School district over budget for Tortosa site; options being considered

Any school district depends very strongly on state and government funding to function. The School Facilities Board (SFB) allocates funds to schools based on formulas using student headcount on the 100th day of the school year. New facility funding from the SFB gives district officials the bare minimum in terms of classroom amenities and infrastructure, leaving them scraping the bottom of the barrel to make up the difference.

Currently that is where Maricopa Unified stands on its most recent construction endeavor, a school site in the Tortosa housing development. District Business Manager Mark Busch, along with architect Don Brubaker and D.L. Withers project manager, David Bradley, chose Wednesday’s school board meeting to go over options with board members.

The site plan for the proposed elementary school at Tortosa.

Districts receive standard funding from SFB when construction for a new school is approved; that sum stands at approximately $8.2 million.

“After bid, we took it to the state and said, ‘We’re over budget; we need more money to build your minimum school,'” Brubaker said. “Other architects and other districts have been doing this. And it’s been quite a process down at the State Facilities Board. We went through each item and showed them the plan and the total increase that was needed to build that minimum school, another $657,000 dollars. They looked at it, and they agreed with us.”

“Over the years, they have lent an ear and listened to the community and to architects and school districts who say, ‘Those minimum standards that you’ve had in the past are brutal,'” added Brubaker. “Things like no parking lots and no flooring. And so they’re starting to recognize that they need to raise some of these minimum standards. Now, are they where they should be? We don’t believe so, and, I think if you talk to the state, they are still working on those.”

Some amenities previously unsupported by SFB funds have not been allowed, but it still does not bring schools up to the standards that Maricopa Unified has for its facilities. One particular sticking point has been the asphalt vs. tile roof debate, which is a $75,000 and ten-year difference. To build a school like the one at Alterra, Bradley says, would require approximately $650,000 in additional funds than what SFB provides.

The consensus was that basic infrastructure would be put in, such as piping for water fountains and sprinkler systems, so, when funds do become available, they can be installed permanently sometime down the road. But a bond election to be held in November for $55.7 million could end a lot of those uncertainties.

“In the pamphlet that goes out about the bond, we have allocated $1 million per elementary because we know this minimum standard is not sufficient. The bond has not passed, so we don’t know,” board president Jim Chaston said.

“With the bond election being in November there will be ample time to make changes,” Business Manager Busch reassured the board. “If that passes, we can put the vast majority of these things back in. That was the decision that was made. We’re only going to be in the first month (of planning).”

For more information on the bond or the Tortosa school site, contact the district office at (520) 568-5100.