School's Out Forever!

The "Prophet" pulled the FLDS children out of the public schools in 2000 so that they wouldn't have to associate with the "apostates".   This move led to the closure of the elementary school in Hildale.   However, tax dollars were still being paid to support non-existent students.   The Colorado City School District fell into financial ruin and was under investigation for their spending habits, such as buying a Cessna airplane.   Teachers' paychecks started bouncing. FINALLY the government did something about the situation and put the school district into receivership. But then in 2009 the local community college decided it didn't want honest law enforcement and social service providers located in "their" town, so they did what they could to run them out. Read about the public school system fiasco and the community college's efforts to keep Colorado City a closed community in the articles below.   These news articles are listed in chronological order.

Polygamists' move imperils school funds

By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 4, 2000

Flagstaff - Polygamist church leaders in Colorado City have ordered their nearly 8,000 followers to cut all ties with the town's public schools and to teach their children at home, leaving the Arizona-Utah border community's school year in doubt.   Deloy Bateman, a high school science teacher, said Thursday that a majority of his fellow teachers already have resigned following the pronouncement by Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. School is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.   About 1,000 students attend public school in Colorado City, and an additional 300 attend another public school in neighboring Hildale, Utah.   The move, announced late last month, was the latest by church leaders to further isolate the remote, secretive community, where some men have up to 15 wives.     Read more

School Funds in Danger After Ruling

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published August 4, 2000

PHOENIX (AP) -- Nearly 8,000 followers of a polygamist church in an isolated community near the Utah state line have been ordered to teach their children at home, putting the school year in doubt.   Deloy Bateman, a high school science teacher in Colorado City, said many teachers have resigned following the pronouncement by Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   "Even if the school stays open, the religious leadership will likely turn up the psychological pressure on all others to leave town," said Bateman, who left the church three years ago and has taught at the high school for 17 years.   School is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.  About 1,000 students attend public school in Colorado City and another 300 attend public school in neighboring Hildale, Utah.   Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow said public schooling would continue and he didn't anticipate problems in hiring competent teachers.     Read more

Grade school remains open despite patriarch's pull-out decree

The Associated Press Originally published August 22, 2000

HILDALE, Utah - First-year Principal Max Tolman was pleasantly surprised when 94 students showed up for the first day of classes Monday at Phelps Elementary in Hildale.   Last year the school had nearly 250 students.   However, in July the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Warren Jeffs, told followers to stop associating with apostates and outsiders and pull their children from public schools.   Most of the families in Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Ariz., are polygamists and most are members of Jeffs' FLDS sect.   Neither Tolman nor Rex Wilkey, Washington County School District assistant superintendent for elementary schools, would speculate on the religious beliefs of the students at Phelps this year although Wilkey said he recognized a few kids from last year. Read more

Low turnout causes delay for Colorado City schools

Religion forbidding public education

Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 23, 2000

School officials in Colorado City have delayed starting the fall semester for a week as they plan for the withdrawal of hundreds of students by polygamous religious families.   Public schools in the town on the Arizona-Utah line had been scheduled to start Tuesday but have been pushed back until next Monday as the school tries to address an attrition of teachers and students.   "There have been a number of community meetings and discussion about what to do next," said Mike File, Mohave County's school superintendent in Kingman.   More than 1,000 students attended schools in Colorado City during the last school year, and File said school officials estimate that between 450 and 500 students will be on hand next week when classes begin.   Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who broke from the mainstream Mormon Church in the late 1800s over the question of multiple wives, demanded in late July that all its congregation school their children at home or in private schools sanctioned by the church.  The church also told its followers to quit dealing with outsiders who don't believe in the religion.   Only 94 students turned out for the first day of classes Monday at Phelps Elementary School in neighboring Hildale, Utah, Principal Max Tolman said.  The school had nearly 250 students last year. Read more

Polygamous families empty public schools

By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 29, 2000

COLORADO CITY - He'd had a month to prepare since polygamous religious leaders declared public schools the bane of this insular, isolated town of hotel-sized houses, frontier dresses and ponytails.  But Colorado City Superintendent Alvin Barlow said there's only so much you can do to offset the shock on the first day of school when two-thirds of your previous student body, more than 600 students, don't show up.   Like the surreal, deserted corridors.     Read more

Education watched in polygamist town

By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published September 3, 2000

Colorado City - It happened more than two generations ago, but the lesson still resonates among elected officials.   There are no political points to be gained in going after polygamists.  Then-Gov. Howard Pyle and police officers raided this town of men with many wives in 1953, arrested two dozen polygamous patriarchs and then watched in dismay as public opinion favored the women and children left behind. Pyle bitterly acknowledged up to his death that the raid cost him another term in office.   Now, Arizona is facing a different problem with polygamists along the fertile banks of Short Creek, at the foot of towering, pine-studded red cliffs: How to monitor the education of children when the entire town pulls out of the public school system.   Mike File, Mohave County's school superintendent, doesn't know.     Read more

