It is with gratitude and appreciation that I thank the residents of Fountain Hills for the wonderful turnout of 7,222 voters in last Tuesday’s school maintenance and operations budget override election for our Fountain Hills Unified School District.

The margin at 61-39 is the highest in the past twelve years of Fountain Hills school elections!

The best news of all is we went for a budget increase from 13 percent to 15 percent. The goal, which needs to be determined and approved by the school board, is to focus the majority of this increase on teacher salaries. Our salaries are generally lower than competing districts. By providing increased teacher salaries, we will be able to compete much better for the best teachers in the Valley. We all know retaining the best teachers is the foundation of a great education for our students.

So many of us have experienced a lot of positive change in our school district over the past couple of years. We have an outstanding superintendent, three passionate principals and high-quality teachers who care so much about the academic and social experience for our students.

Besides the academics, we have won several state championships the past couple of years and our band has won many awards!

I sincerely thank our residents for providing the financial incentives to keep this momentum going and exponentially expanding!