Overview

In November, voters living within Gilbert Public Schools boundaries will decide a proposed 15% budget override continuation. The current 15% override has been in place since 2020. Unless re-authorized, this override will begin to expire school year 2025/26. The requested 15% budget override continuation would provide approximately $35.8 million per year for 5 years.

$100 Million Bond Request FAQs

Don’t we have a current bond? Why is GPS asking for another one?

The current bond proceeds has about $ 7 million remaining and will be spent during the 2023-2024 school year. During the 2022-2023 school year, the Governing Board approved hiring an architectural firm partner to assist GPS in creating a master capital plan that could be updated annually and would assist the Operations team in clearly identifying the highest priorities for the next critical upgrade or replacement. As part of this master capital planning process, a district-wide asset inventory and facility condition assessment was completed. Based on that assessment, as of today, there is a backlog of about $178 Million (subtracting the $20 M or so of work completed this past summer) in outstanding needs. GPS is asking for an additional $100 M in bond authority to help us meet some of the ongoing critical facility renovations. Today, GPS facilities have an average life of 32 years old representing just under five (5) million square feet under our control. Recall that over 33,000 students are educated in 39 school buildings.

Specifically, the new bond request is estimated to fund the following five key areas:
Why were the Bond sales accelerated after the November 2019 Bond was approved?

Between 2019 and 2022, interest rates on General Obligation Bonds were lower than ever in history - true interest costs were less than 1% in comparison to about 4% today. At the same time, due to the age of District buildings, significant needs were identified requiring bond proceeds earlier. Because of taking advantage of the historically lower interest rates and accelerating bond projects, more of our students were able to benefit from upgrade facilities. In addition, because of this acceleration and taking advantage of low interest rates, the taxpayer saved over $15 Million in debt service payments over the life of the sold bonds.
How has our district spent the funds generated from the current bond?
If the bond is approved, how will taxes be affected?
Why does GPS need a bond authorization? Why can’t you use existing resources to maintain and upgrade existing facilities? Charter schools are able to handle their facility needs without asking voters for assistance - why can’t you?

First, statute for school districts provides for school districts to request General Obligation (GO) bonding authority ensuring school districts have an opportunity to provide the classroom space for students residing within their District boundaries. Arizona Statutes require school districts to provide the classroom spaces needed to educate any student within their boundary that enrolls in the school district.

In addition, capital funding over the past 10 years has been drastically reduced. The graph below shows the unrestricted capital allocation or District Additional Assistance (DAA) GPS has received since 2014. Since that time, the capital allocation was significantly reduced from the statutory formula resulting in an eight year cumulative loss of over $73 M. Historically, the unrestricted capital or District Additional Assistance (DAA) has not been indexed to inflation.

In comparison, the Charter Additional Assistance (CAA) has never been reduced and has always been indexed to inflation. Below is a table comparing the per student amounts of additional assistance received at GPS versus ALA - American Leadership Academy as a charter school example.

If GPS had the same amount of Additional Assistance as charter schools, GPS would have received the amounts over time shown below.

Last Modified on August 31, 2023

Gilbert Public Schools

Budget Override Continuation & Bond Election

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Overview

$100 Million Bond Request FAQs

Don’t we have a current bond? Why is GPS asking for another one?

Why were the Bond sales accelerated after the November 2019 Bond was approved?

How has our district spent the funds generated from the current bond?

If the bond is approved, how will taxes be affected?

Why does GPS need a bond authorization? Why can’t you use existing resources to maintain and upgrade existing facilities? Charter schools are able to handle their facility needs without asking voters for assistance - why can’t you?