Ballot question described as "smart" bond

Passage of the Avondale School District bond will purchase much needed technology upgrades. The average age of technology equipment across the district is 7 years.

On November 7th Avondale School District will be asking voters to approve a $30.7 million bond proposal to fund enhancements to security, upgrades to technology, and the purchase of new infrastructure items like boilers and lighting equipment that will provide relief to the district’s operating budget. The bond was structured with an emphasis on staff and student safety and operational savings. Missing from the proposal is any major construction project or renovation. The bond proposal is being described as a smart bond without a lot of bells and whistles.

“There isn’t a lot of extravagance with this bond proposal,” said Avondale Superintendent Dr. James Schwarz, “we structured it to provide opportunity for more of our operating budget to go back into the classrooms and to enhance safe entries for all of our schools. It isn’t going to buy a new building or new stadium but it is going to reduce or eliminate several line items in our operating budget and put more money back into our classrooms – that’s why we’re calling this a smart bond.”

Schwarz cited technological advancements in areas like lighting, cooling, and heating resulting in the manufacture of equipment that runs more cost effectively. He outlined how passage of the bond will allow the district to purchase newer and more efficient-to-run equipment and how, by running the newer equipment, the district will realize significant savings in the operating budget.

Passage of the bond will also allow the district to purchase four new school buses to replace four buses currently being leased with operating budget funds. In addition, bond funds will cover $6 million for technology upgrades which, without passage of the bond, will have to come out of the operating budget. The upgrades include not only classroom technology but also technology infrastructure like wireless network upgrades and servers. According to Schwarz, “these are necessary upgrades that cannot be absorbed by the operating budget.”

The only extravagance planned for the bond funds is the remodeling of the high school and middle school media centers. The media centers will be redesigned so they can continue to serve students as traditional libraries but also accommodate work areas for large group learning. The idea for the work areas, known as “makerspaces”, borrows from leading companies like Google, Microsoft, and Quartz. Teachers are able to take student learning beyond the text book in this setting and the environment is conducive to building the personal and inter-personal skills that employers say today’s graduates lack, like the ability to problem-solve, collaborate, and communicate.