The Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board approved Tuesday asking voters this November to approve a $136 million bond and authorize the future sale of the former Pioneer Elementary School site.
District leaders argued the measures are necessary to help public school students compete on a more level financial playing field with charter schools and students using Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.
District officials told the governing board that the bond would address aging facilities, campus security, technology infrastructure and transportation needs, while the land sale authorization would give the district flexibility to act quickly if a strong offer emerges for the closed Pioneer campus at 1535 N. Greenfield Road.
Associate Superintendent of Business and Support Operations Bonnie Betz said the broader issue is not simply deferred maintenance, but a long-standing gap in capital funding between traditional public school districts and other publicly funded education options.
“The conversation is really on looking for a level playing field for all public education students, whether being educated in a district, a charter school, or receiving an ESA,” Betz said. “All students should receive the same capital funding.”
She said Gilbert Public Schools receives less funding per student than charter schools and ESA students, even with the district’s 15% maintenance and operations override in place.
For the current fiscal year, district officials said GPS receives $271.72 less per elementary student and $488.20 less per high school student compared with charter and ESA funding levels.
During the seven years when the state reduced the statutory unrestricted capital formula for districts, Betz said GPS lost a cumulative $73 million in capital funding.
“If Gilbert Public Schools had the capital funding available to them for each of our elementary and high school students, as our charter school students and ESA students, Gilbert Public Schools would have about $50 million more a year, which would negate the need for a bond,” she said.
Superintendent Shane McCord said the district is asking voters to approve the measure for the Nov. 3, 2026 election.
The proposal includes Proposition 422, the $136 million bond request, and Proposition 423, authorization for a future sale of the Pioneer Elementary property.
The bond would be divided across five major categories, with the largest share — $65 million — dedicated to critical facility upgrades and replacements such as roofs, HVAC systems, electrical systems and campus infrastructure.
Another $33 million would go toward technology infrastructure, including a districtwide unified paging and notification system, upgraded campus networking equipment and classroom technology refreshes.
The remaining funding would include $20 million for career and technical education and extracurricular spaces, $12 million for safety and security upgrades such as secure entryways and fencing, and $6 million for buses, vans and transportation equipment.
Betz said the district’s aging campuses make the investment increasingly urgent.
Gilbert Public Schools maintains nearly 4.8 million square feet of facilities with a replacement value of about $1.8 billion. About 75% of that portfolio was built in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the average building age is now 32 years.
“If you had a house that was 32 years old, it was going to be that time in which components would start failing,” Betz said.
The district’s current deferred maintenance backlog stands at $112.1 million, excluding Pioneer Elementary, which is closing. Officials said roofs account for nearly $52 million of that need, while HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems make up another major share.
Recent failures have included major roof problems at South Valley Junior High and electrical distribution failures at schools such as Ashland Ranch Elementary.
The district will look for some help from the state's School Facilities Board, but the board has significant limitations. The SFB has approximately $250 million annually for about 100 districts statewide, creating intense competition for the funding.
“We have to try,” Board Member Jill Humpherys said, referencing the district’s efforts to pursue additional help through SFB.
Humpherys also noted Arizona school districts have long struggled with inadequate capital funding.
“That is why the ASBA (Arizona School Boards Association) sued the state because of the lack of capital funding,” she said. “They have not fully funded our capital needs for all districts for 20 years.”
District leaders also pointed to their handling of enrollment declines and school closures as evidence they are trying to manage finances responsibly before asking taxpayers for new support.
Since fiscal year 2018, GPS has lost more than 4,000 students. The district has closed Houston Elementary, moved Neely Traditional Academy and sold the former Neely campus to the town of Gilbert. This year, the board also approved the closure of Pioneer Elementary.
Those actions, along with staffing adjustments, have produced more than $20.3 million in ongoing staffing savings and $4.4 million in avoided capital costs, according to district officials. The sale of the former Neely campus also generated $6.85 million in school plant proceeds.
Betz said placing the Pioneer site sale on the ballot now would continue that long-term planning approach.
She said Board Member Blake Robison suggested being proactive and taking advantage of this election to put the site sale on there. That would save the district the cost of another election.
Betz said voter approval would not require the district to sell the property.
“This request only allows GPS an opportunity to act quickly if an opportunity arises,” she said.
District officials also said the bond could be structured with limited tax impact because previous 2015 and 2019 bond programs were built with relatively short debt schedules, giving the district flexibility.
Betz said that strategy also allowed GPS to take advantage of historically low interest rates in 2021, reducing long-term taxpayer costs.
The district has a tax rate of just under 85 cents per $100 of assessed value
Even with the proposed $136 million bond and three planned bond sales — $50 million, $50 million, and $36 million — the tax rate will actually continue to decline over time, Betz said.
However, the bond resolution indicates this $136 million bond ask will cost taxpayers an additional 40 cents more than it would otherwise.
The estimated annual cost at the current rate of almost 85 cents per $100 of assessed value would be $223.80 annually on a home with the median limited assessed value of $263,600. That value is different than market value, Betz noted.
Board members asked questions about finding ways to avoid a bond, but eventually unanimously approved the resolutions.
"The fact is just that the school funding system's broken," Robison said. "It's a nonsensical system. It's not a conservative way of doing it. It's not a liberal way of doing it. It's not a moderate way of doing it. It's an inefficient way of doing it.
"This is the remedy that the state leaders tell us themselves, that you can go out for a bond. So I think it's interesting when they tell us the solution is to go out for a bond and then criticize us for going out for a bond."
Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him on X at @sp_blodgett.
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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