Last week, by a narrow margin, Kyrene voters reauthorized a Capital Override that will allow Kyrene to continue to fund technology based needs and programs without exerting further strain on the district’s Operating Budget which has experienced a decline of over 10.5% and $11.3 million since it peaked at $106.4 million in 2008-09. We thank the voters who recognized the dire need for the continuation of the override by casting a YES vote on this question.
Normally, once local funding related elections of this type are approved, everyone moves on, and elected officials and interested stakeholders are heartened by community support, as in this case of public school education. It becomes somewhat easy to reject and ignore the significant number of voters who felt that the Override funding was not needed or justified and return to business as usual. In Kyrene, we would like to believe that we are better than that. As a group of elected School Board officials, while we never expect 100% support, we wonder why so many in our community felt that a NO vote was more appropriate and justified. We wonder how we, as the politically diverse representatives of all of Kyrene (not just of those that vote for or with us), can reach out in a non-partisan manner to our friends and neighbors who wished to end the Capital Override funding and discuss the real world consequences of the ongoing funding challenges that we face in Kyrene.
Over the past several years, budget reductions have caused our class sizes to increase, important elective programs to be reduced and employee salaries to remain frozen, and in some cases to actually decline. We believe that public school education is a pillar of American life and society and we want to leave no stone unturned in reaching out to all in the Kyrene community with vital and factual information about our schools. Annual Arizona Auditor General published reports continually show Kyrene to be among the most efficient districts in the State in delivering dollars to the classroom. Every year we search for opportunities to reduce non-classroom related costs and those options have all but disappeared. As members of the community who serve on your School Board, we can confidently tell you that your school district is not analogous to other, primarily federal, agencies where spending inefficiencies may run rampant. We balance our budget to the penny every year, we abide by a myriad of insufficiently funded federal and state performance and reporting mandates, and we provide the best education for the dollar that we can.
In the days, weeks and months ahead, as we head into a new budget season, we will work with our fellow Governing Board Members, our senior administrators, community groups and local newspapers to reach out to all Kyrene residents, to listen, and to tell our story and hopefully to steadily increase community support both at the polls and beyond.
Ross Robb, Kyrene Governing Board member
Michelle Hirsch, Kyrene Governing Board President
