News
School bond backers hope for best in Sahuarita
By Philip Franchine, The Sahuarita Sun
With less than a week left in the voting on three Sahuarita school spending questions, supporters are hopeful on one question and are pulling out all the stops on the other two.
The Keep Kids First committee is cautiously optimistic that a request for $27 million in bonding authority for buildings and facilities will pass, in part because its includes a $3 million swimming pool that would serve the entire community, not just the schools. The real battle is over a request to extend a 10 percent budget override, one that has been in effect for two decades, and one that supporters say is necessary to maintain existing programs and keep class size from mushrooming. The third question on the Nov. 3 ballot is whether the district can use interest on bond funds for educational purposes.
Jeff Herndon, a Rancho Sahuarita parent of two daughters at Sahuarita Intermediate School and chairman of the KKF committee, said “The number of volunteers has increased. At meetings we have a good 20 to 25. In the last election it was seven or eight. I think the last time (a close election) opened the eyes of people and now people are more aware because of the economy, the state is in crisis, that schools are in dire needs, that because of growth, there are 35 kids in a class.”
The committee has raised $10,000, mostly from home builders and school vendors, and that has paid for mailers, signs and hiring former Flowing Wells superintendent Stuart Meinke as a campaign consultant.
Opponents are not organized on that level, but a support group of home-schooling parents is opposed and others get e-mails from such anti-tax groups as Americans For Prosperity, whose messages oppose all tax measures and say some Arizona schools are overfunded without singling out Sahuarita.
As of Monday, 3,391 early ballots had been sent out and 1,149 votes had been returned, a spokeswoman for the County Recorder’s office said. There were 11,885 voters who registered by the deadline for this election and those who do not vote early can vote until 7 p.m. Tuesday at polling places. To find a polling place, go to recorder.pima.gov, then Voters Service, then Polling/Voter Information, or call the Recorder’s office at 740-4330.
Herndon said donations are coming from businesses in the area.
“Home builders all kind of see the need to keep schools good and that helps people move to the area,” he said. “Some companies have some type of relationship to the school providing service.”
Meinke said, “They need to supply information that is factual to the voters. However, most people don’t seem to want to be overwhelmed with information. They want why and how much will it cost.”
Herndon said volunteers have spoken at Fiesta Sahuarita, where supporters and opponents discussed the election at the KKF booth, and at forums in McGee Ranch, Arivaca, and before school PTOs. Forums were planned in Rancho Resort and Rancho Sahuarita.
Opponents mostly question why the district needs an override, especially new arrivals from out of state. Herndon tells them that Arizona provides one of the lowest levels of school funding in the nation.
That argument does not impress Anita Jackson, whose three children have attended public schools in Utah, Virginia and California. Jackson home-schools two of her children and said she opposes all three ballot measures because she thinks the district does not manage its resources well and does not offer enough for special needs or gifted children or after-school programs.
“I got to know the teachers and the communication and the feeling of mutual respect was so much stronger in that (Virginia) district” compared to what she sees as lack of communication between teachers and parents in Sahuarita, she said.
pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738
The Keep Kids First committee is cautiously optimistic that a request for $27 million in bonding authority for buildings and facilities will pass, in part because its includes a $3 million swimming pool that would serve the entire community, not just the schools. The real battle is over a request to extend a 10 percent budget override, one that has been in effect for two decades, and one that supporters say is necessary to maintain existing programs and keep class size from mushrooming. The third question on the Nov. 3 ballot is whether the district can use interest on bond funds for educational purposes.
Jeff Herndon, a Rancho Sahuarita parent of two daughters at Sahuarita Intermediate School and chairman of the KKF committee, said “The number of volunteers has increased. At meetings we have a good 20 to 25. In the last election it was seven or eight. I think the last time (a close election) opened the eyes of people and now people are more aware because of the economy, the state is in crisis, that schools are in dire needs, that because of growth, there are 35 kids in a class.”
The committee has raised $10,000, mostly from home builders and school vendors, and that has paid for mailers, signs and hiring former Flowing Wells superintendent Stuart Meinke as a campaign consultant.
Opponents are not organized on that level, but a support group of home-schooling parents is opposed and others get e-mails from such anti-tax groups as Americans For Prosperity, whose messages oppose all tax measures and say some Arizona schools are overfunded without singling out Sahuarita.
As of Monday, 3,391 early ballots had been sent out and 1,149 votes had been returned, a spokeswoman for the County Recorder’s office said. There were 11,885 voters who registered by the deadline for this election and those who do not vote early can vote until 7 p.m. Tuesday at polling places. To find a polling place, go to recorder.pima.gov, then Voters Service, then Polling/Voter Information, or call the Recorder’s office at 740-4330.
Herndon said donations are coming from businesses in the area.
“Home builders all kind of see the need to keep schools good and that helps people move to the area,” he said. “Some companies have some type of relationship to the school providing service.”
Meinke said, “They need to supply information that is factual to the voters. However, most people don’t seem to want to be overwhelmed with information. They want why and how much will it cost.”
Herndon said volunteers have spoken at Fiesta Sahuarita, where supporters and opponents discussed the election at the KKF booth, and at forums in McGee Ranch, Arivaca, and before school PTOs. Forums were planned in Rancho Resort and Rancho Sahuarita.
Opponents mostly question why the district needs an override, especially new arrivals from out of state. Herndon tells them that Arizona provides one of the lowest levels of school funding in the nation.
That argument does not impress Anita Jackson, whose three children have attended public schools in Utah, Virginia and California. Jackson home-schools two of her children and said she opposes all three ballot measures because she thinks the district does not manage its resources well and does not offer enough for special needs or gifted children or after-school programs.
“I got to know the teachers and the communication and the feeling of mutual respect was so much stronger in that (Virginia) district” compared to what she sees as lack of communication between teachers and parents in Sahuarita, she said.
pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738
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