Surprise, AZ News blog

The Dysart Unified School District is making it easy to see how it is spending money it receives from school bonds. 

The information is available online on the district’s Web site at http://www.dysart.org/bond/index.html.

Scott Thompson, director of business and technology services, gave the annual report of the district’s bond spending at Wednesday’s governing board meeting.

The site features information on current and completed projects, along with the history of district tax rates.

Among the active projects is rebuilding Luke Elementary at a cost of $14,800,000 and the replacement of playground of equipment and addition of shade structures over new equipment at a cost of $1,400,000.

Board member Mike Planeta praised the efforts that went into getting the information available to the public on the Web site.

“It’s important to have this information out to the public,” Planeta said. “We can show the need to the public of why we need these bonds.”

“But I had no idea playground equipment is that expensive,” Planeta said.

Thompson said that all of the elementary schools have playground equipment for both kindergartners and intermediate-aged students.

“It is not cheap,” Thompson said. “And we do buy appropriate, long-lasting equipment.”

Board member Bill Lipscomb said he was pleased with the availability of the information for district members.

“It’s outstanding that it’s on the Web,” Lipscomb said. “It maintains trust.”