For the third November in a row, the Dysart Unified School District is asking voters to let it borrow money for buildings. This time it is asking for much less.
Proposition 421, on the Nov. 3 ballot, would authorize up to $71.4 million in bonds. Last year's request was $127 million. It failed, as did bond requests in 2024 and 2019. The last bond Dysart voters approved was in 2006.
The district says the money would replace aging air conditioning systems and fire panels, renovate older buildings, build a new elementary school and buy land for a high school.
It estimates the cost to the owner of an average home at about $3 a month.
A divided board
The governing board voted 4-1 on April 13 to put the question on the ballot. Dawn Densmore voted no.
The minutes of that meeting record that board President Stephen Skvara spoke in support, that Densmore spoke against calling a bond, and that Denise Destiche questioned some of the items listed as necessities before voting yes. The board discussed the tax increase, the amount, what would be bought, community engagement, and what the minutes call the "risk of calling for a bond for the third year in a row."
The doubts were on the record two weeks earlier. At a March 30 meeting, according to the minutes, Destiche said she was concerned about spending money to call another bond because she did not believe the community wanted one. Jennifer Drake asked what feedback the district had gathered after the 2025 loss. Superintendent John Croteau said no survey had been done.
Croteau also told the board the pace would have to be fast. The deadline to give notice of an election was May 7.
What changed from last year
The size, mainly. At $71.4 million, the request is 44% smaller than the $127 million bond voters rejected on Nov. 4, 2025.
Two items are on both lists: an elementary school and land for a high school, both of which the district placed in the northwest Asante area last year.
Two things on the 2025 list do not appear in the district's summary of this year's: replacing school buses more than 15 years old, and security work such as lockdown systems, fencing and key-card entry.
One item has moved in and out. In January, staff told the board that new fire panels had been removed from the list of bond projects, and that the current panels were considered fixable. In March, Skvara cited fire panels among the safety needs. They are on the district's list for Proposition 421.
What it would cost
The district estimates an average tax rate of $0.17 per $100 of assessed value. On a home with an assessed value of $215,435, which the district calls the average, that is about $36 a year.
Assessed value is the figure the Maricopa County assessor uses to calculate property tax. It is lower than what a home would sell for.
Staff gave the board a slightly different figure in March: $3.05 a month.
One thing the district has not spelled out this year is what happens to tax bills overall. The bond voters approved in 2006 will be paid off in 2028. Last year the district said that payoff meant its proposed bond would cause no increase in the tax rate, and probably a decrease. This year it describes a cost of $3 a month and does not mention the payoff.
The $71.4 million is a ceiling. In 2006 voters approved up to $190 million and the district sold $122 million.
Why Asante
The district's case for a new school rests on the far northwest of Surprise.
Dysart says the one school in the Asante area has limited capacity. It changed the grades served there in 2024-25 and began busing older students to a school outside the neighborhood, and it is adding portable classrooms. Without another campus, the district says, it would have to cut more grade levels there, redraw boundaries and bus more students.
The district owns land for an elementary school in the area. It says it needs money to build on it, about $35 million for an elementary school at current prices, and that a high school costs about $150 million. Proposition 421 would buy high school land, not build the school.
The state is required to pay for new schools, but only when a district as a whole exceeds its design capacity by 20%. Dysart, with 26 schools spread over 140 square miles, does not qualify, the district says, because the formula does not account for growth concentrated in one corner. The state has approved $27.5 million in repair and replacement projects for Dysart over four years.
Dysart receives about $13 million a year in capital money, which it says goes to maintenance and equipment.
If it fails
After last year's defeat the district said its capital plans were "on hold until a funding source is secured."
A different record on overrides
Dysart voters have been willing to pay for operations. A budget override has been in place since 2000 and was renewed last November on the same ballot where the bond failed.
The override brought in $26.4 million last school year, according to a report the district presented to the board Oct. 5, as state law requires each fall. The largest shares went to music, arts, athletics and full-day kindergarten and to keeping class sizes down, at more than $10 million each. Another $3.2 million paid for reading and math classroom resources and $2.5 million went toward retaining teachers.
Override money pays for operations. It cannot be used to build schools, which is what Proposition 421 would do.
How to vote
- Ballots mailed and early voting begins: Wednesday, Oct. 7.
- Last day to mail a ballot back: Tuesday, Oct. 27.
- Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3.
An informational pamphlet with arguments for and against, prepared by the Maricopa County School Superintendent, is mailed to every household with a registered voter in the district.
More from The Standard: what Dysart spends now, fund by fund, is in the Dysart Budget Review.