PHX Reporter

A year after a $14 million “mistake” led to a budget deficit for the district, the Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) is asking voters to approve a $340 million bond on the Nov. 7 ballot.

In Nov. 22, the district said that it failed to account for an expiring $14 million state “Enrollment Stabilization Grant” for its 2021-2022 budget, leading to a major budget shortfall, which ABC 15 called a "budgeting mistake."

“Everything we do is for the benefits of students, staff and our families and our community,” PVUSD Governing Board member Anne Greenberg said during a Nov. 17, 2022 board meeting in which the budget shortfall was discussed.

Earlier in the year, that same board unanimously approved spending $50,000 per year, for a multi-year engagement, to hire lobbyists. The board allowed this expenditure to come from the district’s “maintenance and operations” budget. 

Now, PVUSD voters will decide whether or not to approve a $340 million bond for the district. 

$250.8 million of the bond would be used to “construct, remodel, and improve school district facilities, buildings, and grounds,” according to to the school district, with $50 million going toward “technology improvements.”

$16 million is slated for “furniture equipment” with the remaining $23 million split between “pupil transportation vehicles” and “land.”

None of the $340 million would go toward teacher pay, according to the district.

Located in northeast Phoenix, PVUSD had a 2022 enrollment of 27,311, which was 2% lower than the previous school year. 

The district spent $396,614,554 in the 2021-2022 school year, which amounts to $14,522 spent per pupil, which is more than the state average of $12,842.

Almost half (49%) of the district’s students were “minimally” or “partially” proficient on the state’s English Language Arts assessment, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

6,307 of district students experienced “chronic absenteeism,” according to federal Civil Rights data. 

The district’s superintendent, Dr. Troy Bales, is paid $290,070 per year plus up to $12,500 in “performance based pay” to be awarded at the “sole discretion” of the school board. He also receives $600 per month from the school district to pay for “costs incurred” for use of his personal vehicle in the “day-to-day performance” of his school district duties.

Bales also receives a $100 per month allowance for a cell phone, and the district contributes “an amount equal to $22,000” per year to his 403(b) tax deferred annuity. 

Nancy Case is the President of the PVUSD Governing Board. She was first elected to the board in 2005, and is up for re-election in the November 2024 election.