Fountain Hills voters last week were asked to consider a continuation and 2 percent increase to the existing Fountain Hills Unified School District maintenance and operations budget override, which met with 61 percent approval.

Results were in the override’s favor Tuesday evening, Nov. 7, as initial results started to trickle in. By midday Wednesday, all 7,222 votes had been tallied. The end result saw 4,254 residents offer approval of the override, with 2,746 against.

With 17,696 registered voters in Fountain Hills, that’s a turnout of about 41 percent; a decent number considering the fact this was a mail-in election.

As a reminder, this is a continuation of an override already in place that provides about $1 million annually to local schools. The only major difference is that the recently passed override is for 15 percent rather than the current 13.

FHUSD pinpointed several areas impacted by the override, including maintaining all-day kindergarten, teacher salary increases, professional development and more.

FHUSD Governing Board President Edith Stock said the passage of this override sends a clear message about the support the community offers local schools.

“I was very pleased with the support from this community; it was so positive,” Stock said. “Across Maricopa County, every bond and override passed this year. That shows people are behind offering more financial help for education, and I would like for our legislatures to understand that.”

Seeing as how the past override continuation election saw passage by a difference of about 100 votes, Superintendent Patrick Sweeney said that he takes this year’s success as a sign Fountain Hills residents have faith in their local schools.

“We’re very appreciative of the support, it’s tremendous for our schools,” Sweeney said. “That support went across age, gender and party affiliation. It was there from all of the groups, and that means a lot to us.

“I hope it means that they have confidence in what we are doing here and feel that we are doing well. This town has said ‘we support our schools’ loud and clear, and I am thrilled with that.”

Looking ahead, Sweeney said the scenario for budget planning is “very much improved” for FHUSD.

“We’ve already been talking about what we can do with salaries and things like that, but we didn’t want to plan too far out not knowing how the election would go,” Sweeney continued. “We feel good about where we’re at and [at the next board meeting], we can seek direction from the board about what direction to take with meet and confer, teacher compensation, etc.”