Some Maricopa County school district bond and override measures failed. What now?

Most Maricopa County school districts that asked voters to approve school funding measures this November were successful.

But in six school districts —  Mesa Unified, Liberty Elementary, Gilbert Unified, Queen Creek Unified, Deer Valley Unified and Fountain Hills Unified — voters rejected requests for bond measures, which are paid for by secondary property taxes on a home's limited property value and used for capital expenses like building renovations and improvements, new construction, safety and security enhancements and purchasing school buses and technology.

In four — Gila Bend Unified, Gilbert Unified, Queen Creek Unified and Deer Valley Unified — voters rejected renewals of maintenance and operations budget overrides, which are funded similarly and used for operational costs like staff salaries, full-day kindergarten, student programs and extracurricular activities.

Now, those districts are bracing for what's ahead as they diagnose why their measures failed.

School districts blame anti-education 'culture wars'

In Mesa Public Schools, where a budget override continuation was narrowly approved, the rejection of a $500 million bond request by less than two percentage points marked a tipping point. The district's voters historically approved bonds, but support has steadily declined since at least 2005.

Scott Thompson, the district's assistant superintendent of business and support services, said he doesn't see the election as an indictment of the district but rather a "political vote" stemming from a "mistrust of government."

Mesa wasn't alone in facing politicized opposition to the school funding measures on the ballot this year.

Letters that opposed bonds across multiple districts — including Gilbert Public Schools, Fountain Hills Unified, Queen Creek Unified and Mesa Public Schools, where measures ultimately failed — included the same exact wording, with individuals writing that they oppose the bond "due to its unfair financial burden on taxpayers and lack of clear benefits."

Opponents from Phoenix to Gilbert posted signs with an anti-tax message telling passersby to vote against bond and budget override measures, leading to questions about the signs' legality.

There was unified opposition to bond and override requests among GOP leaders in the East Valley, who cited concerns about inadequate school performance and taxes as reasons to vote against the measures. For Mesa Public Schools, Legislative District 10 GOP leaders also pointed to the district's guidelines supporting transgender students and claims that teachers are receiving training in critical race theory as reasons to vote "no."

In Queen Creek, concerns about the impact of Arizona's open enrollment requirements on the district and the effects of school choice more broadly complicated the campaign to pass bond and override measures.

In the Deer Valley Unified School District, voters rejected a $325 million bond measure and a renewal of a 15% maintenance and operations budget override by 59% and 56%, respectively.

Deer Valley Unified Superintendent Curtis Finch attributed the bond and override failures to an "anti-public education culture war." This year marked a shift in community support for the Deer Valley Unified measures as it did for Mesa Public Schools.

Deer Valley Unified was successful the last two times it attempted bond measures, in 2013 and 2019, with voters approving them by around 58% and 59%, respectively. The district's budget override, which funds 8% of teacher and staff salaries, as well as full-day kindergarten, has been in place since 1991, Finch said.

Finch said he thinks the rejection of the bond and override measures in November wasn't a vote against the district but against public education more broadly, which he called "the bedrock structure to our democracy."

"I've been a Superintendent for 25 years and haven't seen this level of unfounded attacks on public education in my tenure," Finch said.

Projects go on hold as districts re-evaluate funding

Deer Valley Unified plans to recommend its governing board ask for the same bond and override package again next year, Finch said. He wrote in a statement that he anticipates growth and that the district's needs "won't be any less in one year."

The district doesn't have to make any cuts in the meantime — it asked voters to approve the measures a year early — but will make contingency plans, Finch said.

Many of the projects that Mesa Public Schools' $500 million bond request would have funded will be put on hold, according to Thompson, the assistant superintendent.

The bond's failure "severely limits what we can move forward on," he said.

The district had already begun gathering community input on modernization efforts at Red Mountain and Skyline high schools. Mesa High and Mountain View recently underwent modernization using previous bond dollars that resulted in a front office, a science technology building, a fine arts space, athletic facility improvements and renovations of academic space, among other things.

