Hello, I am Debbi Burdick, Superintendent of our great District.  In the last vodcast, I shared with you the great needs our district has and therefore, the reasons our Governing Board would consider going out for an election this coming November for either a bond or an override to augment our budget in such trying economic times.  After much discussion and deliberation, the Governing Board voted to not have an election this November and postpone it until to the following November 2011.  Many factors went into this decision. 

First and foremost, our families and community have been hit hard by the economic conditions of our state and country; Prop 100 passed to support education and public safety.  However, many people wrongly assumed that Prop 100 would help decrease the cuts already  taken.  We have had 7 out of the last 9 elections fail.  We had a random sample survey on support of an election done in May that went to over 400 of our CCUSD voters.  It showed limited support for a bond, 59% support for an override and strong support for education. 

The District currently has a K-3 Override that begins decreasing this school year at an amount over $300,000 per year.  That equates to the loss of 6 teachers per year or a total of 18 teachers.  In 2012-13, our current Maintenance and Operations Override will begin to decrease at $960,000 per year over three years.  This equates to 19 teachers per year or a total of 57 teachers over the three years.  Combined with the loss of the K-3 Override funding,  it would be a total of 75 teachers cut from our district from 2010 through 2015.  We would be losing one third of our teaching staff.  This would be a devastating loss for the education of our children.  Class sizes would sky rocket and the quality of education would be compromised.  We could no longer offer many of the special subjects and electives that make a CCUSD education well rounded and effective.

Community groups have the ability to form Political Action Committees or a PAC to raise money for communications and advocacy. The PAC dedicated to supporting the Cave Creek School District is LearnYes.  They have begun meeting regularly to plan for an override election in November of 2011.  This election would allow voters to decide whether to continue to extend receipt of monies that are or will be decreasing from our two existing overrides. To learn more about LearnYes and assist with future elections, please go to

www.LearnYes.org.

Strong Schools ~ Strong Community

Thank you for listening.