Pima County voters support schools, statistics show.
Every school-related bond and override on a ballot has passed within Pima County since 2020. Since 2016, our pass rate has been 83%, according to the Pima County School Superintendent’s office.
But public school administrators, teachers, staff and many of the students they support don’t necessarily feel that love.
Voters get another opportunity to help public schools on Nov. 4 when they decide three proposition questions: A $45 million override in the Tucson Unified School District; a $30 million bond in the Flowing Wells Unified School District and a $120 million bond in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
Both bonds and overrides raise property taxes to help area school districts. Overrides typically fund people — think teacher and staff raises, expanding preschool programs, etc. They are not repaid. Bonds fund buildings, expansions, renovations, upgrades and are paid back over time.
“As you invest just in your own lives as a person in this world — your car, your home — you also want to look at investing in your infrastructure of your communities and it starts with your schools,” Pima County Superintendent Dustin Williams said. “We are seeing some fantastic percentages as far as constituents saying we’re all in with our district schools and we’re approving our bonds and overrides.”
As three school districts appeal to voters this election season, we talked with their superintendents about the three biggest issues facing each district. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity.
Jump to a section
TUSD’s override Proposition 414
See the voter information pamphlet
Three biggest needs: TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo on the three biggest needs for Southern Arizona’s largest school district:
- “I think first and foremost for TUSD, we have to rethink our strategy around enrollment. We have to embrace that there are external threats to the district’s enrollment vitality. We have the threat of empowerment scholarship accounts and vouchers that in my opinion were intentionally created to siphon away dollars from the traditional public school district. We also have the threats of just changing demographics. People are having fewer kids, particularly on the east side of Tucson. We know how difficult it is for communities to hear that under-enrolled schools may have to be considered in conversations about consolidations and, dare I even say, closures.”
- “The second really big district need is greater support for students with disabilities. We are seeing this year almost a 5% increase in students with disabilities that come into the district. TUSD has swelled to over 6,000 students now of our 39,000 students classified as special education, meaning they have significant disabilities that need accommodations and support to support their learning.
And every year we are taking in more students with more extensive disabilities: The rise in students that have advanced levels of autism that require intensive levels of support and aides and support throughout the school day has increased. The amount of students that come in with emotional disabilities that are characterized by difficulties and impulse control and sometimes result in significantly disruptive environments to classrooms. We’re getting more of those students every year because charter schools and private schools quite frankly don’t take these students. And they’re ending up at TUSD because we have excellent programs for those students. We’re continuing to bring more and more in, but the funding from the state is not matching what we need to increase the amount of psychologists and occupational therapists and licensed clinical social workers and special education paraprofessionals and aides.
“We’re bringing in more of these students and we’re not bringing in the additional resources to match because of funding. And what that does is: our existing staff — our existing special education teachers, our existing psychologists, existing paraprofessionals and licensed clinical social workers — their case loads and their workloads have increased dramatically because we haven’t been given the funding or the mechanisms to bring in the additional support. - “Lastly, capital needs. We have been successful in securing community support for a $480 million bond project, but that doesn’t take the state off of the hook. They continue to cut capital funding.
“We need a capital budget that supports the everyday needs of our campuses. We have bond projects and that’s great, but we don’t have money and those bond projects are aimed at replacing HVAC systems, heating and cooling towers, safety and security measures — like better and more modern fencing and camera systems — taking care of major electrical plumbing repairs.
“So all of that is great, but our regular capital budget that’s supposed to be taking care of things like flooring and performance art spaces and athletic spaces and field maintenance and equipment purchases? That is still being cut from the state and we need to see that restored.”
Without the override: “The override is designed to create a protected source of funding. If we do not win this override, then salary and compensation for teachers is part of the general district budget and would have to be on the table as this district tries to manage a $21 million deficit. And it could mean higher class sizes. It could mean teacher layoffs. It could mean a salary freeze for the employees of the district. And those are three things that are very, very difficult for school districts to implement without losing talent, without being able to retain highly qualified educators because in that kind of an environment, our best and our brightest educators are going to look at neighboring districts where salaries aren’t frozen, where the compensation is competitive.
“We know we have to do right-sizing. We know we have to address the fiscal challenges in front of us. We’re going to do that work. We just would like to do it with the support of an override. That way, there is an additional pot of funding that will make sure that the compensation needs of our employees and teachers is met while we go about right-sizing the district and looking at all of our departments and making the necessary budget cuts to cut into this deficit.”
Flowing Wells bond — Proposition 415
See the voter information pamphlet.
Three biggest needs: Flowing Wells’ three biggest needs according to the office of Superintendent Kevin Stoltzfus:
- School safety upgrades: Including fencing improvements, shatter-resistant glass, controlled entry points, and updated security systems
- Replacing deteriorating portable buildings used for classrooms and before-and after-school programs
- Expanding access to high-quality preschool
Without the bond: “If the bond does not pass, we will focus our limited capital budget on the most urgent safety and facility needs while continuing to plan for another opportunity in 2026,” said Assistant Superintendent Tamára McAllister.
Sunnyside bond Proposition 416
See the voter information pamphlet.
Three biggest needs: Superintendent Jose Gastelum says Sunnyside’s three biggest needs are:
- “The No. 1 priority is always the safety of your students and staff. We always have critical safety and security improvements that we want to make. However, I think we’ve done a really good job of that over the years. So, is that No. 1? It’s always No. 1.”
- “I think the biggest need for the district right now is bringing our aging facilities up to par. We have 21 school sites. The average age of those school sites is 39 years old and Sunnyside High School just turned 70. So, it’s replacing and upgrading structural, mechanical, plumbing, roofing systems, electrical items. That’s not even remodeling or modernizing classroom buildings.”
- “At Sunnyside High School, because of its age and more importantly because our students and staff deserve it, we plan to use about $50 million of those bond monies, if we successfully pass that bond, to modernize that campus. And we’re talking about replacing buildings. Not the whole school, just some buildings. It’s got good bones. We’ve done a lot of good work in some areas, like the auditorium was renovated and the gym got redone.”
Without the bond: “I think it would definitely put us in a very tight, tight, situation. And here’s why: We’ve had experts come in and do a needs assessment of our 21 facilities. And of the 21 facilities, they came back and rated our facilities one to five. None of our facilities hit a four or five. I think the highest was a 3.6 — and that was just fair. So what they’ve identified is that in the first year we have $14 million in fixes. And the next two to five years you have another $64 million in fixes. And you’re talking mechanical issues, plumbing, roofing, cracks, foundation pieces, things like that.
“You can’t run schools without efficient buildings. And so we would have to prioritize fixing buildings, but that means figuring out where you’re getting that money from. And sometimes that may force us to look at how we’re operating our district. Everybody hates the word ‘cuts,’ but it could possibly put us in a position where we have to take a hard look at what we can operate without.
“We work very hard to be fiscally responsible. But public education is not funded appropriately and we’re put in positions where we have to go to our communities and ask them to vote for these bonds and overrides — not to put us ahead — but just to keep us afloat.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
