(Photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)

Carl Hayden High School students ran the election with the help of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.

(Photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)

The students' votes at the five participating schools should be tallied by early next week.

Officials at Phoenix Union High School District are allowing students at five of its schools to have a say in how part of their capital improvements budget is spent. The kids were asked to think up and vote for the projects they’d like to see tackled on campus.

Thursday was election day at the Carl Hayden High School in west Phoenix, and a group of 11^th-graders are lined up to cast their ballot.

District officials call it participatory budgeting.

"We got a lot of students involved on campus as far as developing committees and videos and things like that so a lot of engagement," said Christopher Oglesby, an assistant principal. "So that really shows them how to get civically engaged on campus or throughout their lives."

Carl Hayden High School will spend $7,000 of their capital improvement budget on the project with the most votes. Officials say the winning projects on each campus should be announced by early next week.