PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT INSTEAD OF ROOF AND HVAC REPAIRS
Reported by Marshall Tucker - 11/11/2023
Fountain Hills residents overwhelmingly voted to say no to the FHUSD $25,000,000 bond request and just as overwhelmingly told the school to divest the former Four Peaks Elementary building.
BOND - 5,748 NO 57.28% DIVEST FOUR PEAKS - 6,707 YES 68.05%
4,287 YES 42.72% 3,149 NO 31.95%
Voter turnout was the highest of all municipal elections by far in this off year ballot with 53.21% of eligible voters casting ballots.
The bond issue really was divided quite simply between the yes and the no's, with YES proponents relying on emotion and fear tactics and NO proponents simply wanting a fiscally responsible plan, sound money management and academic improvement. That was the same request in November of 2022 when the same 57% voted no and said come back with a plan. As the year passed by, again, there was no plan, financial mismanagement was rampant, academic performance did not improve and enrollment continued to decline.
The bond issue really was divided quite simply between the yes and the no's, with YES proponents relying on emotion and fear tactics and NO proponents simply wanting a fiscally responsible plan, sound money management and academic improvement. That was the same request in November of 2022 when the same 57% voted no and said come back with a plan. As the year passed by, again, there was no plan, financial mismanagement was rampant, academic performance did not improve and enrollment continued to decline.
As always, the "NO" proponents were labeled by the "YES" proponents as hating children and teachers while just wanting Fountain Hills to become "Sun City East". In actuality, the election was not about children at all, it was about the mismanagement of the school district by adults. Undeterred, sane residents gave their answer at the ballot box, and just to prove how correct they were, before the final votes had even been counted from Tuesday, Wednesday night's school board meeting included a 3-2 vote to spend $200,000 on a playground equipment request from the Superintendent. One of the board members asked how much money was left in the schools account but no definitive answer was forthcoming, and thus she became a "NO" vote on the expenditure. Of course this $200,000 added to the nearly million dollars spent on a library renovation that had nothing to do with books before the election, could have been used to repair roofs and HVAC as the "YES" signs proclaimed. As if it couldn't get any more bizarre, Vice President, Dana Saar, one of the 3 votes in favor of the playground expenditure, along with President Jill Reed and board member Lilian Acker, submitted his resignation the next day.
