As Election Day nears there are 25 school districts across Maricopa County asking for bonds or overrides.
Several of those districts saw those initiatives fail last November.
One of them was the Queen Creek Unified School District, which asked for a $286M bond over the course of ten years. This November, though, the price tag is lower at $198M over the course of five years.
Jim Lamb, the executive director of operations and construction for the district, said they are one of the fastest growing school districts in Arizona. Enrollment spiked 80% from 2016 to 2021 and district expect it will grow another 31% in the next five years.
“We have a lot of growth. A lot of people moving and choosing our district. All the money is needed to keep up with the growth in the area,” Lamb said.
The district opened several new schools in the last five years, many already near or at capacity, Lamb. said.
The bond, if approved, will help fund two new elementary schools and expand and upgrade some of the current buildings.
At Eastmark High, specifically, Lamb said students are learning in spaces they usually aren’t in because they’ve run out of traditional classrooms.
“We know it's a very big ask. The district has a lot of needs, but we understand given where the inflation is and that people might be concerned about approving additional monies for the school,” Lamb said of the bond.
One voter ABC15 spoke with says districts are asking money too often.
“The bonds aren't working and we have a lot of other schools now other than just the public school system who are underfunded as well,” said William Jones, who resides within the Queen Creek School District boundaries but has his kids in a charter school.
Alexa Mann a Queen Creek mom, feels it’s important to keep giving money to schools, especially as the district continues to grow.
“These kids are our future, and if we can't get this bond to pass, that's not going to be good for our future. And we want a good, solid future for our children,” Mann said.
The Tempe Elementary School District is also asking for a $196.5M bond this November. The district says it needs to upgrade and rebuild its schools from decades ago.
“The Tempe Elementary School District has a lot of older buildings that were built in the 60s and 70s. So, the bond will be used to rebuild a lot of those older schools, update them. A lot of technology from the 70s and 60s,” said Eric Thompson, the chief financial officer for the district. “School safety, again, has changed a lot in the last 40 or 50 years. It’d be used to improve those schools and get them up to date into the 2020s.”
He says the money will also replace some of its aging buses to get kids 'to and from school'.
There are many other districts asking for bonds and overrides on November 8. You can find out if your district is on the list and what it’s asking for on the Maricopa County Superintendent’s Office website here.
