Nancy Smith: Why I’m supporting the school override

The time is right. We have the right leadership. We have the right goals.

I voted in favor of our school district’s first override because I knew with Maricopa’s hyper growth we needed a boost in our school system.

I don’t support more taxes just because someone says “it’s for the children.” I believe all government entities need to live and excel within their means through creativity and efficiency. Thus, I haven’t supported the last four override attempts. I felt previous district leadership did not adequately identify how he would use additional funds, as if he wanted a blank check from the taxpayers.

However, I always look at new requests each time they are presented to me and attempt to give a fair evaluation that leads me to vote one way or the other. I’ve met with the new superintendent, Dr. Steve Chestnut, several times to discuss his plans for the proposed override funds. I’ve listened to several presentations from various supporters of the override. I’ve also talked with teachers within our schools regarding their needs.

What’s apparent to me is that our school district never had the chance to catch up from the hyper growth. In fact, just as the revenue provided from the state for education began to catch up with our student population, the nation was hit with this recession and resulted in reduced revenue.

As a result, our school district is facing some serious challenges. We have lost high-performing teachers to Valley school systems that pay higher salaries, our technology in the classroom is not at the quality required to properly train our children with leading tools and our classroom-size needs to be reduced for better teacher/student ratios, which result in higher learning.