As the school year is wrapping up, districts are already looking to next fall and considering whether to let the voters decide on budget increases through bonds and overrides.
Voters approved almost all of the bonds and overrides across the Valley last fall, with the exception of Gila Bend, Peoria and Queen Creek Unified school districts.
Queen Creek governing board voted unanimously this month to approve another bond vote for $63 million. If passed, the Queen Creek bond will go towards building a new high school and three new elementary schools.
Across the Valley, Peoria’s board voted 3-2 against an election for a $198 million bond, suggesting another bond election should wait until 2018.
Peoria resident Rick Gutridge was on the bond advisory committee, which recommended the bond vote should be approved, but he spoke at the meeting and said, while the district needs more money for new schools, voters would see the same bond they handily defeated last fall.
“Unfortunately this committee didn’t have enough time to put together a bond proposal that was appreciably different than what we had on the election six months ago,” he said.
The money, if passed, would have gone to a new high school and elementary schools in the city’s growing northern region.