But for Red Mountain and Skyline, modernization plans will be suspended, Thompson said.

Past bonds have also funded regular updates to student technology and replaced things like playground equipment, shade structures, building painting and carpet, and athletic equipment.

"All of that has to be re-thought, reprioritized," he said. Either the cycles for replacing some of those items will be extended, he said, or "not done at all at this point." The district has also been renovating its front offices to provide secure lobbies and has finished about half of its buildings. The bond was intended to continue that work, he said.

Without a bond, there are scant options to fund capital projects. He said he thinks bonds are a necessity.

"I would love to have a funding system that takes care of this," he said. "Believe me, nobody in schools really enjoys the election process. But, at the end of the day, I don't know how else we can address the full needs of the district without it."

The district can fund capital needs in part through annual state funding called additional assistance and need-based grants from the School Facilities Division, an arm of the Arizona Department of Administration in charge of funding new school facilities and building renewals.

But the approximately $30 million in additional assistance per year goes quickly when spread across 80 school sites, Thompson said. A roof repair at one district high school can cost over $7 million. And funding from the School Facilities Division, for which Thompson is a board member, is used more as "a backup plan when things are failing" than a permanent maintenance solution, he said.

The district plans to prioritize safety and instructional materials, like laptops, and may rely on the School Facilities Division for things like building repairs when they become emergencies.

Thompson said he struggles with the argument from bond opponents that the district doesn't really need the money. The district has campuses that are 65 to 75 years old, he said, some of which he thinks need to be entirely replaced. Want versus need when you're dealing with a building that old "is hard to define," he said.

"You could say the fine arts facility at Mountain View was a want, but it's something that community and those kids have been asking for for decades, and the fact we accomplished it is a good thing," he said. "But was it absolutely necessary — versus just square classrooms with 30 seats in them?"

"I don't know who gets to make those calls, who makes those decisions at the end of the day," Thompson said.

Queen Creek Unified, which framed the $98 million bond as a way to accommodate its rapid growth, failed its bond request for the third consecutive year despite decreasing the request by $100 million from last year and a supportive campaign of more than 100 backers.

That means that a majority of the projects to be funded by the bond will be suspended due to a lack of funding, according to Amber Bordes, Queen Creek Unified's chief operating officer, who described the bond and override measures as "crucial" to the district.

Because funding from the School Facilities Division for new schools typically comes years after the district needs it, Bordes said, the district will rely on portable classrooms to accommodate growth in the meantime. There's still another year before the district's maintenance and operations budget override begins to sunset, so it can ask again next year without starting to cut some of that funding, she said.

In Fountain Hills Unified School District, which asked voters to approve a bond for the second consecutive year and hasn't had a bond approved since 2013, Superintendent Cain Jagodzinski said it's time to move on from asking taxpayers to foot the bill for desired security and maintenance projects.

The percentage of supportive voters improved by less than one percentage point this year despite a more robust "yes" campaign, multiple community information sessions, and endorsements from the chamber of commerce and the mayor. The $25 million bond still failed, with 57% of voters opposed. It was the smallest dollar amount requested by Maricopa County school districts this year and would have cost property owners in the district an estimated yearly tax rate of 26 cents for $100 of assessed property value, according to the district.

"The vote is in," Jagodzinski said. "It's time to look at how to move forward without asking for that again."

Fountain Hills Unified has not yet begun discussing next steps for projects that the bond would have funded, according to board member Lillian Acker, but she anticipates the district can cobble money together from other funding sources in order to move forward with security upgrades.

Other initiatives will be placed on an indefinite hold, she said, particularly roofing and air conditioning projects. The voter-approved sale of the district's former Four Peaks Elementary School property could cover some, but not all, deferred maintenance costs.

Voters who opposed the bond "just don't want to take it out of their pockets," Acker said. "I would say, 'Well, which ones of you have a roofing company and want to volunteer to do it?'"

Reach the reporters at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com and nicholas.sullivan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What's next for school districts where funding measures failed?