Polygamists pull kids from school

The Associated Press Originally published September 12, 2000

Hundreds of members of a polygamous Mormon splinter group have pulled their children out of the public schools along the Utah-Arizona state line -- preparing, perhaps, for the end of the world.  Only about 350 students have enrolled in the four schools in the desert towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, compared with 1,400 last year.  Dozens of teachers belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have also quit.  They acted at the direction of Warren Jeffs, who speaks on behalf of his aged father, Rulon Jeffs, the church's prophet.  In mid-July, Warren Jeffs ordered followers to take their children out of school and cut off contact with former church members.     Read more

Student Exodus Hits Schools In 2 Towns

By Catherine Gewertz Education Week on the Web Originally published September 13, 2000

Urged by their leader to home-school their children, members of a fundamentalist religious group have withdrawn nearly two-thirds of the students from the public schools in a small district near the Arizona-Utah state line.   Multiple versions of the events in Colorado City, Ariz., over the past six weeks have been offered, but this much is clear: Enrollment in the Colorado City Unified School District's three schools plummeted from 988 last year to 350 this year.  Two-thirds of its 75 teachers and a good portion of its classified staff also declined to return to work this year, Superintendent Alvin Barlow said.   Across the creek and the state line in Hildale, Utah, Phelps Elementary School's enrollment dropped from last year's 220 to 96, and 11 of the 13 teachers resigned, said Principal Max Tolman.   Phelps Elementary and the Colorado City schools serve families of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who settled those towns in polygamous family units decades ago.  The Mormon church, which eschewed the practice of polygamy more than a century ago, disavows any connection to the Arizona sect.   In sermons in late July, the Colorado City church's first counselor, Warren Jeffs, reportedly directed followers to pull their children from the public schools and to minimize contact with those outside the church.     Read more

Closing Ranks Polygamous Sect Pulls Children From Schools

By Oliver Yates Libaw ABC News Originally published September 14, 2000

Hundreds of members of a polygamous Mormon splinter group on the Utah-Arizona border are pulling their children out of the local public school system and severing contact with the outside world.   In Colorado City, Ariz., and neighboring Hildale, Utah, Rulon Jeffs, the aging leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told followers in July to home-school their children and to cut ties completely with non-members and former members.   "There’s a mass exodus," Mike File, the county school superintendent overseeing Colorado City, told ABCNEWS.com.   When classes began on Aug. 22, roughly 350 students enrolled in the school system, compared to 1,400 last year.  Over half the teachers at Colorado City schools belong to the sect and did not return for work, File says.   Turnout was so low at the town’s junior high school, it had to be closed because of a lack of students.    Read more

Strange days in Utah

Why did a Mormon sect take its kids out of school?

By Andrew Murr Newsweek Originally published November 13, 2000

Situated in the remote desert along the Utah-Arizona border, the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, are the longtime redoubt of a breakaway Mormon sect that still practices polygamy 110 years after it was banned by the mainstream Mormon Church.   The sect, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is run by a self-proclaimed prophet and "Mouthpiece of God" named Rulon Jeffs, who is 90 years old and reported to have somewhere between 19 and 60 wives.   (An attorney for Jeffs confirms he has plural wives.)   To followers, Jeffs's words have the force of law, and they paid close attention last July when the prophet's son, Warren Jeffs, told "the Priesthood people" to separate themselves from "the apostates" around them.  In September, the rest of the community found out what Jeffs meant-attendance at local schools suddenly dropped by 75 percent when the sect decided to educate nearly 1,000 children at home.     Read more

For one Mormon teacher, worlds did collide

By Susan Greene Denver Post Originally published March 4, 2001

Colorado City, Ariz. - A mural in DeLoy Bateman's science classroom shows Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.   Such teaching aids are standard in most high schools.  But not here in the hub of Mormon fundamentalism, where such an image can cause a man like Bateman to lose his religion.   In a community that believes the sun is God's home, Bateman teaches it's a thermonuclear reactor.   To children who think Earth was created 7,000 years ago, he explains it's 4.5 billion years old. His collections of fossils and dinosaur bones blatantly challenge townsfolks' theories about creation.   But it's Bateman's lunar landing mural that most boldly confronts local teachings.   Because church prophet LeRoy Johnson prophesied in 1968 that man would never land on the moon, his followers and their descendants are certain it never happened.     Read more

School in polygamist community is closed

Provo Daily Herald Originally published April 19, 2001

ST. GEORGE (AP) -- Despite efforts of Phelps Elementary administrators, staff members and parents to keep it open, the Washington County School Board has voted unanimously to close the school in the polygamist community of Hildale.   The board took the action Tuesday on the recommendation of Superintendent Kolene Granger and Rex Wilkey, assistant superintendent of elementary education.   Wilkey said the projected enrollment at Phelps for the 2001-2002 school year is only 25.  Current enrollment is 102.   Enrollment fell drastically last fall after Warren Jeffs, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, called upon followers to withdraw their children from public schools.   Following the church leader's edict, seven Phelps staffers quit and enrollment dropped from 250 to 94.     Read more

