The Chandler Unified School District Bond election was passed on Nov. 3 this year in order to pay for various necessary services for schools. This year, CUSD has 43,000 students to provide funds for, and that number grows anywhere from 600 to 1000 students a year. This calls for more buildings, technology, and support in order to maintain the growing number of students.

Over the last eight years, the yearly capital funding from the state has taken a downward slope from $15,998,654 to $3,069,209 and left the CUSD district $77,030,564 over budget. SInce the bond was passed, this money will be paid off.

The money from the bond will be spent on things such as construction, renovations, security improvements, air conditioning and heating, furniture, buses, and technology. All these things are critical to the efficiency and function of each school.

Some people do not realize how expensive it is to fund schools and pay for everything that occurs both inside and outside the classroom. Assistant Principal Joe Greene said, “when you look at education, a lot of people just focus on the things that go on in the classroom, but they don’t understand that there’s a whole network and infrastructure that goes into educating the classroom.”

The safety of Perry and other CUSD schools rely on money being provided to the school. Greene declared, “you have to make sure that your buildings are safe, you have to make sure that your campus is safe, and you have to make sure that the kids are safe… and that’s what the bond takes care of.”

Some who are opposed to the bond argued that much of the money from the bond will go to teacher salaries; however, this is not true. Principal Dan Serrano commented, “bond money is money that can only be used for specific things, it can’t be used for salaries.”

The bond calls for $196,000,000 dollars, which will be generated by an elevated property tax given according to value of each person’s property. After the bonds have been issued, the average person with a house value of $200,000 will pay one dollar a month towards the bond.