Editor's note: This article first appeared on Aug. 7, 2024:
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It’s a milestone year at New River Elementary School.
The rural K-6 campus with about 200 students in a small town up north that has more cattle guards than stoplights is celebrating the school’s 90th year in 2024. There’s a lot going on.
The school’s ecology club teaches third- through sixth-grade students to explore agriculture through small gardens. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies visited the campus for early education on the dangers of drugs. And last school year New River Elementary performed better in math and in reading compared with student averages across the state.
Something else was also going on.
Deterioration started to set in on an old campus steel water tank that was pushing the limit on its own lifespan after 40 years. School officials learned a few years earlier that contamination inside the tank was causing Deer Valley Unified School District to increase mitigation strategies to keep the water safe for use.
There were two options: replace with a stainless steel tank and corresponding systems for $317,000 this summer. Or, continue with the mitigation steps and hope it worked long-term.
They opted to replace.
“The increased mitigation strategies would not have been desirable as this would have meant things such as adding more chemicals to the water and purging the tank more frequently, neither of which are good options,” district Deputy Superintendent of Financial Business Services Jim Migliorino in an email, “and could be even more expensive over time.”
Meanwhile, a different campus – one of 42 schools in the district that serves the communities of north Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria, Cave Creek, and New River – had a different issue going on.
Rather than waiting out a campus maintenance issue like the one that had been brewing over time with the New River water tank, Deer Valley High School in Glendale had an emergency that came with no warning.
High winds from a monsoon storm July 24 took down trees, one of which toppled onto a new school bus. A tennis fence along Union Hills Road and a baseball field dugout were also destroyed. Repairs are ongoing and a final dollar tally on the damage has yet to come in.
Insurance should help defray the costs in that case, but not all of them.
Money from past district bond sales will support both the New River and Deer Valley campus projects. Bonds are used for capital expenses and are paid for by secondary property taxes.
In this November’s general election, the district is asking voters for four potential bond sales to reach $325 million, with each sale going out 11 or 12 years into the future. Projections show the bonds could sell for approximately $80 million each, with an interest rate to be determined at the time of each sale and locked in for the term.
Bonds are sold to investors who are repaid with interest over time from property tax collections, generally between 10 and 25 years. The bond will not increase property taxes. The 2019 bond led to the construction of Inspiration Mountain School and Union Park School, plus improvements at all five high schools.
Deer Valley Unified on the November ballot is also asking voters for a maintenance and operations budget override, which provides for the district’s operating resources, including staff salaries. Voters can authorize the district to exceed the amount of the budget otherwise allowed by the state by 15%.
The override, as has been the case since the override was first approved by voters in 1991, will not increase existing taxes or add a new tax to any resident living within the school district’s boundaries.
Maintenance and operations overrides last up to seven years, though they begin to phase out in the sixth year. In the case of DVUSD, should the override fail at the ballot this November the district would have to cut $33 million from its budget with the first one-third of that cut, $11 million, coming in fiscal year 2026 budget. Two more $11 million cuts would follow in subsequent fiscal years.
The 15% M&O override voters passed in 2019 will expire in 2027 unless voters decide otherwise this year.
The district in November 2023 had two similar initiatives on the ballot. Out of almost 42,000 voters the bond election and the budget override each failed by nearly the same 55% to 45% margin.
Should voters not renew the override this year, the district governing board may determine what cuts Deer Valley Unified will make. While the board has not made decisions on those potential adjustments yet, options typically range from impacted campus sports and arts funding to all-day kindergarten programs.
“We will have to do business different than we have for decades,” Migliorino said when asked about the plan should both initiatives fail at the ballot. “We will have a reduced operating budget (different than our prior years and less than virtually every surrounding district) and we will not have the capital funds to continue to have the means to support the students we serve.”
The bonds – used for future planning purposes – will also support major population growth projected within Deer Valley Unified’s boundaries in the near future. The world’s largest semiconductor chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is investing $40 billion in its mega plant that covers 1,100 acres in northwest Phoenix.
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Meet Steve Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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