Home schools: Nobody's watching

Parents like 'freedom'; critics want stronger oversight

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published July 1, 2001

Arizona lawmakers have spent years demanding testing and accountability in the public schools.   But at the same time, and with much less fanfare, they've been killing laws requiring the same for kids taught at home.   The result: Arizona has no way to gauge the quality of home-schooling.  Supporters, many backed by conservative religious organizations, call that freedom; critics call it irresponsibility.   Today, any parent who fills out a notarized one-page form is free to pull kids out of school and teach them at home.  It's unlikely that anyone will notice what or whether these children are learning.   But many home-schoolers say that's exactly as it should be: Because it costs no tax money, it's no one's business.  "The best laws are the ones that give parents the maximum freedom to choose the best education for their child," said attorney Darren Jones of the national Home School Legal Defense Association.  Jones names Arizona one of the 10 least-restrictive states for home-schoolers.     Read more

Hildale school will go private

Phelps elementary, closed after FLDS members pulled children from school, to be sold to investors

By Angie Parkinson The Spectrum Originally published October 2, 2002

HILDALE -- Phelps Elementary may once again be filled with the sound of children's voices.  The school building, located on the Utah side of the twin communities of Hildale and Colorado City, has been leased to a group of investors who plan to use the building for a private school.   The halls of the school were emptied after faithful followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- the vast majority of Colorado City and Hildale residents -- answered a call from the pulpit in August 2000.   Warren Jeffs, a counselor in the first presidency of the FLDS church, called for faithful members to withdraw from public schools.  After the initial call, enrollment at Phelps fell from 240 the year before to 94 on the first day of the 2000-2001 school year.   The Washington County School Board voted to close the school in April 2001 because of lack of enrollment.   "We would prefer to keep the school open, but we were down to 16 students," said Washington County School District Superintendent Kolene Granger.   The group is going to lease Phelps Elementary with an option to buy at the end of 10 years.   The sale price is $1 million.     Read more

Religious discrimination lives on

By Elizabeth Stohlton BYU NewsNet Originally published December 12, 2002

Some people believe that religious discrimination is a thing of the past, but for two women and their children in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., discrimination still exists.   Former polygamist wives Lenore Holm of Colorado City and Pamela Black of Hildale are speaking out against discrimination and harassment the women say started after they severed ties with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   Now, these women claim their children are being harassed at school, on the bus and in town.   Colorado City and Hildale became home to the FLDS Church and polygamy in the early 1900s.  The polygamists sought refuge in the twin cities after polygamy was outlawed by the federal government and banned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   The FLDS Church was one organization until 1980, when there was a dispute over church leadership.  It was at this time that the FLDS Church divided into the First Ward and the Second Ward, Holm said.   Several years ago, Rulon Jeffs, former prophet of the First Ward of the FLDS Church until his death earlier this year, asked church members to pull their children out of Phelps Elementary, a public school in Hildale.  Church leaders created a parochial school for children in the First Ward.   Enrollment at the Utah public school dramatically declined after Jeffs' announcement, and children from Arizona were bused to the Utah school in order to keep the school open through the school year.  Shortly after the school year ended, Phelps Elementary School closed because it did not have enough students, Black said.   The next year, Washington County paid the tuition for the remaining Utah children to be bused to Colorado City Elementary School in Arizona, including Black's and Holm's children.   Today, only those not belonging to the FLDS First Ward attend Colorado City Elementary School; however, most of the teachers, administrators and bus drivers at the Arizona school belong to the First Ward.     Read more

Polygamy in Arizona: The Wages of Sin

Arizona polygamist leaders are using public funds to support religious schools and line their own pockets. The state's done nothing to stop them.

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published April 10, 2003

Deloy Bateman begins each school day long before dawn.   He rousts five of his teenage children from bed at 2 a.m. An hour later, the clan arrives at the Colorado City public school.  Soon, a few other kids join the group in Bateman's well-stocked science laboratory.   After two hours of preparation and studying, Bateman begins lectures on the first of a dozen classes he will conduct during the long day.  They include pre-calculus, chemistry, earth science, electronics, plastics, physiology, physics and physical education.   Bateman doesn't work 16 hours a day for the money.  After 20 years of teaching at the Colorado City Unified School District, his salary has risen to only $33,500 a year.   "We are dedicated to helping, plain and simple," he says.  "That little statement pretty much explains my personality."   Ironically, as far as the fanatic polygamist Mormons who control this isolated northern Arizona community are concerned, Bateman may as well be teaching Satanism.   Colorado City, which hugs the Utah border north of the Grand Canyon, is a town where most of the residents don't believe in evolution, dinosaurs or that America sent men to the moon.   It is a place where education beyond the eighth grade is deemed unnecessary by many – particularly for teenage girls who frequently are coerced into polygamous marriages to older men by the time they reach 16.   Bateman and a handful of other dedicated educators fight an astounding array of obstacles to fulfill their duties as public school teachers – chief among them hostile religious discrimination.     Read more

Profits of Polygamy

Arizona launches a probe into alleged improper spending by the Colorado City school district

