With bond off table, Gilbert Public Schools considers land sale
Screen capture from YouTube
Elementary Education Executive Director Jason Martin addresses the Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board about whether two properties once set aside for elementary schools will be needed in the future.
Gilbert Public Schools will forgo an attempt to win voter approval on a bond issue this fall for its capital needs, but the district will ask for permission to sell two land parcels it owns.
The GPS Governing Board unanimously approved sending the land-sale question to the ballot at its March 26 meeting.
While district officials told the board they would not be obligated to then sell the land, getting permission to sell the properties gives the district some options in addressing capital needs.
“This just gives us full flexibility in the future,” Associate Superintendent Bonnie Betz said, noting that the district’s current bond funds are almost fully drawn down.
Voters rejected a $100 million bond question from GPS on last November’s ballot.
However, a facilities report last year from an engineering services firm found the district had a $178 million maintenance backlog after the district addressed $20 million of it during the summer.
Left unaddressed, the unfunded liability for the district would grow to $1.07 billion by 2052 without additional investment to renew, repair and replace district buildings, the study found.
Without additional bond money coming, the district’s only means on hand to address those capital needs would be its “district additional assistance” funding it receives each year from the state. Those funds are the basis of the district’s unrestricted capital budget.
The capital budget pays for items like buildings, maintenance, transportation, curriculum and technology.
Board Member Jill Humpherys asked Betz at the March 26 meeting what projects the district might have to postpone or leave undone because it does not have additional bond money.
Betz said the district’s maintenance and operations director, Albert Dutchover, is bringing forward a list of priority projects for the district to address.
As an example, she pointed to Campo Verde High School’s track.
“It's in dire condition, and it's still being used by athletes,” she said. “And so allowing them to run on a track that is nearly down to its base would be putting our student athletes at risk. So, those are the types of things we're taking to the leadership team for approval.”
Some of the projects being held for now include secured entryways for elementary and junior high schools and sound and lighting systems for auditoriums, Betz said.
Selling the land would be a hedge against a capital emergency, like two years ago when South Valley Junior High School had to replace 96 HVAC units on its roof all at once.
The two land sites are the district’s “Madero” and “Cole” properties, each of which were set aside for possible elementary schools. Elementary Education Executive Director Jason Martin said the district’s demographer has said the demographics of the areas do not project a need for those schools.
The Madero property is about 13.8 acres east of south Crismon Road and south of east Madero Avenue in Mesa. The Cole property is about 11.9 acres east of South Cole Drive in Lakeview Trails North at Gilbert’s Morrison Ranch.
Betz said the properties could fetch about $7.5 million or $8 million each in a sale. If voters give the district permission to sell the land, that authority never expires, she said.
If the district decides to sell the land, the district likely would engage first with the town of Gilbert and city of Mesa to see if they had interest in buying the land, like Gilbert did when GPS sold it the original Neely Elementary School property, Betz said.
The municipalities would just have to assure the district they have a public purpose in mind for the land to get first chance at buying it. Otherwise, the district would have the land appraised and follow specific procedures from state statute. No one could be excluded in the open bidding process, Betz said.
Superintendent Shane McCord said the district frequently is approached by businesses or investors in the communities about its properties.
“If we have to end up going through that process, it's very time consuming ... and it's very detailed and there's certain things that we can and can't do,” he said. “But we'd be very mindful of that in terms of anything that we do, we would only do it to benefit the district.”
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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