Everyone in the Meadows sees the empty land just east of Liberty Park, on the corner of Williams and Speckled Gecko. When the community was planned this land was set aside and donated to the Peoria School district with the intention that PUSD would build a school on that land. Years later this land is overgrown and has an ugly fence around it, a blight on our community, and a menace to nearby homes.
It costs about 30M at a minimum to build a typical elementary school. Money that the PUSD can not find in their budget. In 1911 a land trust was created in Arizona for the funding of schools. Most of the schools in Arizona and in Peoria were built with money from this trust. However PUSD does not qualify for money from this trust because the district needs to have enough students to be above 90% of capacity. PUSD has a lot of schools in the south part of Peoria that are well below capacity currently. In fact in all of PUSD only three schools are at Capacity, Sunset Heights, Lake Pleasant and Liberty HS. (Source https://www.peoriaunified.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=7167) In fact in the last 10 years the number of students in PUSD elementary schools has dropped 18.5%, and we are at 70% of capacity as a school district and there is little chance the land trust will be giving PUSD any money to build a new school unless this changes. Of the 35000 or so students, 4400+ are from open enrollment from other districts.
For this reason the school district has asked for bond money for the last few elections. This is money the school would borrow using future taxes on your home as the collateral. They would pay back the debt over the next 20 or so years by putting a tax on your real estate. The way that property taxes work is that the taxing entity asks for a specific amount of money, the county accessors office then taxes everyone in the jurisdiction of the taxing entity proportionally based on the assessed value of their home. Because there are more homes, and because older bonds have expired, the amount you pay for taxes for PUSD has declined in the last few years. Passing this bond will bring the level of taxes back to the rate it was in 2020. If the bond fails, your taxes will continue to go down.
In the last few attempts the bond has failed due to a lack of support, most from an aging population with less kids in school and from parents who educate their children outside of the Public District system. The last time a bond passed for the PUSD was in 2012. If the bond passes the school district plans to spend half the money fixing and upgrading current schools, and they have said they will build an elementary school. The proposed bond has no money for new high school expansion. For the average home in our area, worth about 700k, the passing of this bond will cost you about $230 a year more than if it fails. Because of the complex way we figure property tax in Arizona this is not exact. The tax is based on your “Limited Value” which is based on the price you paid for your home when you bought it and how long ago you bought it among other things, so two identical homes next to each other could easily be 20% or 30% different. The best way to figure your estimated burden is to look at your LPV total on your tax bill and multiply that number by .00057. Luckily these tax bills were just mailed out to everyone at the end of September, or you can go to the assessors website. Remember that commercial buildings pay 170% property taxes on the same valuation as residential homes, so any taxes will cost local businesses more and they will pass those costs on to their customers.
For me personally, on my main home it will cost me $299 per year, for my former home I rent out it will cost me $83 per year, for my business it will cost me $217 per year, a total of $600 per year. You need to do your math on your properties and see if it is worth it to you.
Of course there is nothing in the bond that requires a new school to be built but the current board says they will build one. The board is 5 people, one spot is currently vacant, 2 spots are up for election in 2 years, and the other two spots are up for election this election. The two incumbents whose terms are up are running for reelection, along with 4 other people. There will be 3 winners this year. We could see a quite different board though there is no sign any of them would change the plan for the bond money.
The land donated by the developer of the Meadows will be given back to the developer after 10 years if substantial progress is not made at building an elementary school on the land. The deed was recorded on Feb 28th 2019, so the school must be built by Feb 2029. In the documents the definition of substantial progress is that the buildings are completely built with just finishing touches left to go. In case you are wondering, the land gift is very specific, and that land cannot be used by the school to build anything other than an elementary school. During the time before a school is built the district is also responsible for maintaining the land and can be reported to code compliance if they don’t. If the land reverts to the developer they are free to build on it, and can get it rezoned to whatever use the city will approve. It could be more homes, or it could easily be apartments, or even a small shopping center, whatever the developer wants to do and can get approval for.
There are a total of 4 communities that have donated land. These other parcels have a longer time frame before they revert back. There was a study done and the committee that did the study suggested building a smaller Elementary School in the Meadows with the bond money. At the May 9th 2024 meeting this was talked about and presented and the board took no action or made any commitment to a planned location. (Source https://go.boarddocs.com/az/pusd11/Board.nsf/files/D9FSSJ7415C9/$file/Facility%20Master%20Planning%20Sept%2026%202024.pdf) Bond elections only can happen every two years, if this bond fails then there will likely not be enough time to plan and build the school in time if the board waits until the 2026 bond. The board would have to either not do it at all or do it out of existing budgets. There is always the chance that the board could lobby for legislative action to get a special release from the land trust due to this rare situation but that is also highly unlikely.
So keep all of this in mind when you vote. Your vote can determine the future of that land, and if you want it to be developed into something or have a school there can be part of that decision. You must also decide if this tax is something you are willing to pay. That is a personal decision based on what you feel is best. I just wanted to share the information with you.