After suffering a defeat at the polls last year, officials with the Buckeye Union High School District are asking voters to approve a new bond designed to address a series of facility upgrade issues.
Located in the rapidly growing southern Arizona city of Buckeye, the district is asking voters to give a green light to a $163 million bond that will also fund the building of a new high school.
Officials with the district say the bond will pay for cooling system upgrades, as well as installing new security technology. At least $26 million is set to target general technology upgrades.
In an interview with the newspaper West Valley News, Jeff Simmons, associate superintendent of the district, took note of last year and this year’s bond proposals, and remarked: “We can’t function without bonds and address the growing student population, need for technology, or maintaining our existing buildings.”
A web page maintained by the district notes that the largest chunk of the bond, at $63 million, will go for the new high school. Of that amount $13 million will pay for purchasing land for the project, with the remaining $50 million targeting the actual construction.
Other big items: science facility upgrades, pegged at $2.7 million; and the $4.5 million expansion of the district’s primary athletic facilities.
Just as larger Buckeye has seen its population more than double in the last decade from around 51,000 in 2010 to 108,000 today, the school district’s enrollment has taken off.
The most recent enrollment figures show just over 5,500 students, up from around 3,700 a decade ago.
A proposed $155 bond in 2024 was defeated by a 58% to 42% margin.
October 16, 2025
By Garry Boulard
