override would sustain school programs
Curtis Elliott
San Pedro Valley News-Sun
The Benson School District will ask voters in November to approve overrides for K-12 and K-3 to maintain current funding and to keep existing elective programs from being eliminated, as well as some teaching positions.
Arizona is ranked 48th nationally in education funding for school districts, which has resulted in nearly 85 percent of the state's schools using the override option. Dr. David Woodall, Benson schools superintendent, says that with such a lack of funds, there's not enough money in the school's regular budget to fund elective classes such as computers, music, art and physical education. This lack of funding forces schools such as Benson's to seek extra funding. Benson, like most schools in Arizona, relies on the override option, or money that is not in the school's regular budget. This gives schools the monies they need for electives classes and extra teachers.
An override allows the district to exceed state budget guidelines by up to 10 percent. The extra money can only be spent on staffing and programs for students. The overrides are additional monies that are used to provide the extracurricular programs previously mentioned, while also providing additional salary for teachers.
Benson voters last voted on overrides in 2002. The current overrides provide approximately $500,000 in funding for K-12 and nearly $140,000 in funds for K-3.
This funding allows Benson to offer the extra classes, Woodall said With overrides, the schools can also offer more competitive salaries for a teacher, which allows them to hire better teachers, more teachers, and in turn they can have smaller class sizes. Some remedial education is offered too.
"Recruiting teachers to a rural area is difficult," Woodall said. "The override allows us to compete to hire teachers."
If the measure is voted down, Woodall said that the override funding will gradually be phased out during the next few years. The K-12 funding would decrease to $345,000 next year, and the K-3 funds would go down to $90,000. The year after that, funding would decrease to just $170,000 for K-12 and $45,000 for K-3. Then, the program would go away.
Some teachers would probably also have to have their hours reduced, or their positions eliminated altogether.
Some voters may be concerned that this would mean a tax increase if the measure is approved, but Woodall said since an override is already existing, this vote will just continue current levels.
"Taxpayers might actually pay less, because of the increased assessed value of the Benson School District," Woodall said.
Why would the voters vote no on the overrides?
"Some voters may not understand what is being provided, or they don't have children in school," Woodall said.
Woodall said that if the overrides get voted down, then the schools would still try to maintain some of the extracurricular programs, but they'd be downscaled drastically.
San Pedro Valley News-Sun
The Benson School District will ask voters in November to approve overrides for K-12 and K-3 to maintain current funding and to keep existing elective programs from being eliminated, as well as some teaching positions.
Arizona is ranked 48th nationally in education funding for school districts, which has resulted in nearly 85 percent of the state's schools using the override option. Dr. David Woodall, Benson schools superintendent, says that with such a lack of funds, there's not enough money in the school's regular budget to fund elective classes such as computers, music, art and physical education. This lack of funding forces schools such as Benson's to seek extra funding. Benson, like most schools in Arizona, relies on the override option, or money that is not in the school's regular budget. This gives schools the monies they need for electives classes and extra teachers.
An override allows the district to exceed state budget guidelines by up to 10 percent. The extra money can only be spent on staffing and programs for students. The overrides are additional monies that are used to provide the extracurricular programs previously mentioned, while also providing additional salary for teachers.
Benson voters last voted on overrides in 2002. The current overrides provide approximately $500,000 in funding for K-12 and nearly $140,000 in funds for K-3.
This funding allows Benson to offer the extra classes, Woodall said With overrides, the schools can also offer more competitive salaries for a teacher, which allows them to hire better teachers, more teachers, and in turn they can have smaller class sizes. Some remedial education is offered too.
"Recruiting teachers to a rural area is difficult," Woodall said. "The override allows us to compete to hire teachers."
If the measure is voted down, Woodall said that the override funding will gradually be phased out during the next few years. The K-12 funding would decrease to $345,000 next year, and the K-3 funds would go down to $90,000. The year after that, funding would decrease to just $170,000 for K-12 and $45,000 for K-3. Then, the program would go away.
Some teachers would probably also have to have their hours reduced, or their positions eliminated altogether.
Some voters may be concerned that this would mean a tax increase if the measure is approved, but Woodall said since an override is already existing, this vote will just continue current levels.
"Taxpayers might actually pay less, because of the increased assessed value of the Benson School District," Woodall said.
Why would the voters vote no on the overrides?
"Some voters may not understand what is being provided, or they don't have children in school," Woodall said.
Woodall said that if the overrides get voted down, then the schools would still try to maintain some of the extracurricular programs, but they'd be downscaled drastically.
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