The Fountain Hills Unified School District Governing Board voted unanimously at its May 12 meeting to call for a District Additional Assistance (DAA) Override and a Maintenance & Operations (M&O) Override. This action clears the way for the details of both overrides to be finalized before being presented to the community.

Calling for these elections also sets a deadline of 5 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2021, for arguments “for” and “against” each item to be submitted to the Maricopa County School Superintendent. Additional details for this process will be provided in the coming months.

To prepare for last week’s vote, a presentation was made on April 16 that covered the election process for the overrides, both of which have traditionally been passed by Fountain Hills voters and are due for possible renewal.

The last DAA Override for FHUSD, which is used for capital improvements, took effect in 2014 and brought $750,000 to the district. This type of funding typically goes to the areas of technology updates, renovations to facilities, textbooks/online resources, student transportation and furniture/equipment. It was determined FHUSD would aim to maintain this amount of funding through a DAA Override rather than upping the figure to $900,000, as previously discussed.

If successful in this November’s election, this override would begin providing funds in the 2022/23 academic year.

FHUSD’s last M&O Override was approved in 2017 and must be approved again in the coming years if the district does not want to risk a drop-off in the funds provided.

As is common practice for the district, a November 2021 election for the M&O Override is technically earlier than necessary, but waiting until the deadline carries the added risk of lost funding. Passage this year or next would allow for the roof of a 15 percent M&O budget override. If passage does not occur until 2023, however, the override would be phased down to 10 percent. Waiting another year would see it phased down to 5 percent.

While a DAA Override helps provide for the physical needs of a school district, an M&O Override provides for things like full-day kindergarten, teacher salary increases, professional development, student programs, etc.

As mentioned in previous reporting, it is important to note that this is a list of potential areas to be impacted with the passage of either override by voters, based on the most recent elections. With the Governing Board voting to call for both override elections, final details, figures, costs to taxpayers and the like will be hammered out and provided to voters in the coming months.

Voter information pamphlets will also be compiled over the summer and mailed to local voters in September.

Early voting will begin in October, with Election Day having the final say on both overrides this November.