Mesa Schools Seek GOs

Trustees of Maricopa Unified School District No. 4 last week opted to send a $230 million general obligation bond request to voters Nov. 6, turning down a proposal for a larger bond package.

A 40-member facilities advisory committee recommended in April that the district, which serves Mesa and southeastern Maricopa County, Ariz., seek authorization for $285 million of new debt to finance a 10-year upgrade program.

The curtailed request is the largest bond proposal by an Arizona school district since voters in Pima County Unified School District No. 1 approved a $235 million bond package in 2004.

Maricopa USD 4 is one of the largest school districts in Arizona with some 62,000 students.

Its $270 million of outstanding GO debt is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and A-plus by Standard & Poor’s.

District officials said the state’s School Facilities Board has provided the Mesa system with no funding for school upgrades in the past four years, despite requests totaling more than $17 million.

Bobette Sylvester, assistant superintendent for business and support services, said the district is seeking $750,000 from the state for upgrades at Mesa High School this summer, but will probably have to pay for the projects from the general fund.

“We are out of bond funds and we have no building renewal funds,” she told the board.

Sylvester said of the district’s 84 schools, six were built in the 1950s and 10 in the 1960s.

The original proposal for a $285 million bond package included additional funding for renovations, but the one going to voters in November does not.

Trustee Mike Hughes said the district did not want to propose the largest school bond package in Arizona history. Failure at the polls would be devastating to the district, he said.

“It’s not the time,” Hughes said. “We have to make sure this can pass.”

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Arizona
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