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published July 10, 2003

The state Auditor General's Office has begun a preliminary investigation into the finances of a polygamist-controlled school district in northern Arizona in the wake of New Times' reports of extravagant and improper spending by the tiny, one-school Colorado City Unified School District.   The auditor general's "special review" could lead to a major investigation of the finances of the school district controlled by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Polygamy is a tenet of the FLDS, which split more than 70 years ago from the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church.   The Auditor General's Office did not return a phone call seeking comment on the investigation, which began after New Times provided auditor general's investigators access to thousands of pages of school district financial records obtained under the state public records law.   The school district discussed the investigation at its June 24 board meeting, according to the meeting agenda. Colorado City officials did not return a phone call seeking comment.   The auditor general's investigation could widen to also include the state Department of Education, which will soon determine whether to launch a separate inquiry into the district's prolific travel expenses, including the purchase of a $220,000 aircraft and the use of district credit cards for personal expenses.     Read more

Colo. City district thriving, thanks to AZ taxpayers

By Al Herron Prescott Daily Courier Originally published Friday, August 8, 2003

Until the year 2000, all of the children in Colorado City, Ariz., attended public schools.  But then the FLDS prophet, Rulon Jeffs, ordered the faithful to stop all contact with heathen and apostates – which meant anybody who is not FLDS. So about 650 children left the 950-student system. Imagine the chaos that resulted from this religious edict.   Even though all the church’s children left, the School Board has remained 100 percent FLDS. Remember this as you read.   Most of the remaining students were from polygamist families also, but they belonged to a smaller, dissenting group called the 2nd Warders – apostates, doomed to hellfire – who live three miles away.   This is a very poor school district, and the board never tried to build its own schools.  Instead, they leased space in buildings owned by the FLDS church.  After the edict in 2000, the district did not need as much space, so even though some leases were paid up for several years in advance, the board relinquished most of it.  Now the church has that space for its schools.   Every negotiation was a sweetheart deal which favored the church at the expense of the taxpayers.   Next, the school board pleaded poverty to the newly created Arizona School Facilities Board. The facilities in Colorado City were indeed bad, so in 2001 the state built them a new $6 million K-12 school, and we taxpayers paid for it.     Read more

Colorado City educators a no-show for meeting

e-Press Tri-State News Network A Production of Murphy Broadcasting, Inc Originally published Monday, February 23, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. – A collection of 12 educators and residents from Colorado City scheduled a meeting with both the Mohave County and State Superintendents Saturday afternoon and didn't show up.  Mohave County Superintendent Mike File received the call and that the Colorado City contingent would not be attending their own meeting.   "After meeting last night to prepare the information that they were going to go over today, several of them received e-mails that the press would be here and then they decided that they just weren't going to come.  Because most of the people that were going to come down were staff members, who were going to share with you the information that they see everyday in the school.  And it became apparent that they felt they would lose their jobs for insubordination or whatever charges would be brought against them.  So they just decided that they weren’t coming," File said.   The reason for the meeting was an attempt by the Colorado City delegation to alter both state and county funding for their schools.     Read more

Colorado City teachers may see 15 percent less pay

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published Friday, May 14, 2004

COLORADO CITY -- Teachers who are devoted not only to teaching but to teaching in the Colorado City Unified School District, may soon be looking elsewhere for employment due to the possibility of a 15 percent cut in pay.   More than 30 teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff and a few residents attended the Colorado City school board meeting Tuesday night to express their concerns to the school board.   Everyone who spoke at the meeting made emotional pleas to the board members, who made few comments.  Their behavior prompted one teacher to call the board members "aloof."   Superintendent Alvin Barlow told those present at the meeting that legislative budget cuts may force the school to take drastic measures to meet the budget this year, one that is still in the planning phase and has yet to be finalized.     Read more

Colorado City raises primary property taxes

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published Wednesday, July 28, 2004

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. -- Looking for ways to come up with money for the 2004-2005 school year, the Colorado City Unified School District No. 14 trimmed $100,000 from capital funds but a hefty property tax rate increase is still needed to keep the school running.   In order to help fund the $2.4 million maintenance and operations portion of the school budget, the primary property tax rate will increase from $3.55 to $8.94 adding an extra $5.39 per $100 on assessed property values.   The increase will place the assessed property value at roughly $13 per $100 which will make Colorado City's rate the highest in the county.  Lake Havasu had the highest rate with $9.19 per $100 of the assessed property value.   The tax increase will likely hit hard in a community where there is already a large percentage of residents behind on paying their utility bills.   Although the majority of the people who attended a Monday meeting about the tax increase want what is best for the school children, one woman remarked that she would rather see programs cut than see people forced out of their homes due to the increased property tax rate.   Perhaps some of the hardest hit will be the people who work at the school and pay property taxes.  Wages for staff at the school were cut by 15 percent.   The teachers who left due to the cut in wages will not be replaced, leaving an increased burden on the remaining teachers.     Read more

