Yeah, we have to try. So, um, so these are some examples of the roofs. So, this actually these are South Valley roofs and these were at the point I think at the time they were failing so much we didn't have time to actually go through the SFD process, right? We had to address them. >> Yeah, that this this shows there's this picture and another picture, but it was total one almost in some areas almost 100% intrusion. It wasn't a small roof leak, a drip. I mean, we were putting we were putting like catch we were putting catchalls above the ceiling grid. We were dumping them into when we had heavy rains, we were dumping them into trash cans. It it was in a pretty bad situation. Um this this had not only to do with deterioration but some some under materialist uh material in some areas.
So uh just to Bonnie's point, we've just continue to be diligent in in our process and figuring out we're trying to stay ahead of it. Um one thing I did want to add just to the um your point Chad is is kind of why we wouldn't go do something over necessarily taking it to the SFB or putting everything into the SFP. This is just another way for us to hopefully try to be or show um Gilbert that we're being fiscally responsible or pay the taxpayer. So if there is something so even if they say the SFD is down in funding and and they do approve this project but they're at a point where they could only give us 4 million that's 4 million we're taking advantage of that we could utilize in other areas. So, in order to try to maintain things such as like right sizing the district, I mean, this is part of, you know, trying to hopefully grab any additional funding that we could help um stretch those tax dollars out and and supply a better facility for the the district.
>> Thank you. >> And then this project we think is going to come to you shortly as well. This is uh the flooring at um at South Valley. So, you can see the repairs. So these are this is this is the newest oldest school like Albert likes to call it. So it was built in 2007. >> Uh this is two-phased. Um this is uh 2000 someone correct me. >> Go ahead and explain the what's going on. >> Um obviously this is this is rolled carpet. So now because of the date we're 20 I think 2004 2005 is when it was built. I think threequarters of it was built in four and then the additional uh building was built in '05. Um, but again, we're we're 20 plus years in. Uh, it's rolled carpet. Anybody who's tried to to seam rolled carpet, it it of course, uh, the colors and and um, it's a little bit harder than to do with the the squares that we use now.
Um, so we've just kind of made do with any additional patches, anything that matches closely. I mean, it's it's a little comical to to look at it, but it it is in pretty dire need. Can I ask a quick question about that? Would we be planning on going to the carpet squares to replace? >> Definitely. Yeah. Um >> Yeah. So, everything everything districtwide after um 2016 was was the last grouping of our I think 16 or 17 was the last grouping of our rolled carpet. Everything after that. So, the past 9 to 10 years, we've gone with uh carpet squares again because it gives us more flexibility um and it it helps avoid situations like this. Yeah, we we have them in Mesa. The only concern I have is just they fray so fast. We've had them replaced pretty frequently and to the point where they came in last year and we had to we had to cut all of the long pieces that had been you know the kids are tripping on.
So I don't this is just me thinking but you know if and when we get to this point to replace it just looking at you know making sure we look at those options because it was it looked beautiful for like a year and then um it became a hazard. Was that with the squares or >> Yeah. >> Um and and we've we've had some good results um uh material and product that we've used. We standardized it throughout. Um and and so we we've had we really haven't ran into any fraying. Um again, it gives us the flexibility though because it's usually it usually happens in within that square. So we could pop a new one in and we get about >> I don't know 3 to 5% of attic stock they call it, which is some additional carpet. Um we've also utilized um comparable material throughout the facility.
Luckily for us, a lot of people have picked the same one. So we, you know, it kind of keeps it standardized. So >> we're able to con um replace and match as needed. So >> that's good. My fear would just be down the line it not holding up long enough and now we're spending more money trying to replace more of those squares because they weren't holding up. But if our product is good, >> some of the things that we have done though to that point is that we've had we've encouraged some schools to use LBT down the main hallways where there's more of the traffic and then just use the carpet squares for inside the inside the classroom. So those are some of the changes that we're start we're trying to standardize over time. So we're we're trying to address all those in in in how we proceed with choices, I guess.
