The Clarkdale-Jerome District is alongside Mingus Union High School District on the ballot this year, with both districts hoping voters will approve measures to allow them more funding.
The efforts hit a minor snag when ballots already sent out to voters had to be remailed due to an error in the language printed.
The first ballots sent out listed a Mingus Union High School District measure as a budget increase when it should have read a bond approval, according to Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter’s office.
“From the moment I detected the error on the ballot, Tim Carter and county officials have been very responsive in developing and implementing corrective actions,” Mingus Superintendent Paul Tighe said.
The Mingus school district is asking for voters to approve a $5.9 million bond to pay for infrastructure repairs.
The effort comes after voters rejected a request for a budget override for the district last year.
Clarkdale-Jerome Super-intendent Kathleen Fleenor said she wasn’t too concerned with the ballot snafu, which affects residents who live in both the Mingus and Clarkdale-Jerome school districts.
“It was caught pretty early,” Fleenor said. “Hopefully people will understand that they need to mail in their new ballot.”
That’s even if those residents have already voted.
Ballots sent in that have the wrong wording on them will not be counted.
The Mingus bond, if approved, would cost taxpayers around an additional $18 a year per $100,000 of property value.
Tighe said that the bond would be used for capital improvements, things like buses, schoolbooks, technology and classroom repair.
Fleenor said she expects that all voters in the district will have the new ballots in the mailbox by this week.
Clarkdale-Jerome School District
Under state law, a district is only allowed to spend a portion of its collected tax revenue. The state, however, allows school districts to ask voters for a budget override, meaning the schools can spend more of the taxes they have already collected beyond their set spending limits.
Those limits are based on an equation that has been in place for years.
Clarkdale-Jerome School District is asking for a 10 percent override, Fleenor said.
If approved, the measure would bring in around $250,000 annually for the district, Fleenor said.
That would allow the district to operate with a $2.76 million maintenance and operations budget.
The district asks voters to renew the override every four years. Fleenor said that the district has depended on the override since 2002.
“It’s not a new tax,” Fleenor said. “It’s what people have already been paying.”
The amount charged to property owners is based on their property’s value.
The rate would be 4.7 cents per $100 of value. The average value of a home in the district is worth around $117,500, so the override would be worth an average of $54 per year.
Fleenor said that some of the money would be used to pay for an art teacher.
It would also go to fund an all-day kindergarten program.
“Right now the state only pays for half a child in kindergarten,” Fleenor said.
