Byline: Jim Watts
DALLAS — A one-time rural school district in Arizona that now is the epicenter for some of the most rapid population growth in the country is planning for the future with a $129 million general obligation bond request.
Buckeye Union High School District No. 201 serves some 2,000 square miles of the west-central portion of Maricopa County, including the small but rapidly growing towns of Buckeye, Goodyear, and Avondale. Of the $129 million of bonds being sought at the general election on Nov. 7, some $91 million is allocated to three high schools that won’t be built for several years.
“We have two high schools now and will open a third one next year,” said Jeff Simmons, chief financial officer for the district. “We plan to open a fourth high school in 2010, a fifth one in 2012, and our sixth high school in 2014.”
Some $91 million of the proceeds from the $129 million of bonds being sought will be used to include facilities at the three proposed high schools that are not covered by the state’s funding formula, Simmons said.
“The state’s formula uses minimum guidelines,” he said. “We would get a basic school with classrooms, and a multipurpose space that would be gym, auditorium, and cafeteria, all in one. That’s about it.
“You can’t have high school programs in that type of facility,” Simmons continued. “We’d get a baseball backstop, but if we want to have a junior varsity program we need three full fields. The formula doesn’t provide things like that, or parking lots and exterior lighting.”
Simmons said the district has pledged not to sell $91 million of the bonds if the new high schools are not approved for state funding by the Arizona School Facilities Board.
“Before the state began paying for school construction in the late 1990s, local bonds paid for new schools,” he said. “Now the money from the state doesn’t go as far, mostly due to increased construction costs, and local bonds have to make up the difference.”
Simmons said if the bonds were approved at the upcoming election, the first tranche of $7 million to $10 million would be sold in 2007, along with $2.8 million of bonds remaining from a 2002 authorization.
The request includes $32.7 million for improvements at the two existing high schools and additional amenities at the third school, which is currently under construction. The district is also seeking $5.3 million for new buses.
Only 5% of the land in the large district has been developed, Simmons said, so the potential for enrollment growth is unlimited.
“Growth is absolutely nuts out here,” he said. “The sky is the limit. The homes being build in the district are a little more affordable than some other places in the county, and we can see higher enrollment coming through the four elementary school districts that provide our students.”
The district had 2,300 students last year at its two high schools, Simmons said, and the current enrollment is some 2,700.
“We expect 3,150 students next year with our third high school, and more than 11,600 students by 2014,” Simmons said.
The district’s property valuation has increased an average of 33% a year over the past five years, he said, which means the bonds won’t require an increase in the tax rate.
“We’ve pledged to keep the tax rate the same as it is now,” Simmons said. “Residents might pay more property tax next year, but that’s because the valuations were increased and not because of the school bonds.”
The district’s GO bonds have unenhanced ratings of A-minus from Standard & Poor’s and A3 from Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s raised its rating from Baa1 in July because of the district’s strong tax base growth.
Stone & Youngberg LLC is the district’s financial adviser.
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