Photo above: Catherine Byars, MaRico Tippet, Callie Tippet, Heather Morinski, and Stacey Winstryg
There are two important funding issues on the horizon for the Vail School District –The continuation of the override and Proposition 123.
Override – Vail currently has a 10% Override in place. It provides $528 per student and pays for 100 of the 690 teachers in Vail. It needs to be reauthorized by voters this fall in order to keep it. The Vail Governing Board is seeking community input before calling for an Override Reauthorization Election in November. The reauthorization of the override would not raise taxes.
Proposition 123 – Prop 123 will be on the ballot in a special election in May.
This initiative settles the five-year 301 inflation lawsuit. If approved, over $3.5 billion will flow to schools in the next ten years. Some of the money will be an immediate one-time payment (estimated $161 per student in Vail). The rest will be paid out over ten years (estimated $207 per student in Vail annually). These would likely be used for salaries.
Prop 123 uses State Land Trust funds to pay back the debt already allocated to education. The state is increasing the distribution rate from 2.9% to 6.5% over the next ten years.
Public school funding has been cut yearly since 2008 in Arizona. The budget for capital expenditures has been cut by nearly 85%. Arizona is ranked 50th in the nation in education funding, and Vail is funded far below the Arizona average. Therefore, teachers in Vail are among the lowest paid in the nation. The extremely low salaries in Arizona have led to a teacher shortage… even here in Vail.
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