Lake Havasu Schools Have More Needs Than Prop 123 Money Can Cover
Download mp3 (1.43 MB)
The state will soon start pumping cash into schools after Arizonans narrowly passed Proposition 123, but officials in Lake Havasu say they will need voters’ help again in November to avoid the worst case scenario, closing an elementary school.
Television ads in favor of Prop 123 promised that if the measure passed, Arizona teachers would get a raise. But the Lake Havasu Unified School District No. 1 says rising insurance premiums and a handful of claims have skyrocketed costs. With that in mind, staff have agreed to use Prop 123 money to pay for insurance instead of raises.
“You can have one thing or you can have the other thing,” said Pat Rooney, vice president of the district’s governing board. “If they had been given a raise, it would have been eaten up with the increase in insurance premiums.”
Rooney said the board is “very receptive” to approving both a bond and an override for the November ballot and locals are already working to drum up community support. If approved, that money would go toward school maintenance, transportation, technology needs and offering competitive salaries.
“It’s not a problem that we’ve created,” Rooney said. “Lake Havasu makes the dollars scream. We try to get as much mileage as we can out of the bucks we’re being given. But if you’re not being given much, it’s hard to do it.”
Rooney has spent about 45 years as an educator and governing board member in Lake Havasu.
