$6.7M each to MVP, CCS and DDB, $5.3M to Oak Creek, plus curriculum, bus barn

The Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District’s proposed $30 million bond, which will head to voters for the Tuesday, Nov. 3, General Election, would appropriate $6.7 million to three of its schools and another $5.3 million to Oak Creek Elementary, if passed.

Superintendent Jessica Vocca presented those allocations to the Governing Board during its meeting on June 3, with the rest of the bond alloted to the bus barn, the district office, Cottonwood Education Services and curriculum changes.

The curriculum expenses, which total $1 million, would be for some licensing for the intervention program, but largely it would be spent on the Science of Reading program, which the district began implementing with funding from Yavapai County in the fall.

This program needs student texts, classroom libraries, consumable materials, teacher resources and assessments, Curriculum Director Jamie Woodward wrote in an email after the meeting. The kindergarten-through-fifth-grade materials will also need to be replaced “as those materials reach the end of their adoption cycle over the next several years.”

“The goal is to ensure students and teachers have access to current, research-based literacy materials that support reading achievement and align with state expectations,” she said. “The proposed investment is intended to support curriculum needs over multiple years rather than requiring frequent largescale replacements.”

Facilities

Most of the bond’s funds, however, would go toward the maintenance of the COCSD buildings.

“You’re going to see well systems and pumps at every school, septic systems, public address systems. … We also have some safety and security issues we need to work through and our network infrastructure at each school,” Vocca said.

The board also approved language to be sent out to voters in a pamphlet prior to the election, which COCSD Executive Assistant Tricia Winters subsequently said would likely be mailed out in early October.

Board member Ruth Elinski said she wanted a focus on the word “rehabilitation” rather than just a general statement of spending capital funds on facilities’ infrastructure.

“We’re not buying all new things, it’s really about working with what we have,” she said. “Using what we have, but putting money back into the things that infrastructure that’s already there.”

“We need HVAC systems, roofing repairs, gutters, sidewalk safety, lighting and also something — and it’s part of our infrastructure — is our water system, our pipes are breaking,” Vocca said. “Mains are beginning to burst. That’s probably our No. 1 priority right now.”

When there’s no water, there’s not much the district can do. Bathrooms can’t be used, nor kitchens, which are needed for schools to operate.

These issues are beginning to pop up even at the newer schools like Mountain View Preparatory, which was built in 2003, Facilities Manager Matt Dalton said.

“A lot of that AC at the other campuses got replaced, actually during the last bond,” Dalton said. “So there was a lot of them that hit that 2013, 2016 range, except for MVP. CES got done, it looks like, CCS got done, DDB got done, Oak Creek got done a little bit — so a lot of the systems are aging, but the ones at MVP are original to that school when it was built.”

Vocca said the district would begin a priority list on what would be addressed first before the board’s next meeting on Wednesday, July 1.