Colorado City schools tax hike too high

IN OUR VIEW The Spectrum Originally published August 2, 2004

A combination of budget cuts and hefty expenses has prompted a 152 percent property tax increase on the Colorado City School District's portion of property taxes for homes within its boundaries.   At a meeting last week, the school board increased the property taxes from $3.55 per $100 of assessed value to $8.94 per $100.  The funds will help pay for maintenance and operations.   District officials blame Arizona officials, who cut the district's allocation of money because of the rapid decrease in enrollment.  The district had 991 students in the 1999-2000 school year, but after a decree from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for families to pull their children from public schools, enrollment plummeted to 359 students in 2000-01 and has remained about the same since.   To make up the difference, the district has to raise money, and that means taxes have to be raised.   Or do they?   When businesses run short on cash, they make appropriate cuts to expense budgets.     Read more

Polygamists' schools may lose funding

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published August 19, 2004

A public school system run by the nation's largest polygamous sect in a remote area near the Arizona-Utah line could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds for failing to properly report how it spends its money, officials said Wednesday.   The possible sanction is the latest in a string of political, legal and administrative pressures being brought to bear in three states and Canada against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs.   Maude Haggerty, accounting services director for the Arizona Auditor General's Office, confirmed Wednesday that the Colorado City Unified School District failed to meet the second of two deadlines to properly report spending for fiscal 2003.   The district, which is controlled by the FLDS, could lose up to 10 percent of its annual state funding for failing to comply, Haggerty said.   Any major cutback could be significant because Jeffs has a history of using public jobs to promote loyalty in the twin communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, where most of the sect's 10,000 faithful live.   Colorado City's school district is a prime example.   It has 104 employees and 289 students.  All but a few of the employees are FLDS faithful.   None of the students is a follower of the church.   The nearly 3-1 ratio of students to workers in the Colorado City school system is in contrast to other Arizona districts, where the ratio is typically anywhere from a 10-1 to 25-1.   "It's absurd," said Mike File, Mohave County schools superintendent, who has been critical of Colorado City's operations for years.  "It's about time someone did something about this."     Read more

Polygamous school district under scrutiny

By Mike Watkiss KTVK News Channel 3 - Phoenix Originally published Thursday, August 19, 2004

The school district in Arizona's largest polygamous community, Colorado City, has missed a second deadline to file necessary financial papers with state auditors.   Records of the district's finances for 2003 were due in March.   The district failed to meet that deadline. A 90-day extension was granted, and the district missed that deadline, too.   Colorado City school Superintendent Alvin Barlow has never liked answering questions from reporters about the way he runs his school district, but now he isfacing tough questions from the state authorities about the finances of the school district that critics say is completely controlled by Colorado City's all-powerful polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs.   "If the allegations are true, the situation has become totally dysfunctional and and there needs to be a receiver appointed because it’s not being governed in a rational way now," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.     Read more

Polygamists seek tax hike

Schools already face financial allegations

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published August 25, 2004

Already facing questions about how they spent state money, officials in charge of public schools in the nation's largest polygamous community want to raise an additional $1.5 million through a special bond election this fall.   The governing board of the Colorado City Unified School District passed a resolution three weeks ago authorizing the Nov. 2 special bond election.   The measure would give wide spending discretion to the school board, which already is being audited by the state for questionable financial policies, including the purchase of a $220,000 airplane.   "Any district that wants to go ahead with a bond election should at least be in fiscally good standing with the State Department of Education and the auditor general," said Mike File, superintendent of Mohave County schools and a longtime critic of the Colorado City school district.   "These guys certainly are not anywhere close to being in good fiscal standing."   Like everything in the twin communities of Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, the school board is controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.     Read more

Colorado City schools should trim the fat

IN OUR VIEW The Spectrum Originally published Monday, August 30, 2004

The Colorado City School District remains under the microscope of Arizona investigators after the district missed the second of two deadlines to report spending for the 2003 fiscal year.   According to published reports, the district stands to lose about 10 percent of its funding, which could reach into the $400,000 range.  Such a loss could result in the loss of a significant number of jobs and could hurt the education of children attending the public school system there.   No explanation has been given for the tardy reports.  But clearly something is wrong in the district if routine reports are not being filed -- at the very least a problem with internal procedures.   Unfortunately, the children who will be harmed by the smaller funding are largely not members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which holds polygamy as one of its tenets.  The children remaining in the school system are mostly children who don't follow the FLDS doctrine and, therefore, don't consider the church's president, the elusive Warren Jeffs, to be their prophet.   District officials have to do a couple of things to benefit the students under their care.     Read more

Polygamous community cancels special bond election for schools

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published August 30, 2004

Officials in Colorado City, home of the nation's largest polygamous community, have canceled an emergency bond election intended to raise $1.5 million for a public school system already under scrutiny for its spending policies.   "All I know is that a person from Colorado City came in to my office and notified me that they did not meet some kind of deadline and they cannot hold the election," said Allen Tempert, director of elections for Mohave County.   Tempert said he was notified of the cancellation late last week shortly after The Arizona Republic reported the Colorado City Unified School District had filed papers to hold the election in November.   The Arizona Auditor General's Office formally notified state education officials Aug. 20 that the school district failed to meet legal deadlines for reporting how it spent state and federal funds last year.   At their next board in late September, education officials have the power to withhold up to 10 percent of the district's funding until the reporting guidelines are met.   Besides failing to meet reporting deadlines for last year's spending, the Colorado City school district is the subject of a broader audit requested 13 months ago by Tom Horne, state superintendent of public education.     Read more

