Governing Board Calls for Bond, Override Elections for November Ballot

The Amphitheater Governing Board has approved resolutions calling for bond and override elections to support continued maintenance of school and District facilities, enhance school safety, keep pace with technology needs and keep in place funding that finances full-day kindergarten and core educational opportunities for students in all grades.

Bond Election

Bonds help school districts meet capital needs when state funding is cut, a situation that has been happening over many years. In fact, those cuts now total billions of dollars.

Amphi has had a bond in place for the past 10 years. That bond is nearing its end. In order to, minimally, maintain school buildings and facilities for the next 10 years, the Board has once again called for a bond election.

The bond, if passed, will not increase the District’s existing tax rate. In fact, over the lifetime of the bond program over the next seven to 10 years, the District tax rate will actually decrease. This is due to deliberate financial planning and the commitment the District has continually made to taxpayers and voters to be a financially responsible cornerstone of this community.

The proceeds of the new bonds (consisting of no more than $84 million) will be used for the following purposes:

• School facility maintenance and renovation (Facility Renewal) to include:
  • Elementary playground improvements
  • Middle and High School athletic facility renovations and improvements
  • School bus facility renovation
  • Classroom lab space renovations
  • Career and Technical Education classroom and lab space expansions
  • Student transportation vehicles purchases (school buses, etc.)
• Safety and Security Improvements to include:
  • Site access control enhancements
  • Security camera systems and related technologies
  • Infrastructure improvements
  • Technology infrastructure maintenance and upgrade

Override Election

The Governing Board also approved a resolution calling for a budget override of 13.5 percent. This represents a continuation of a maintenance and operations override of 10 percent (initially approved in 2005 and renewed in 2009, 2014 and 2019) and the 3.5 percent override for K-3 improvements passed by voters in 2019.

The Maintenance and Operations Override enables the hiring of additional teachers; lowering class sizes; expanding Art, Music, and Physical Education for the elementary grades; and expanding course offerings for middle and high school students. The override also funds intervention programs to assist struggling students year-round; hiring of needed facilities and technology employees and support of staff pay.

The funds derived from the current K-3 budget override restored the ability of the District to provide free full-day Kindergarten at every Amphitheater elementary school. It eliminated Kindergarten tuition costs for hundreds of District families, and it allowed high-poverty schools to repurpose badly needed federal funds to student intervention programs. The K-3 override has also funded literacy intervention programs and reduced class sizes in grades K through 3 by five to eight students per classroom.

Impact on tax rate

As with the bond election, the cost of continuing the overrides is a net sum of zero. If the overrides are renewed, together, under a combined level of 13.5 percent, there would be no increase in the existing override tax.