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15-491. Elections on school property; exceptions

A. The governing board of a school district may, and on petition of fifteen per cent of the school electors as shown by the poll list at the last preceding annual school election shall, call an election for the following purposes:

1. To locate or change the location of school buildings.

2. To purchase or sell school sites or buildings or sell school sites pursuant to section 15-342 or to build school buildings, but the authorization by vote of the school district shall not necessarily specify the site to be purchased.

3. To decide whether the bonds of the school district shall be issued and sold for the purpose of raising money for purchasing or leasing school lots, for building or renovating school buildings, for supplying school buildings with furniture, equipment and technology, for improving school grounds, for purchasing pupil transportation vehicles or for liquidating any indebtedness already incurred for such purposes. Bonds issued for furniture, equipment and technology, other than fixtures, shall mature no later than the July 1 that follows the fifth year after the bonds were issued. A school district shall not issue class B bonds until the school district has obligated in contract the entire proceeds of any class A bonds issued by the school district. The total amount of class A and class B bonds issued by a school district shall not exceed the debt limitations prescribed in article IX, sections 8 and 8.1, Constitution of Arizona.

4. To lease for five or more years, as lessor or as lessee, school buildings or grounds. Approval by a majority of the school district electors voting authorizes the governing board to negotiate for and enter into a lease. The ballot shall list the school buildings or grounds for which a lease is sought. If the governing board does not enter into a lease of five or more years of the school buildings or grounds listed on the ballot within five years of the date of the election and the board continues to seek such a lease, the governing board shall call a special election to reauthorize the board to negotiate for and to enter into a lease of five or more years.

B. No petition shall be required for the holding of the first election to be held in a joint common school district for any of the purposes specified in subsection A of this section. The notice of election required by section 15-492 shall be published in each of the counties that comprise the joint common school district. The certification of election results required by section 15-493 shall be made to the board of supervisors of the jurisdictional county.

C. When the election is called to determine whether or not bonds of the school district shall be issued and sold for the purposes enumerated in the call for the election, the question shall be submitted to the vote of the qualified electors of the school district as defined in section 15-401 and subject to section 15-402.

D. The governing board shall order the election to be held in the manner prescribed in title 35, chapter 3, article 3. If a petition for an election has been filed with the governing board as provided in subsection A of this section, the board shall act on the petition within sixty days by ordering the election to be held as provided in this subsection. If a school district bond election is scheduled for the same date a school district will hold an override election, the governing body shall deliver a copy of the notice of election and ballot to the county school superintendent who shall include the notice of election and ballot with the information report and ballot prepared for the override election. Mailing of the information required for both the override and bond elections shall constitute compliance with the notice provisions of this section.

E. The elections to be held pursuant to this section shall only be held on dates prescribed by section 16-204, except that elections held pursuant to this section to decide whether class B bonds shall be issued, or any other obligation incurred that will require the assessment of secondary property taxes, shall only be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.

F. Subsection A, paragraph 2 of this section does not apply to the sale of school property if the market value of the school property is less than fifty thousand dollars.

G. Bond counsel fees, financial advisory fees, printing costs and paying agent and registrar fees for bonds issued pursuant to an election under this section shall be paid from either the amount authorized by the qualified electors of the school district or current operating funds. Bond election expenses shall be paid from current operating funds only.

H. For any election conducted to decide whether class B bonds will be issued pursuant to this section:

1. Except as provided in paragraph 2 of this subsection, the ballot shall include the following statement:

The capital improvements that are proposed to be funded through this bond issuance are to exceed the state standards and are in addition to monies provided by the state.

___________ school district is proposing to issue class B general obligation bonds totaling $__________ to fund capital improvements over and above those funded by the state. Under the students first capital funding system, _________ school district is entitled to state monies for building renewal, new construction and renovation of school buildings in accordance with state law.

2. For a school district that is a joint technical education district, the ballot shall include the following statement:

___________, a joint technical education district, is proposing to issue class B general obligation bonds totaling $___________ to fund capital improvements at a campus owned or operated and maintained by the joint technical education district.

3. The ballot shall contain the words "bond approval, yes" and "bond approval, no", and the voter shall signify the voter's desired choice.

