CAPACITY CRISIS: WEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICTS STRUGGLE TO SECURE LAND, FUNDING, & ACCOUNTABILITY
One of the fastest growing corners of the U.S. can't get schools built fast enough. We take a closer look at the hurdles putting construction on hold.
“I wish it were simpler.”
These are the words of a Goodyear lawmaker in learning the hurdles a West Valley school district faces in his All-Amercia City.
GROWTH IN THE LIBERTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT
When Dr. Cort Monroe took on his position as a schools superintendent in May 2023, he knew he had a big task at hand. But could he predict he’d stand before a city council asking for support just days before a groundbreaking?
In the last six weeks, we’ve taken a close look at Liberty Elementary School District’s efforts to turn around student proficiency scores. Now, we turn our sights to its construction of a new school.
You see, tomorrow is a big day for Liberty Elementary School District. Groundbreaking for a $33M school is the result of serious talks with the City of Goodyear dating back to January of this year… and a dream born many years before his tenure in this southwest city.
This week, though, Dr. Monroe was still pushing to make this school a reality. He successfully made a pitch to lawmakers to not only support, but to speed up annexation of land to alleviate overcrowding and nearby schools.
Dr. Monroe states, “When I started the work in May 2023, the project met resistance from the very beginning…
We moved off that original site due to the lack of willingness, interest, and communication from the other entitities. That was very frustrating to me.”
Lawmakers echoed that frustration Monday night.
New Liberty ESD school #8 - Loretta Zumbro Elementary School - will open in a phased approach and be located on the north side of Lower Buckeye Road, between Perryville and Citrus Roads in Goodyear, Arizona.
But how the district got to this point is under scrutiny.
In August 2024, Liberty ESD, “was awarded $24M from the Arizona state budget to buy the land and build the school due to our enrollment growth,” Dr. Monroe explains to Goodyear City Council.
As it turns out, the school district must supplement up to $9,000,000 in construction costs. The initial phase aims to open in August 2025.
Money isn’t the only issue. One Goodyear lawmaker expresss his “outrage” with the handling of the land deal.
“I would like to know why we aren’t able to build this school in the land that was supposed to be given to this school,” asks Goodyear City Council member Bill Stipp.
Christian Williams, Goodyear’s Planning Manager says Zoning conetemplated a school at the original site - but points to a '“private property matter between the private land owner and the school district.” Williams says it’s cost-burdensome on schools if they need to upfront that cost.
Councilmember Stipp asks, “So the land that was given to the schools is really unusable at this time?”
Williams replies.
“That land was never conveyed to the school. The private entity would have to work with the school district on how conveyance would happen.”
Councilmember asks for a full report on the situtation and says, “If we’ve got development that is standing in the way of making that happen, then I think we need to know that.”
Goodyear’s Bill Stipp acknowleges it’s hard enough to build a school in Arizona and expreses frustration with land owners standing in the way.
“I have a major problem with that. And I would hope that everybody is outraged by that situtation. That we’re forcing a school to go out and buy land so that they can get their project done in any area that probably already needs to be - this school probably needed to be built five years ago based on the way we get to ‘overcrowding.’ And now we’ve just made it worse,” explains a frustrated Stipp.
COMMUNICATION AND CONTRUCTION ROADBLOCKS
This Goodyear City Council meeting isn’t the first where representatives of Liberty ESD publicly expose roadblocks for its construction projects.
West Valley Families first reported the challenges the district faces with the developer on its Transportation Facility. In early August, we showed you the back-and-forth between the Liberty ESD governing board, contractors and architects during an accountability update.
Liberty Governing Board President Michael Todd calls out the discrepancies in the building timeline.
NO MONEY. NO LAND.
Liberty ESD is a feeder district for the Buckeye Union High School District… which faces capacity challenges of its own.
Every year, the Buckeye Union High School District says it’s required to go to the division of School Facilities Oversight Board and request funding they would like.
Monday night, district CFO Mr. Jeff Simmons explained BUHSD provided an enrollment projection between 3.5% and 8% per year depending on the demography report.
“We also now show a school opening in the fall of ‘27 along with what the SFB showed last year. And also, we’re requesting that they reopen the land application which was approved and partially submitted to them with appraisals and environmental reports. And at the last minute, they told us they didn’t have any money and didn’t want to purchase the land for us this year. Not a surprise. The way that’s worked in the past. But we want to continue to seek that money because it does help the community not have to fund those things through taxpayer dollars,” says Simmons.
As you can see, Buckeye Union High School District see continued growth in its radpidly growing communities and schools.
The path to getting a new high school built is a long road.
A report attached to the capital plan item states, “The legislature failed to fund the school for FY 2024 which is affecting our critical path to have a school open as projected by the SFB for the Fall of 2027. Not to mention the delay in land funding is concerning as the residential developers continue to gobble up the land where we need to place a school.”
On April 3, 2024 , the School Facilities Oversight Board approved, “Steps I and II of Buckeye Union's request for a Land purchase of the identified 55 useable acres located on the Northeast corner of Jackrabbit Trail and Dunlap Avenue in Goodyear, Maricopa County, Arizona, including $60,000 to procure Step III due diligence documents and reports,” adding a requirement for a utility to be done.
But the state board held consideration for future funding for 9-12 school in the Buckeye Union High School District at its December 6, 2023 meeting.
JEN’S TWO CENTS
Families CHOOSE the West Valley for its phenomenal schools. However, schools are forced to beg for support from the agencies it needs to be successful.
Outstanding education happens in well-supported communities.
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