Dear PTS families,

Beginning in 2015, a committee made up of community members, district staff and school board members reviewed the needs of PTS related to a long list of goals, many lofty, that included improving school security, providing seismic upgrades and enhancing Phoenix High School’s educational and athletic facilities.

A decade later, all the goals listed in the 2017 voters’ pamphlet and many more have been achieved as our district has been transformed from one in disrepair to a shining example of what can be accomplished when a tight-knit community facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle proclaims in one voice, “we got this!”

I am writing to you today to simply say thank you. By passing that $68 million bond in 2017, you have gifted PTS students now and in the future so much more than safe and efficient brick and mortar upgrades. You have provided opportunities for inspiration that did not exist here before and wonderful learning spaces that could never have been drawn up, let alone built, without your commitment.

It is not lost on me that bonds of this size rarely pass in this state. You trusted us with your money and that is a responsibility we took very seriously. Now that our commitment has been fully realized, I am proud to say that thanks to our strategic efforts to leverage grants and incentives in addition to interest earned on investments, we were able to turn that original $68 million into $84 worth of upgrades. What a gift, PTS! Phoenix High School is certainly the most impressive example of what the bond has done here, but every building in the district has seen major improvements thanks to you.

In the interest of transparency and to highlight the bond’s impact, we now have a section of our website dedicated to the 2017 bond, and I encourage you to check it out. It includes the original bond language, a financial breakdown, an exhaustive list of the related projects and many drone videos and photos showcasing the construction process. I think you’ll be impressed by how far our team has been able to stretch those dollars. Here, I’ll give a very special shoutout to Jon McCalip, our amazing director of facilities and special projects, who somehow was able to coordinate multiple massive projects year after year while making sure they all came in under budget while also hitting some very tight time windows. Given the way prices have skyrocketed recently, it is nothing short of miraculous what Jon and his team have been able to accomplish.

So once again, thank you, PTS Rising, for your gift to the youth of our beautiful community. I hope you like what we’ve done with the place!

Brent Barry, PTS Superintendent