Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Capital Improvement Bond Election topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sunnyside board hears bond scenarios, timeline for possible November 2025 election
Summary
District staff and financial advisors presented a capital needs assessment and three bond funding scenarios ranging from $95 million to $130 million, and outlined tax-rate impacts, statutory deadlines and next steps; the board took no vote but asked staff to get election cost estimates.
The Sunnyside Unified School District governing board heard a presentation on the district's capital needs assessment and three bond funding scenarios during its April meeting, and discussed next steps toward a possible bond election in November 2025.
The district's capital needs assessment, produced by H2 Group, is nearly complete and will inform a five-year capital improvement plan to prioritize repairs, renovations and potential new construction, district staff said. Financial advisor Randi Stein of Stifel Public Finance presented three example programs: $95 million, $105 million and $130 million, each structured as four bond sales over several years.
The presentation showed the district currently receives $7,000,000 per year from a recently passed district additional assistance capital override but may need extra funding from a bond if the assessment's prioritized needs exceed override funds. Stein said bonding capacity is governed by state rules tied to the district's full cash assessed value; at the time of the presentation the district's unused bonding capacity was roughly $124 million, projected to rise to about $127 million on July 1 and to about $142 million after county valuation adoption in September.
Stein described estimated tax-rate impacts for each sample program and said the voter pamphlet must follow statutory constraints on assumed property-value growth. For the $95 million example she gave an average bond-program tax-rate impact of $0.73 per $100 of assessed value, which she translated into an estimated average residential cost of $83.39 per year (about $6.95 per month) using the district's typical assessed residential value used in the example.
Stein reviewed the election logistics and calendar provided by Pima County: the county requests notice of interest by May 8 to assist planning; a formal board resolution calling the election and supplying required project categories and the maximum bond authorization must be delivered to the county by July 7 (earlier is preferred); the statutory deadline for mailing the voter pamphlet is September 30; and mail ballots are typically sent by October 8. She emphasized that a successful November election only authorizes the district to borrow up to the approved amount; the board must later take separate actions to actually sell bonds and may choose to issue in multiple series rather than all at once.
Board members and staff asked practical questions about election costs, the mechanics of selling bonds, and how to present project categories to voters. Board member Gaston and others raised Sunnyside High School as an example of a campus the board might prioritize, and asked staff to seek community input on priorities. Superintendent Gastelum said he would obtain county estimates for holding the election (including whether it would be a county-run mail ballot/VEIL election) so the board could assess the logistics and cost.
No binding action was taken; the presentation was labeled information only. Board members discussed the need for clear project categories to present to voters and the importance of community engagement before the board would commit to calling an election.
"The county would like to know, by May 8 if you're thinking about calling an election," Stein said during her remarks on election timing. "By July 7, the governing board will have to have acted to call the election and have provided a signed copy of that document to the county."