Colorado City funds may be withheld

The Associated Press Deseret Morning News Originally published Sunday, September 5, 2004

The school board in a polygamist community on the Arizona-Utah line is seeking more money even though authorities say it has failed to account for last year's spending.   The governing board of the Colorado City Unified School District has authorized a Nov. 2 special bond election in hopes of raising $1.5 million.   Meanwhile, the school board is being audited by Arizona authorities for questionable financial policies, including the purchase of a $220,000 airplane.   The Arizona Auditor General's Office said the Colorado City Unified School District failed to file required paperwork on its spending for fiscal 2003.   Education officials traditionally withhold 10 percent of a district's annual funding until the proper accounting is completed.   The Colorado City school district has come under criticism for using state funds to purchase the plane and for hiring 104 employees to run a system with 289 students.   The Arizona Board of Education will decide this month whether to withhold part of Colorado City's budget for failing to meet its 2003 financial reporting deadlines.

Polygamists submit late school-fund data

The Arizona Republic azcentral.com Originally published September 25, 2004

PHOENIX - Officials in charge of public schools in the nation's largest polygamist community have submitted overdue paperwork about their finances and will avoid possible sanctions from the State Board of Education.   Gregg Rickert, accounting services manager with the Arizona Auditor General's Office, said officials of the Colorado City Unified School District submitted the paperwork Sept. 17, nearly six months after the March 31 deadline.   The paperwork, dealing with spending during the last fiscal year, is required under the Uniform System of Financial Records for Arizona School Districts.   State education officials had scheduled a hearing next Monday to consider withholding 10 percent of the public funding for Colorado City's schools as a penalty for failing to comply with the reporting requirements.     Read more

Colorado City district submits fiscal report

The Associated Press Arizona Daily Sun Originally published September 25, 2004

PHOENIX (AP) -- A school district serving a community dominated by polygamists has submitted a required accounting report, canceling a state board's consideration of a funding penalty, officials said Friday.   The Arizona Auditor General's Office had formally notified the state Board of Education on Aug. 20 that the Colorado City Unified School District failed to meet legal deadlines for reporting how it spent state and federal funds last year.   However, the possibility of penalizing the district was pulled from the board's agenda for Monday's meeting after the district submitted the required report on Sept. 17.   The state board can withhold a portion of a district's funding until the reporting guidelines are met.   Gregory Rickert, a manager for the Auditor General's Office, said the office now will review the report's contents.  If the contents do not comply with state requirements, the district would be notified of the need to comply and face the possibility of a penalty if it does not, he said.   The district has come under criticism for using state funds to purchase an airplane and for hiring 104 employees to run a system with 289 students.

Colorado City schools in financial trouble

The Associated Press KVOA TV Channel 4 - Tucson Originally broadcast October 27, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. A top Mohave County school official says checks from the Colorado City Unified School District are bouncing.   Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File says the district's line of credit was frozen when there were no funds to pay 60 employees.   Colorado City district's superintendent Alvin Barlow says they're trying to increase the cash flow.  Barlow says the district is trying to expedite approvals of federal projects and programs so federal funds can be released.   File says the lack of funds is because United Effort Plan, which owns most of the property in Colorado City, is not paying its tax bills on a timely basis.   Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are heavily populated with members of a polygamist offshoot of the mainline Mormon church.

Colorado City Schools in Financial Trouble

The Associated Press KSL TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast October 27, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) -- Checks from the Colorado City Unified School District began bouncing Oct. 18, a top Mohave County school official said.   The district's line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen Monday, when there were no funds to pay district employees, said Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File.   File signs checks for all public schools in Mohave County except for the Kingman Unified School District and charter schools.   "They (the Colorado City district) have no money in their cash treasurer's account," File was quoted as saying in the Kingman Daily Miner.   Debra Herbert of the Mohave County Attorney's Office civil division confirmed the district "has reached its credit limit."   "We're taking steps to try to increase the cash flow to try to receive advance distribution of state appropriations," said Alvin Barlow, the Colorado City district's superintendent.   Barlow said the district is also trying to expedite approvals of federal projects and programs so federal funds can be released.   The district also is trying to increase the credit line with the bank.     Read more

Bank freezes credit for Colorado City schools after checks bounce

By Caleb Soptelean Kingman Daily Miner Originally published October 28, 2004

KINGMAN – The Colorado City Unified School District is out of money.   The school district’s line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen Monday, when there were no funds to pay district employees, Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File said.   File said checks from the school district began bouncing Oct. 18.   "Wells Fargo will not be giving them any more money.  They have no money in their cash treasurer’s account," File said.   The lack of funds is because United Effort Plan, which owns most of the property in Colorado City, is not paying its tax bills on a timely basis, File said.   Colorado City is a polygamous community controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   The school district has a $1.5 million credit line with Wells Fargo Bank, File said.   The lack of funds is affecting payroll checks for some 60 school district employees, including 40 teachers.   "My issue with this is my name is on those checks," said File, who signs checks for all of the public schools in Mohave County except for the Kingman Unified School District and charter schools.     Read more