So, um, and then these are this is, uh, I think these are Mosqu High. You can see this is they're the third high school of the three oldest high schools to need their uh, tennis courts refurbished. So, what's left is Campo Campo and Desert Desert Ridge High after this. So, again, these are athletes, PE students that are on these surfaces. We have to make sure that they're um, safe surfaces and they're not getting hurt by using them. So those are just some examples. Um I just wanted to make it clear too that on this bond ask are 100% all secured entryways will be addressed. So all the junior highs will have them and all the elementaryaries. These are just mockups and examples of the junior high one and this is an example of the Highland Park uh of the elementary one. And each one of our elementary schools and junior highs have these renderings so that we can share them with the school as we go out and communicate this bond.
And Gilbert L. Um and then so now I'd really like to bring John up to go through his technology ask um so that there's some understanding there as well. So John, >> good evening everybody. Thank you for for having me. Um we're early risers and tech so everyone's in bed already. Um, but want to thank them uh for being amazing other than the occasional governing board video that doesn't play. Um, they've done a wonderful job this year uh with everything. So, I want to do that. Um, everything that you're seeing here, we we spoke in a little bit more in depth about um at the at the retreat. Um, but I just wanted to highlight a few things again for you. Excuse me. um our our our intercom system uh is the only uh what we consider a technology infrastructure in the district that is still all original across all of our schools and never has been um overhauled.
And so that's a large piece of this ask. Um the challenges that we have with that uh ongoing or or the wiring obviously being so old, we can't move to a new more modern IPbased system without that cabling being overhauled. So that's a large large piece of this project. Um, but that's that keeps us um from doing some of the things in the classroom that we'd like to do with the new unified paging system. Um, it also is causing a lot of ongoing maintenance issues. Um, like I said before, this used to fall under Albert's perview and he had two gentlemen that worked really hard over the last 20 years keeping things going, but it's just at a point right now where if something goes wrong, we can spend days or weeks troubleshooting a a issue just because we can't make sense of the wiring that's currently in place.
So, uh, it's ongoing. It's something that we really like to do. It ties into our, uh, security system and our controls as well. So, going to this new system districtwide will allow us to have central management, which for us, that's huge because we can't be everywhere across such a large district like this. So, being able to control that like we do all of our other technical systems that are in place really increases the efficiency for the department. Plus, it keeps things from being down. Like that's the biggest thing is that this is our communication system in the classrooms first and foremost and so um that that's been a struggle. It still leaves local control as well which we really hit on before. So the schools still operate everything locally and if we do lose internet connection which happens a lot if a backhoe goes through our fiber which has happened this year um the school still maintains their control.
So those are some highlights of that. Um also with our display and sound in the in the classroom now um we don't have really ADA compliant um intercoms in our classroom. So these new features will allow not only a speaker in every classroom but also a strobe and a display a small display um that the school can also use for other uh communication purposes. So um those are some of the of the highlights of that piece. Along with adding that though, it does cause our infrastructure to have to be looked at. Every time we add uh IP based devices, those all connect back to a switch in a closet somewhere. So, we need to go through and upgrade some of our closets, some of our racks in order to accept everything. So, you know, we have security cameras, our digital displays, IP speakers, uh which would be part of this or wireless APs.
Those all have to come back somewhere. It's a big highway. And so this would be a a cost to upgrade those uh and also to add a little bit of battery backup to our systems. Right now if the electricity goes down, the systems go down at our sites. This would allow us to have a short run time if that were to happen. So even if there's a blip, we like to call it electricity or kind of a lull, you know, where your lights go down and up, that could cause our equipment to go off, which it does, and then it takes a while for that to come back up. And we also lose all the connectivity with that. So if we have an entire classroom testing for example and that happens, they would lose connectivity. So part of this would be to add some short-term u battery backup to to all of our sites.
Along with that comes cooling. We work closely uh with Albert and his team. Um but we do have some closets where we do have some heat issues. So this would include uh some of that infrastructure as well. add some more cooling to some of those spaces. Um, if we're losing equipment because of heat, they won't be warrantied as well. So, it's a bit of a of a snowball effect. Our our network year, of course, is is like the freeway of our of our backbone. Um, we roughly every seven years uh refresh that. So, that would come up in this bond cycle. So, we've we've uh added that in here along with our wireless access points uh and controllers. The last piece is a a classroom a refresh. Um I I I mentioned this last time, but it's it's crazy how we're already up to five years on our first pilot school uh with the digital displays or the Ben Qboards on our classrooms.
