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VOTE NO
on prop 419

Our community deserves a better plan

Proposition 419 asks voters to authorize $449 million in borrowing. We believe a commitment this large should come with a clear repayment picture, a facilities plan tied to enrollment, and spending priorities the public can understand.

 

Students deserve results. Taxpayers deserve answers. 

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SIX REASONS TO VOTE

NO ON 419

1. The bond industry earns ~$10 million in fees. Your taxes pay their bonus.

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2. Contractors who support the bond will get a fat payout from the work.

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3. Only 40% of Mesa students read at grade level. 30% do math at grade level. 70% are below grade level in reading. 70% are below grade level in math. $0 of this bond goes to instruction.

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4. Mesa will lose 11,897 students by 2035–36 — enrollment falls 23% — yet the district wants to renovate half-empty buildings instead of consolidating schools.

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5. You're already paying on a prior bond. Prop 419 stacks another debt payment on top of that. According to the District's example, taxes will go up an additional $170.44/year/household.

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6. The budget is a list of cryptic accounting codes with no legend. Taxpayers can't tell what any line item actually funds — and the district won't publish the code key. You can't audit what you can't read.

The money
doesn't add up

NO ON 419

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  • $449M principal — won't even cover the district's own project list.

  • $0 of the bond goes to instruction — it's capital-only, can't pay teachers.

  • Bond debt per student is $12,301 today, rising to $15,282 by 2035–36 as enrollment shrinks.

  • The bond's 10-year repayment ends at almost exactly the same horizon as the enrollment decline projection.

The Enrollment contradiction

NO ON 419

  • Enrollment is down 10.5% since 2021–22 (from 57,117 students to 51,093).

  • Projected to decrease another 23.3% by 2035–36 (to 39,196 students) - 

  • The district's own fact sheet says it will "keep all of our schools open" — despite losing 11,897 students.

  • Mesa runs 80 schools for about 50,000 students — roughly 625 students per school.

  • The superintendent said junior high schools "were built for 1,200–1,600 students and now run 600–900" — roughly half full.

  • Falling enrollment doesn't reduce bond payments — the debt is repaid from property taxes, not per-pupil state funding.

The CONSOLIDATION
SHELL GAME

NO ON 419

  • The state Auditor General's own report praised the district for closing three schools in 2013 — which improved capacity usage from 77% to 81%. Consolidation works. The district already did it once and it helped.

  • The district says it will "keep all of our schools open" and "reconfigure campuses" instead of consolidating.

  • "Keep all of our schools open" vs. "school consolidation projects" — the district's own documents contradict each other.

  • The district's own superintendent's figures show schools at roughly half capacity — yet the bond funds renovation, not consolidation.

  • Closing under-enrolled schools and selling surplus property would significantly reduce the $1.4B gap — and could fund upgrades on the remaining 

THE CASE STUDY

NO ON 419

MOUNTAIN VIEW HIGH SCHOOL...
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  • $16.5M of the bond goes to Mountain View — that's $4,821 per student.

  • $0 of that $16.5M is instruction — no teachers, no classrooms, no books.

  • Mountain View has fallen roughly 20 points in statewide ranking since 2015 (79.7 → 59.8).

  • Mountain View beats the district and state in reading: 53% vs. 37% (district) and 40% (state).

  • And in math: 43% vs. 27% (district) and 30% (state).

  • Science is the exception: 17%, falling below the state's 19%.
     

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WHAT $16.5M ACTUALLY BUYS MOUNTAIN VIEW

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  • Air conditioning upgrades: $5.0M

  • Student and community experiences: $3.5M — the second-largest line item and the district won't say what it is

  • Technology systems: $2.7M

  • Career and technical education: $2.7M

  • Fire protection: $2.3M

  • IT network and cabling: $1.8M

  • Security upgrades: $744K

  • Total: $16.49M  with $0 for instruction

ACCOUNTABILITY

& TRANSPARENCY

NO ON 419

  • "Student and Community Experiences" ($3.5M) is the second-largest line item at Mountain View — and the district won't define it or publish the scope.

  • "Keep all of our schools open" contradicts "school consolidation projects" — both are contained in the same MPS fact sheet.

  • The MPS budget is published in code — literally. No definitions, no plain English, no way to know where the money goes. The district wants $449M from taxpayers but won't show them, in words they can understand, what they're already spending.

WHO's REALLY
FUNDING THE BOND?

NO ON 419

  • $156,015 raised this cycle by the pro-bond committee, Mesa Alliance for Educational Excellence.

  • $128,300 of it came from corporations and LLCs — over 82% of all money raised.

  • The biggest donors are construction and vendor firms that bid on school district projects:

    • General contractors (McCarthy Holdings, Chasse Building Team, Core Construction, Edge Construction)

    • Electrical (Armstrong, Hawkeye, AME)

    • Masonry and concrete (Stone Cold, Sun Valley, Sportsman, L.R. Cowen)

    • Flooring, demolition, acoustics, playground equipment, and more

  • Many of these firms wrote checks of $5,000 to $10,000.

  • The individual donors are largely Mesa Public Schools administrators and principals — the chief of staff, chief of academics, director of purchasing, director of communications, and dozens of school leaders — all giving on the same two days in early June.

FOLLOW

THE MONEY

NO ON 419

  • This isn't grassroots support. It's the supply chain pre-ordering its own revenue.

  • A bond pays for construction, renovation, HVAC, roofing, and equipment. The companies funding the campaign are the same companies that get the contracts.

  • The district's own upper administration is funding its own campaign — because a "yes" vote means bigger budgets and more to administer.

  • The campaign spent $19,000 on one consulting firm (Agave Strategy) to sell the bond to voters.

  • Meanwhile: there is no anti-bond committee. The "no" side is run by grassroots volunteers with no war chest, citizens who are tired of tax increases and poor educational attainment.

THE BOTTOM LINE

$449M for a district losing 11,897 students.
30% proficiency.
$0 for instruction.
No accountability.

Vote No on Prop. 419.

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Source Links

 

1. The MPS budget is published in accounting codes with no plain-English definitions. 

2. Contractors who support the bond get a fat payout

3. 30% reading, 30% math, $0 for instruction

4. Losing 11,897 students, enrollment falls 23%

5. Taxes go up $170.44/year — district's own example

6. Budget is cryptic codes with no legend

  • No public source — this is your documented observation of the MPS budget document. Verify against the actual published budget.

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THE MONEY DOESN'T ADD UP

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THE ENROLLMENT CONTRADICTION

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THE CONSOLIDATION SHELL GAME

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MOUNTAIN VIEW HIGH SCHOOL

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WHAT $16.5M ACTUALLY BUYS

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ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY

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