In November 2024, the voters in our school community approved the district’s bond measure for the sale of a $26 million bond for facility improvements, including elementary school playgrounds, secondary school field improvements, heating and cooling projects (HVAC), safety improvements, and other necessary improvements to support our older buildings.

This was the first bond passed in thirty years, and the district intends to carefully utilize these funds to maintain and improve schools as the voters intended. Since the sale, planning has been ongoing to begin the expenditure of funds, and work has started on school projects. The bond's passage was critical to enable the district to plan for facility improvements that would otherwise be difficult to complete in the needed time frame, given limited capital funding from the state that has not kept up with increasing inflation levels.

Since the election, the first bond sale for $13 million was completed in May 2024, with a second sale planned for the spring of 2027. The district will carefully time the second sale to maintain a favorable bond rating, as it is anticipated that the former Santa Cruz County Treasurer’s embezzlement will impact the community’s financial rating and the district’s carryforward. To mitigate this impact, the district will remain fiscally conservative and choose the most appropriate date for the second sale.

To stretch our bond dollars further in these uncertain economic conditions, the district will leverage other funding sources, such as grant funding, School Facilities Board (SFB) monies, and Pima JTED funds. The district will use these funds with bond dollars to complete improvement projects to maintain and improve school infrastructure and facilities.

The district will continue to use all available funds most appropriately to support the expenditure of bond funds to improve and maintain our school facilities. To this end, the district has worked diligently to obtain School Facilities Board (SFB) funding and has received a total of $7,251,579.95 in SFB payments over the last two and a half years.

These payments were for projects like the Pierson High School gym roofing and HVAC project, featured on the SFB website, which paid for these renovations and included upgrades to the kitchen area. These monies also include a schoolwide roofing and weatherization project at AJ Mitchell, replacing school fire alarm systems, and various roofing repairs at schools. This total also includes $147,000 to replace the Bell and paging systems at Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Robert M. Bracker, Lincoln, Challenger, Wade Carpenter, and Pierson Schools.

The district continues to apply for SFB funding for HVAC repairs, roofing, and fire alarm projects as this fiscal year closes and we prepare for the next school year. The district was recently awarded over $596,000 to replace the Nogales High School fire alarm system in the 2025-2026 school year. Awards for roofing projects at Nogales High School and Robert M. Bracker Elementary School are also in progress. Additional SFB funds continue to be awarded to augment bond monies during planning and architectural design for projects at Challenger Elementary School, Desert Shadows Middle School, and Wade Carpenter Middle School, which will be discussed below.

The ongoing pursuit of SFB funding is critical, as each dollar the district can obtain through SFB applications frees up more bond funding to complete additional improvement projects.

In addition to bond and SFB projects, the district leverages Pima JTED funding to provide program and building improvements in Career and Technical Education (CTE) classrooms. These include:

• Nogales High School Automotive Shop expansion and classroom renovation, scheduled for completion in spring 2025.

• Nogales High School Film and Graphic Design classroom renovation, expected to be completed in the 2025-2026 school year.

While JTED funding can only be utilized for CTE programs, these funds enable the district to complete needed CTE classroom updates and modernization, again allowing bond dollars to be redirected to other school maintenance and improvement projects.

As discussed above, below is a list of projects planned with the sale of the first bond funds. These projects will be completed by leveraging other available funding sources, braiding them together to allow their completion, and stretching bond dollars from the first sale further to make the most of the monies provided by the bond passage for critical school facility improvements.

• Playground improvements at all six elementary schools to make them ADA accessible and safety compliant. 

  • The playground at Challenger Elementary is nearly completed (see photos below). 

  • The playground work at Lincoln Elementary School is also underway. 

  • During the summer of 2025 and fall of 2025, playground work will be completed at AJ Mitchell, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Robert M Bracker, and Mary L Welty Elementary Schools (in that order).

• HVAC projects are being coordinated at Challenger Elementary School, Desert Shadows Middle School, and Wade Carpenter Middle School. The current units at the gymnasium and cafeteria have surpassed their useful life and, therefore, need replacement and upgrading from swamp cooling to more efficient HVAC units.

  • SFB monies supplement the district‘s bond by funding the rental of temporary heating/cooling units, the completion of architectural plans, and the costs associated with bidding out these improvements. Projects are anticipated to be ready for bid in the spring of 2025, with construction completed by the spring of 2026.

• Field enhancements and improvements are also being made at Pierson High School and Nogales High School, including:

  • A fitness court at Pierson High School is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2025 and will be available for school and community use.

  • Track renovations at Nogales High School and, if funding from the bond first sale is available, improvements to the Nogales High School softball field, slated for the 2025-2026 school year.

Additional information will be shared as projects are completed. Please return to this page for updates and photographs showcasing the school improvement projects made possible by the community’s passage of the bond and supported by leveraging grants, SFB funds, and JTED monies to keep our schools great for current students and those in the future.