School district hits money troubles

Colorado City has maxed credit line of $900,000

Staff and wire reports The Spectrum Originally published Thursday, October 28, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- Checks from the Colorado City Unified School District began bouncing Oct. 18, a top Mohave County school official said.   The district's line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen Monday, when there were no funds to pay district employees, said Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File.   The district maxed its line of credit some time ago, File said, a line of credit totaling approximately $900,000.   File signs checks for all public schools in Mohave County except for the Kingman Unified School District and charter schools.   "They (the Colorado City district) have no money in their cash treasurer's account," File was quoted as saying in the Kingman Daily Miner.   Debra Herbert of the Mohave County Attorney's Office civil division confirmed the district "has reached its credit limit."     Read more

School district populated by polygamist sect owns plane, can't pay employees

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally broadcast October 30, 2004

PHOENIX   An Arizona school district populated with members of a polygamist sect owes thousands of dollars in paychecks to its employees.   However board members of the Colorado City Unified School District can afford a $226,000 dollar plane.   It's the latest fiscal problem for the district.   And both state and county education superintendents have requested an investigation of the district's finances.   Arizona's superintendent of public instruction Tom Horne has denied a district request for an advance of funds.   The district's line of credit was frozen earlier this month, leaving insufficient funds to pay some 60 employees.   Officials say the trust that controls the religious sect and owns most of the property in the district hasn't paid tax bills on a timely basis.

Colorado City can't pay its teachers

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published October 30, 2004

Board members in charge of public schools in the nation's largest polygamous community can afford their own airplane but can't come up with the cash to pay their teachers this month.   The paradox came to light this week when state and county officials confirmed the Colorado City Unified School District has been bouncing payroll checks since Oct. 18.   The cash-flow crisis, caused by the loss of a $950,000 line of credit, is the latest in a series of fiscal setbacks and embarrassments for the district, which oversees schools in a remote stretch of the Arizona strip, on the Arizona-Utah line.   In the past two years, Arizona's education superintendent and the superintendent of Mohave County schools have requested investigations of the district's finances, the state Auditor General's Office has cited district officials for failing to meet deadlines about how they spend their money and critics have questioned why the district spent $226,000 to buy a private airplane.   "This is outrageous," said Mike File, superintendent of schools for Mohave County, a longtime critic of the Colorado City board.   "I kept telling people for years the School Board and the administration up there was a snowball rolling downhill.  Well, now it's come crashing down and it's going to be a hell storm."   Alvin Barlow, superintendent of Colorado City schools, failed to respond to requests from The Arizona Republic for comment.     Read more

Some fringe groups use home-schooling

The Beacon Journal - Akron, Ohio Ohio.com Originally published November 16, 2004

Like the general population, home schooling has its fringe groups.   The following are groups that have been in the news for beliefs that are out of the mainstream and in which home-schooling is a preferred form of education:

National groups

Aryan Nations:

A white supremacist movement with a major enclave in northern Idaho, western Washington and western Montana, plus competing leadership in Potter County, Pa.; Dayton, Ohio; and Louisiana, according to news stories.   Buford Oneal Furrow Jr. spent time in the Washington home of Aryan Nations leaders Debbie and the late Bob Matthews before heading to Southern California in 1999, where he shot women and children at a Southern California Jewish community center.  The Matthewses home-schooled their adopted son, who they insisted must have blond hair and blue eyes.  Confederate flags fly at their Washington ranch.     Read more

Teacher-pay fund still dried up in Colorado City

By Caleb Soptelean Kingman Daily Miner Originally published November 18, 2004

KINGMAN – For the second time in recent weeks, the state Department of Education has turned down requests from Colorado City Unified School District officials for money.   The most recent denial came Tuesday, Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File said.   "What they are asking for is an advance of money before it is due.  The superintendent (of public instruction Tom Horne) has denied their request until further notice," Department of Education spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said.  The school district’s credit line with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen on Oct. 25.  School district checks began bouncing Oct. 18, File said.   File initially refused to sign the paychecks but later sent them to school officials when ordered to do so by the county attorney’s office.  File said Colorado City school officials were told to hold the checks until funds are available.     Read more

Arrest the Polyg Prophet Now!

What are authorities waiting for? Pedophile Warren Jeffs has looted school coffers and is on the run

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published November 25, 2004

Colorado City school superintendent Alvin Barlow meets me inside the hallway of the public school district's crumbling administration building with an armed Colorado City cop at his side.   Arizona's senior school administrator is quivering with rage. He's extremely unhappy to see me.   Barlow ignores my greeting, abruptly turns and walks down a hallway toward a meeting room where two years ago I began the tedious task of poring through thousands of pages of the school district's financial records.   I follow him, with the cop a few steps behind. Barlow silently places two black notebooks containing district meeting minutes and agendas for the last 10 months on a table for me to review.   As he turns to walk away, I ask him the question everyone in this isolated town north of the Grand Canyon wants him to answer:   "Why are the school district's payroll checks bouncing?"   Barlow ignores my question and walks out of the room.   He doesn't need to say anything.  I already know the answer.     Read more

Colorado City schools start honoring paychecks

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published December 6, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. The Colorado City Unified School District has started honoring paychecks of employees.   That after receiving three-quarters of a (m) million dollars in project and grant money.   The district ran out of money and had failed to meet deadlines to report how school funds were spent.   As a result, about 60 employees of the far northwestern Arizona school district had been unable to cash their paychecks since October 18th.   But Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File says employees are now able to cash them.

