Voters in the City of Maricopa rejected the school district’s request for a budget increase. This is the Maricopa Unified School District’s fifth attempt at asking voters for additional funding.

NADINE ARROYO RODRIGUEZ: Voters said no to the Maricopa school district’s request for a 5 percent budget override. Sixty percent of voters rejected what was essentially a $2.8 million budget request over two years. The district has been struggling since losing two to three million dollars in state education money a year since 2008. Steve Chestnut is the superintendent. He says it’s disheartening to see voters reject a shorter and more modest override, and this will make it more difficult for the district to make budget.

STEVE CHESTNUT: We’ll have to make adjustments next year like we made this year. So, that will mean we’ll hire fewer teachers and we probably will have some larger class size we’ll continue to make adjustments.

ARROYO RODRIGUEZ: Superintendent Steve Chestnut says without additional funds the district will be forced to take drastic measures. 

CHESTNUT: I wouldn't know the exact impact. I'll have to work on that and it will depend in how many students we're projecting but, yeah, the bottom line is we'll have to make some cuts. 

ARROYO RODRIGUEZ: More than a dozen education overrides across Arizona were rejected by voters on Tuesday.