So um the year after that will be another 20 schools and the year after that would be the rest of them. Um things have changed a little bit since then. Everything we have now is on a fiveyear uh warranty cycle. Uh which has been great, but now things are going on a seven-year warranty cycle with these boards. So obviously they've gotten better, but that also keeps us under the software uh life cycle of that board as well under that warranty. So I think things are going to change a little bit there and hopefully cost will come down a little bit with with that piece.
So with that said, I kind of rushed through that a little bit, but if you have any questions, love to answer those for you. >> Do do we know we have Ben Qboards now. Do we know what we we'll be replacing those with? Do we have a company specifically or we just have the money in here and that part will come later? >> So we do like we did before. We'd get our technology advisory committee and add some stakeholders to that because that group still exists. Um, and then we'd go through the entire process again like we did before. So, >> it's not us just picking it. We have our check boxes. Teachers always have their check boxes and we always find a a device that can meet as many of those needs as possible. >> Okay. Thank you. That was what I wanted to understand.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Go to bed. >> Okay. So outstanding bond debt and tax rate summary. So this is what how how is this $136 million going to impact our local taxpayer? So first of all, fortunately for Gilbert, we have over the uh for the 2015 bond as well as the 2019 bond, our debt program was very short. So that because of that, it gives us a great deal of flexibility to get to get more done um at less of a less of an impact on the taxpayer and allows us opportunities to um to actually sell more bonds and not have a a tax impact on our local taxpayer. So, and then just a reminder because of that flexibility that we had um back in 2021, we were able to accelerate the sale of bonds because we still were meeting the parameters of the tax rate as well as the levy.
And so because of that, we took advantage of those incredibly low interest rates where we were selling bonds at a total um interest cost of less than 1%. So if you looked at that actual cost in comparison to what we estimate in the pamphlet, there was a total of a $27.7 million gain to against the taxpayer for interest charges only. So that's what happens when you have shorter debt. you've got a lot more flexibility and you can move quicker on taking advantage of those opportunities to make sure that you're always considering the taxpayer load whenever we're making whenever we're making decisions. So this is the GPS total tax rate levies over time. You can see that we continue to decline. This is twofold. The qualifying tax rate has gone down. Our assessed valuation continues to go up and then our actual debt load is decreasing as well.
So there's three things really that are contributing to that decline in that tax rate. And so then what's what's going to happen with it? So we're going to do $136 million of a general obligation bond. So here's our assessed value growth. Again, we we are required by statute to estimate this assessed value growth um on the pamphlet. So we're uh estimating another 6.4% assessed value growth next year. And then this is our plan, our overall plan. And so I wanted to point out to you this um oval here. So if you look if you look at our existing taxes, this light blue line here is um this light blue line right here has a tax rate of just under 85 cents per $100 of assessed value. So now, if we're successful in November of um 26, that'll be fiscal 27, we could actually turn around in the early winter, probably January, February time frame, and sell about 2 and a4 million worth of bonds.
And then you can see the resulting impact on the tax rate. So over time, even with these three bond sales, $50 million, $50 million, and then 36 million, our tax rate continues to go down. So as the tax rate is going to go down and the assessed value grows and some of that assessed value is not just value, it's intrinsic value, which means there's new property coming on the rolls. That means the levy that you can see the levy of 26.7, 26.6, 6 26.1 that's how much we're actually asking of the taxpayers annually. That levy is going to be spread across more taxpayers which results in a lower tax rate. So this gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of how we we talk about this bond program for November of 2026. Please know that if we did not have a bond ask or we were not approved for the bond in November of 2023, that means that the reduction in the tax rate in the levy would just happen that much quicker.
So when you look at the date or you look at the resolution, if you look at some of the details of that resolution, it's going to say that this $136 million bond ask is going to cost the taxpayer another 40 cents than it would otherwise. So just so that you're aware of that. So, I'm I'm really going to put on display my ignorance here. >> Oh, no. It's okay because this is really complicated. >> Um, well, wait till I ask my question. There's been a huge just a glut of apartment buildings that have been built in Gilbert in the past five years and continue to be built. How does that impact any of these numbers? Do do people that that rent apartments are they is this tax only applied to property owners or is this tax also is this do do a renters also share in this uh in this tax?