Bond Election FAQs

Based on the District’s Master Capital Plan data, the aging facilities, equipment and maintenance needs over the next five years exceed $290 million dollars. This does NOT include buses and technology infrastructure to facilitate teaching and learning. Capital funding through the annual funding formula is intended to fund instructional materials, athletics and performing arts equipment, curriculum adoptions, ADA and health services equipment, school furniture and equipment, and technology as well as facility renewal and maintenance. For a district the size of Gilbert Public Schools, the approximately $17.5 million dollar annual allocation does not adequately provide for facility renewal/maintenance and technology. Additionally, the transportation formula does not cover bus replacements.

The bond dollars will provide the District with funding for critical facility upgrades and replacements needed for career and technical education and extracurricular spaces, safe and secure entryways, technology infrastructure, and student transportation vehicles.

Details are below:

State statute allows school districts to request bond authorization to augment the state capital funding formula to renovate aging school facilities. School district capital funding, known as District Additional Assistance (DAA), is significantly lower than funding received by charter school counterparts. School district students (K-8 and high school) receive $549.48 and $685.79 per pupil, respectively, compared to $2,131.90 and $2,484.69 per pupil, respectively, for charter schools. Despite the additional capital funding received by charter schools, many charter schools rely on bonds for capital expenditures, but are not required to seek voter approval for such bond issues. Approving this $136 million bond authorization will allow GPS students to be on a level funding playing field with their charter school and ESA voucher peers. If funded at the charter school per pupil level for this additional assistance, GPS would receive approximately $70 million dollars in capital funding annually instead of $17.5 million dollars. 

The state capital funding formula for school districts does not provide for inflationary increases as it does for its charter school counterparts. In addition, during the recessionary period of fiscal years between 2014-2015 and 2020-2021, school district capital funding was substantially reduced, accumulating to over $78 million dollars’ worth of lost funding.

The District did not pass an election in November 2023, which led to the suspension of needed renovations, critical component replacement projects, replacement of technology communication services, and similar initiatives. If the Bond Election does not pass, it is expected that such delays will continue. Urgent health and emergency needs could take precedence over operational monies intended for wage and salary competitiveness and instructional programming needs.

A bond provides the District with additional funding for capital expenditures such as building renovations/renewal and upgrades, school buses, furniture, equipment, and technology. Conversely, an override pertains to operational expenses including salaries, benefits, supplies, purchased services, utilities, and insurance. The current M&O Override is in place to fund the following, which was promised to the taxpayers who passed the override: Maintain salary competitiveness, Maintain safety and security personnel to include Social Workers and Behavioral Health Counselors, and Maintain $2.0 million annual allocation for class size reduction associated with the highest classroom needs in the District.

• Critical Mechanical Systems – HVAC; fire sprinklers; plumbing; elevators; emergency light and power, electrical supply equipment
• Critical Interior Renewal – Repairs associated with leaks or plumbing failures, security components, doors, and windows
• Critical Building Shell Renewal – Roofing, secured entryways
• Critical Mechanical Communication & Security – Intercommunication systems, telecommunication systems, fire alarm systems, security systems, public address systems

• Unified Paging and Notification System – Replace outdated school intercom system and integrate with the District emergency notification system
• Infrastructure – Increase network capacity for growing infrastructure, including data racks, cooling, and battery backup for essential systems
• Campus Switch Upgrades – Replace network hardware at all campuses to ensure the school district's educational infrastructure framework remains stable and reliable
• Wireless Controller and AP’s Upgrades – Refresh the District's central wireless equipment and physical access points to provide stronger, faster, and more dependable Wi-Fi connections for all student and staff devices
• AV Refresh – Replacement of aging classroom interactive displays that allow teachers and students to share learning materials from their District devices, increasing everyday classroom engagement and teacher presentation of curriculum

• Secured entryways
• Fencing
• ADA requirements
• Electronic access 
• Safety/fire code related items

Based on current projections and the District's plans for issuance, the bond tax rate for the fiscal year 2026-2027 (following a successful 2026 bond election) is expected to be the same as the $0.85 bond tax rate for fiscal year 2025-26. With the approval of the bond program, this rate will remain constant according to current projections. 

Based on this constant tax rate of $0.849/$100 of assessed value, an average assessed value home within GPS of $263,600 would have an annual tax levy of $223.80 or $18.65 per month. Please note that this value is a net assessed value used for tax purposes and not a market value.

GPS has historically minimized the number of years that bonds are amortized. Put another way, GPS debt has been paid back quickly – in less than 10 years. GPS works to minimize the number of years that bonds are amortized. State statute allows 20 years.

GPS works with a financial advisor to sell bonds at the right time and in the right amounts so that proceeds are available when needed while maintaining a short amortization period. For example, due to prudent financial practices and taking advantage of favorable interest market conditions, the taxpayer avoided approximately $27.7 million dollars of interest payments compared to what was originally estimated. This is based on the voter information pamphlets issued for each of the 2015 and 2019 bond elections which provided estimates of the interest to be paid for each voter authorization.

Arizona law requires the District to clearly list what the bonds will be spent on in this Voter Information Pamphlet. Therefore, the District is required to comply or be in violation of Arizona State law. In addition, the District is required to present to the Governing Board in a public meeting annually between September 1 and October 31 how it spent the bond proceeds in the prior year. Finally, four years ago, the District established a standing volunteer Master Capital Planning Committee assigned to review all capital spend and provide input regarding the highest level priorities associated with all capital projects.