4. The ballot shall also contain the phrase "the issuance of these bonds will result in an annual levy of property taxes sufficient to pay the debt on the bonds".

5. At least eighty-five days before the election, the school district shall submit proposed ballot language to the director of the Arizona legislative council. The director of the Arizona legislative council shall review the proposed ballot language to determine whether the proposed ballot language complies with this section. If the director of the Arizona legislative council determines that the proposed ballot language does not comply with this section, the director, within ten calendar days of the receipt of the proposed ballot language, shall notify the school district of the director's objections and the school district shall resubmit revised ballot language to the director for approval.

6. No later than thirty-five days before a class B bond election conducted pursuant to this section, the school district shall mail a publicity pamphlet to each household that contains a qualified elector in the school district. The publicity pamphlet shall contain, at a minimum, the following information:

(a) An executive summary of the school district's most recent capital plan submitted to the school facilities board.

(b) A complete list of each proposed capital improvement that will be funded with the proceeds of the bonds and a description of the proposed cost of each improvement, including a separate aggregation of capital improvements for administrative purposes as defined by the school facilities board.

(c) The tax rate associated with each of the proposed capital improvements and the estimated cost of each capital improvement for the owner of a single family home that is valued at one hundred thousand dollars.

I. For any election conducted to decide whether impact aid revenue bonds shall be issued pursuant to this section:

1. The ballot shall include the following statement:

The capital improvements that are proposed to be funded through this bond issuance are to exceed the state standards and are in addition to monies provided by the state.

__________ school district is proposing to issue impact aid revenue bonds totaling $__________ to fund capital improvements over and above those funded by the state. Under the students first capital funding system, _________ school district is entitled to state monies for building renewal, new construction and renovation of school buildings in accordance with state law.

2. The ballot shall contain the words "bond approval, yes" and "bond approval, no", and the voter shall signify the voter's desired choice.

3. At least eighty-five days before the election, the school district shall submit proposed ballot language to the director of the legislative council. The director of the legislative council shall review the proposed ballot language to determine whether the proposed ballot language complies with this section. If the director of the legislative council determines that the proposed ballot language does not comply with this section, the director, within ten calendar days of the receipt of the proposed ballot language, shall notify the school district of the director's objections and the school district shall resubmit revised ballot language to the director for approval.

4. No later than thirty-five days before an impact aid revenue bond election conducted pursuant to this section, the school district shall mail a publicity pamphlet to each household that contains a qualified elector in the school district. The publicity pamphlet shall contain, at a minimum, the following information:

(a) The date of the election.

(b) The voter's polling place and the times it is open.

(c) An executive summary of the school district's most recent capital plan submitted to the school facilities board.

(d) A complete list of each proposed capital improvement that will be funded with the proceeds of the bonds and a description of the proposed cost of each improvement, including a separate aggregation of capital improvements for administrative purposes as defined by the school facilities board.

(e) A statement that impact aid revenue bonds will be fully funded by aid that the school district receives from the federal government and do not require a levy of taxes in the district.

(f) A statement that if the bonds are approved, the first priority for the impact aid will be to pay the debt service for the bonds and that other uses of the monies are prohibited until the debt service obligation is met.

(g) A statement that if the impact aid revenue bonds are approved, the school district shall not issue or sell class B bonds while the district has existing indebtedness from impact aid revenue bonds, except for bonds issued to refund any bonds issued by the board.

J. If the voters approve the issuance of school district class B bonds or impact aid revenue bonds, the school district shall not use the bond proceeds for any purposes other than the proposed capital improvements listed in the publicity pamphlet, except that up to ten per cent of the bond proceeds may be used for general capital expenses, including cost overruns of proposed capital improvements.

K. Each school district that issues bonds under this section is required to hold a public meeting each year between September 1 and October 31, until the bond proceeds are spent, at which an update of the progress of capital improvements financed through bonding is discussed and at which the public is permitted an opportunity to comment. At a minimum, the update shall include a comparison of the current status and the original projections on the construction of capital improvements, the costs of capital improvements and the costs of capital improvements in progress or completed since the prior meeting and the future capital bonding plans of the school district. The school district shall include in the public meeting a discussion of the school district's use of state capital aid and voter-approved capital overrides in funding capital improvements, if any.