Gilbert Public Schools is asking voters for $136 million to address aging buildings, improve school security and upgrade technology while confronting declining enrollment and a difficult environment for passing school bonds.
Proposition 422 on the Nov. 3 ballot would authorize general obligation bonds repaid through secondary property taxes. District officials say new debt can be phased in as existing debt is retired without increasing the tax rate, provided property values do not decline.
Voters also will decide Proposition 423, which would authorize the district to sell, lease or exchange the former Pioneer Elementary School property.
GPS serves about 30,000 students on 38 campuses. Its average school building is 32 years old, and the district puts its five-year renovation backlog at more than $250 million.
Aging schools drive bond request
The bond includes $65 million for critical facility work, $33 million for technology infrastructure, $20 million for career and technical education and extracurricular spaces, $12 million for safety and security, and $6 million for transportation.
Superintendent Jared Ryan said officials balanced identified needs against a desire to maintain a stable tax rate.
“We would like to just kind of maintain a stable rate that doesn't ever cause an issue for families, but more maintain what you're currently doing,” Ryan said.
Canyon Rim Elementary Principal Joe Lopat converses next to the school's interactive communications networking system, which the district hopes to bring to all of its schools for safety and security reasons to replace the outdated paging systems.
Courtesy Gilbert Public Schools
Planned safety improvements include secured entrances at 28 campuses and replacement of aging intercom systems that Ryan sees as most important from the bond.
“That's the piece that I don't know how we become safer without funding for fences and secured entryways and intercom systems," Ryan said.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Crystal Zachary said the project list was “very, very intentional and deliberate.”
Tax rate central to district’s case
The district's secondary property tax rate was about 85 cents per $100 of assessed value in fiscal 2025-26 and fell to about 83 cents this year, Zachary said.
GPS plans to issue new debt as existing debt is retired in an effort to maintain that rate. Individual tax bills can change with property valuations.
The election pamphlet estimates an average tax rate attributable to the new bonds of 37.71 cents per $100 of assessed value over their life.
Governing Board President Chad Thompson approaches the proposal as a former bond skeptic. He voted against putting a previous bond before voters and now describes that position as one of “uninformed principle.”
“I quickly realized that I was dead wrong, that GPS and at the time (Zachary predecessor) Bonnie Betz did everything she could to squeeze every penny and to account for every penny,” Thompson said.
He said examining district finances changed his view.
“Once I learned and once I knew better, now that I've learned and now that I know better, I guess I should say, I am definitely in favor of this bond being something that the voters have the opportunity to research, to study, and to ultimately cast their vote for,” Thompson said.
Opponents point to declining enrollment
Opponents submitting arguments for the election pamphlet question borrowing more as enrollment declines.
“Long-term debt makes sense when a district is growing and struggling to keep up with demand," Richard Blake of Gilbert wrote, "It makes far less sense when enrollment is shrinking and excess capacity already exists.”
The bond does not include construction of new schools or additional square footage. Thompson said further consolidation could occur after GPS closed Pioneer for the 2026-27 school year.
“I would not be surprised if there's further consolidating in the near future that would help us become even more efficient,” Thompson said. “But I mean, you can only close so many schools. Those kids still have to have places to go.”
Another opponent, Catherine Speeks of Gilbert, questioned financing technology that can become obsolete before debt is repaid. GPS says the $33 million technology category includes network infrastructure, paging and notification systems and classroom audiovisual equipment, and that it historically pays off bonds in less than 10 years.
A GPS teacher engages students with the help of an interactive flat panel screen behind her.
A GPS teachers reads to students while employing an interactive flat panel screen in her classroom.
Ryan noted that much of the technology, like the paging and notification system, is tied to school safety and security.
GPS kindergarten teacher Laura Osborn wrote in support of the bond about an air-conditioning failure that forced students to evacuate to another campus and classrooms that flooded during rainstorms.
“Students deserve to learn in a safe building, where all facilities are functional,” Osborn wrote.
Bond faces electoral headwinds
The campaign also has produced confusion about what voters are being asked to approve.
Some “Vote No” signs refer to an “override and bond,” but GPS is not seeking an override in this election. Proposition 422 is solely a $136 million bond authorization for capital purposes.
The election pamphlet also contains arguments citing debt far above the amount being requested, including one that asks whether GPS has justified “taking on nearly half a billion dollars in new debt.”
The authorization is $136 million. The same pamphlet estimates $24.7 million in interest, putting estimated principal and interest at $160.7 million.
Ryan said voters should scrutinize the proposal rather than automatically support — or oppose — school funding measures.
“There are some people out there that unknowingly just vote for overrides and bonds because they believe everything the school system does and they shouldn't (do that) either,” Ryan said. “Everybody should be learning and reading and asking questions.”
GPS voters rejected the district's previous bond request in 2023.
Ryan said the district also faces what he sees as an erosion of its traditional electoral base. About 25% of GPS students attend through open enrollment, he said, meaning their families live outside district boundaries and cannot vote on the bond. Meanwhile, more than 15,000 school-age children living within the boundaries attend elsewhere.
“The problem is the community we're asking is now a community divided, right?” Ryan said. “The population that lives in the boundary is no longer just connected to your school.”
Ryan said more GPS employees also live outside district boundaries than in the past.
“Now most of our employees have to live out of our boundary because they can't afford to live in our boundary,” Ryan said. “And so now your 4,000 employees, you don't have their votes.”
Ryan said he was not criticizing families for exercising school choice but believes those changes have altered the relationship between the district and its electorate.
Pioneer property also on ballot
Proposition 423 would give the governing board authority to sell, lease or exchange the approximately 11.86-acre former Pioneer property at 1535 N. Greenfield Road. Approval would not require a sale.
Ryan said GPS has received inquiries about leasing and buying the property but no detailed negotiations are underway.
“We've had a number of people reach out interested in leasing for different purposes,” Ryan said. “We've had a number of people reach out inquiring about a potential sale, but no discussion of anything worth commenting on in terms of detail.”
The district says closing Pioneer should save about $1 million annually in overhead and avoid nearly $2 million in deferred capital needs. Sale proceeds would be used for capital improvements at remaining schools.
A section of damaged roof decking had been hidden under clay tiles.
A rusted cooling unit with corroded pipes is reaching the end of its life cycle.
Ceilings need repair from water damage.
A weathered wooden beam shows visible rot under a metal roof.
A large industrial cooling tower has a rusted metal ladder and pipes.
For Thompson, the bond also is about maintaining buildings taxpayers already paid to construct. He compared aging school infrastructure to a homeowner ignoring a failing air conditioner.
“You can turn the TV up louder, turn the radio up louder and just ignore it,” Thompson said. “But the air conditioner is always going to win, and it's most likely it's going to win in August.”
And delaying repairs, he said, does not make the problem disappear.
“If we just kick the can down the road, if this bond doesn't pass and we just delay these repairs, one, it's not going to make them any cheaper, and two, it's not going to make them go away,” Thompson said.
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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