COMMUNITY
NEWS
Staff Report~
11/16/2011
The Cave Creek Unified School District's budget override effort went
down to defeat on Nov. 8 as 56 percent of 14,250 voters were against
the effort, which would have increased taxes about $12 a year on a
house assessed at $100,000 to about $27. The tallied votes had 7,955
area residents voting against the measure while 6,295 voters (44 percent)
supported it.
The override was intended to generate about $4.4 million per year
in property taxes for the maintenance and operation portion of the
school budget. The district has indicated that the failure to pass
the override could cause the district to lose more than 70 teachers
and approximately 25 other staffers. The vote against the override
also could cause the loss of music, physical education, elementary
band and world language programs as well as increasing class sizes
and cutting counselors, teacher’s aides, computer lab coordinators,
secretaries and a nurse.
Eight of the last nine override attempts in Cave Creek have failed.