Casa Grande Elementary District trustees review $227M facilities assessment, consider bond and other funding options

Casa Grande Elementary District trustees on Wednesday reviewed a facilities master plan and a multi-year list of capital needs that district leaders say total hundreds of millions of dollars if every recommended renovation and replacement were done.

The presentation, led by administrators and facilities staff, outlined current funding sources the district uses — including state District Additional Assistance, School Facilities Division building-renewal grants, voter-approved bonds, lease-purchase financing and federal ESSER relief funds — and described limits on each source.

“Everything we do as a district should connect back in some way to those core values,” said Dr. Lecky, the district administrator who opened the study session, listing “excellence, integrity, collaboration, service and compassion” as guiding principles for capital decisions. The board’s work, he said, should align facilities investments with teaching, staffing and family engagement priorities.

Tom Wallaber and Tim Mace walked trustees through detailed spreadsheets and Orcutt|Winslow’s facilities master-plan estimates. The consultants’ full program-level replacement estimate, in 2024 dollars, exceeded $227 million; district staff produced filtered, lower-cost options and a prioritized list. Mace, the district’s facilities lead, said renovating several schools would cost substantially less than full replacement but still require multi-million-dollar investments.

“How much would it extend the life of the school? … It’s really, really tough to answer,” Mace said when asked if a $5 million renovation at Cholla Elementary would be long-term. He noted recent investments such as a $1.3 million roof replacement paid for with School Facilities Division (SFD) funding and security upgrades that made some renovation-versus-replace choices more complex.

Staff identified Cholla, Coyle and Cottonwood elementary schools — plus an early-learning site — as the district’s immediate priorities for targeted renovation work. The presentation identified other significant needs that currently lack clear funding sources, including major parking-lot repairs at Cottonwood, kitchen renovations at several schools, recurrent bathroom failures at Ironwood, and an arts/electives building at Casa Grande Middle School whose location requires students to exit the secure campus footprint to reach classes.

“I have students walking outside the secure perimeter of the campus,” Mace said of the current CGMS configuration and urged that elective classrooms be located inside the secure campus if funds allow.

Staff also reviewed operating capital needs: transportation requested one regular bus, one special-needs bus and one smaller Collins bus for 2025–26 (three vehicles estimated at $540,000), and proposed a long-term replacement cadence of about six buses per year (a 10-year estimate of $6.65 million). Finance staff noted the district carries lease-purchase commitments that require capital-budget payments; district leadership said the current annual payment for a recently approved energy-conservation lease is about $2,480,000 and that principal-and-interest payments are recorded as capital expenditures under Arizona’s Uniform System of Financial Records (USFR).

The board heard how School Facilities Division building-renewal grants operate in practice: SFD typically funds systems that have failed (roofs, HVAC, fire systems, “trip hazard” flooring replacements) and often denies or delays applications because demand exceeds the legislature’s appropriation. “They really only fund things that have failed,” Mace said. Staff cautioned that SFD new-school funding is determined by statewide capacity formulas and provides only a basic facility; current SFD rules would make it difficult for the district to rely on SFD alone for a new, fully featured campus.

ESSER COVID-relief funds were used for a number of capital projects, including water-source heat-pump replacements and a district-wide building-controls retrofit. Mace said the retrofit and equipment replacements completed with ESSER totaled roughly $6.9 million in avoided capital costs that otherwise would have fallen to the district.

Technology was flagged as another major upcoming capital need. Administrators said district technology purchases funded with ESSER and other one-time sources now must be refreshed; staff described current device ratios as roughly 1:1 at middle schools and 1:2 at elementary schools and said the team is developing multi-year refresh options.

Board members asked staff to prioritize projects that keep facilities viable and economically maintainable while achieving the district’s instructional goals. Trustees generally emphasized safety, a sustained instructional-materials plan and technology as key attractors for families considering district schools.

Staff told the board they will return with bond scenarios and tax-impact modeling at a special meeting later in April and asked trustees for direction on priorities to include in those scenarios.

Votes at a glance

• Motion to accept and adopt the meeting agenda (Item 2.01): moved and seconded; roll call vote — President Varela: Aye; Madam Pro Tem Martinez: Aye; Miss Sisson: Aye; Mr. Staley: Aye; Mr. Shute: Aye. Outcome: approved.

The meeting adjourned at 5:31 p.m.

(Reporting note: direct quotations and figures in this article come from the district’s April study-session presentation and comments by staff and trustees recorded on the meeting transcript.)