FUSD Superintendent Kevin Brown was disappointed but straightforward the night he watched elections results pop up on the county elections Web site.

On Nov. 3, the last of the ballots came in for the mail-out election. The split: 6,236, or 47.6 percent, for, and 6,874, or 52.4 percent, against. The continuing tax impact on a residential property would have been $45 per $100,000 of market value, or about $135 on a $300,000 house. It would have given a 10 percent boost to the M&O budget.

"The majority has said that $45 on a $100,000 assessed valuation is too much to support Flagstaff Unified in the way that it's been supported in the past," Brown said.

Brown took the reins at FUSD in 2003, succeeding the ousted Larry Bramblett during the churning wake of a $1.8 million overspending error. He said the district worked to build reserves, and the 2004 override infused enough targeted money for "non-core" activities that there was enough left over to help with that. He said with the loss of building renewal dollars from the state, emergency repairs must come from unrestricted capital, a flexible rainy day account that shouldn't be drained out of prudence.

"It appears to me that some people are not fully informed about the fiscal conservative nature that this governing board and this administration has had," he said.

For that matter, said one local polling expert, voters weren't aware of much of anything.

INFORMATION LACKING

Fred Solop, chair of Northern Arizona University's political science department and the former director of the now-defunct Social Research Lab, which extensively gauged public opinion about various ballot initiatives during its existence, said a lack of a high-profile campaign was a damaging blow to FUSD.

He said a 30 percent turnout was fairly low, considering how many families are vested in FUSD with the 10,700 children in its schools and a pro-education university town culture.

"The anti-tax sentiment won out and really, the school district wasn't able to turn out their supporters— they weren't able to turn out voters who would endorse this kind of election, and given the low turnout there would have been a lot of room to mobilize people to come to the polls," Solop said.

Solop dismissed the shaky economy as the reason why the override failed, noting that many districts in Arizona won their override or bond elections this month. He acknowledged that FUSD leadership has many issues to balance but didn't prioritize the election. The lesson: People want information and to know the governing body running the election is taking it seriously.

"Once the information is out there and once the need is understood, citizens are willing to support governmental services," Solop said.

PERCEPTION IS REALITY

FUSD school board member Paul Kulpinski said he knew of longtime education supporters who struggled with their decision. They could have been reaching out for a strong peg to hang their confidence on to support the override.

"For those folks who voted 'no' who were in that situation, I think having a more vigorous outreach certainly could have given that (confidence) to them," he conceded.

But the result is in, and Kulpinski said that although the board needs some time to regroup, their charge to create fundamental changes, at the behest of the community, is clear.

"Regardless of what we believe the truth is, we have to take heed to the message of what the perception of the truth is in the community; if we're in the right we need to be more transparent in communicating that. If we're not in the right then we need to make those changes in a transparent fashion so the community can have a renewed sense of faith and trust in how the district is being run."

ONLY USING STATE DOLLARS NOW

Brown is aware of criticism lobbed at his salary, which currently runs about $95,000 per year.

"I would hope that people are not thinking that the override is about the superintendents," or any other staff member or role, he said. "It is about programs and services. This state does not fund education to the level that other states do. Many communities have had to go to override to supplement the funds that the state provides. In this case, the community has said that they'd like FUSD to utilize only the funds that are provided by the state. So that will happen. But it's going to be a very different school district next school year than it is this year or it has been for many years in the past. It's a very unfortunate situation for students."

Brown said nothing is set in stone, and the items that the override mentioned for funding will have to be looked at critically as well as every other program and salary. For example, nursing was on the override, but he said, he can't imagine doing without any nursing services because it's a critical issue

Kulpinski said he was grateful to everybody who voted, even if they voted "no."

"I don't think that people are no longer supporting education, but what I'm sensing from this message is that they're saying, 'OK, we think that you can do education differently and show us how you can do education differently and we'll back it once you show us,'" he said.