Horne wants to take over district

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published December 7, 2004

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said Monday that he will push for a new law that would allow the state to take over "grossly mismanaged" school districts and named Colorado City Unified as the first target.  Colorado City Unified is a 350-student district in northern Arizona, which started bouncing teacher paychecks in October despite owning its own private airplane.   "I think people are shocked," said Horne, who plans to ask state lawmakers for help when they reconvene in January.   "There needs to be a mechanism to allow a court to appoint a receiver if the district is completely dysfunctional."   Attorney General Terry Goddard said Monday that his office could find no law allowing the state to appoint a trustee or receiver for Colorado City Unified.  Goddard said he would like to see the State Board of Education take charge of the district temporarily and keep classes open for students.     Read more

Colorado City school bailout

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Wednesday, December 8, 2004

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Teachers in the now infamous polygamous town of Colorado City will be paid their salaries through a one and a half million dollar bail-out by the Arizona Risk Retention Trust, which is the insurance carrier for roughly 98-percent of the school districts in the state according to county superintendent Mike File.   File said the bailout agreement comes with some strict requirement to be imposed on the school board in Colorado City.   "There will be a consultant placed in the district," said File.  "The administration and board must adhere to and listen to their recommendations to get them back on track."   File said that one of the first requirements would be for the district to sell the Cessna 210 aircraft they own.   The agreement ends a six-week stretch in which teachers in the district have not been paid.

Teacher paychecks in polygamous school district again honored

The Associated Press East Valley Tribune Originally published December 19, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A school insurance company has agreed to back the paychecks of teachers and staff at the financially troubled school district in the polygamous town of Colorado City, Ariz., on the Utah border.   Payroll checks began to bounce in mid-October after the school district maxed out its credit limit at Wells Fargo and expected federal funds were slow in arriving, said Jeffrey Jessop, the district's business manager.   District employees can now endorse their payroll checks over to the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust, which will then honor the checks and hold the warrants for future payment by the school district.   Jessop said declining enrollment and a poor tax base put the district in financial trouble.   Further, a legislative change in the formula funding a rapidly declining enrollment coffer - which kept the school running - will cost the district at least $70,000 this year.   School board president F. Lee Bistline said he believes the district's assessed property values were the lowest in the state of Arizona.     Read more

County may crack down on school district spending

By Jim Seckler Mohave Daily News Originally published December 22, 2004

KINGMAN -- The Mohave County Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss changing a line of credit agreement involving the Colorado City Unified School District.   The county and Wells Fargo entered into an agreement in 2000 for a line of credit with the school district.   Under discussion today is amending the agreement to convert the revolving line of credit to a non-revolving line of credit, Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Deborah Herbert said.   That would mean any non-restricted money would go first to pay off the line of credit, which currently is $958,000.   Non-restricted funding is money raised from sources such as property taxes for the school district. Restricted funding is federal or state grants specifically earmarked for district.   Herbert said Wells Fargo believes the school district will not pay off its line of credit by June 30, 2005 when the agreement expires.   A non-revolving line of credit would not allow the school district to re-borrow additional money without paying off the existing line of credit first.     Read more

Bank wants to shut off credit to school district

By Caleb Soptelean Kingman Daily Miner Originally published December 22, 2004

KINGMAN – Wells Fargo Bank wants to end a credit line offered to the Colorado City Unified School District.   The Mohave County Board of Supervisors were to consider the request in a special meeting set for this morning.   The bank is used by the county treasurer’s office.   "Their desire is to stop making new advances (to the school district)," said Deborah Herbert, a civil division attorney with the Mohave County Attorney’s Office.   The official request is to convert a revolving line of credit to a non-revolving line of credit.   This would result in the bank no longer making advances to the school district, Herbert said.  The remaining balance would then be paid off as tax money comes in.   The school district has a $958,000 line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank, but the credit line was frozen two months ago when school district employees’ checks bounced.

Line of credit dries up

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published December 23, 2004

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – The Colorado City Unified School District is being forced to become thriftier.   The Mohave County Board of Supervisors met this morning and amended a credit agreement between Wells Fargo Bank and the district.   According to Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Deborah Herbert, this means that the district must now satisfy the outstanding debt of over $630,000 before they can borrow any more.   "Obviously the district is facing some financial difficulties," said Herbert.  "The bank looks at the cash flow and felt uncomfortable with whether the district would be able to pay them off if they continued to keep it at the maximum line of credit."   This latest step comes on the heels of the Arizona Schools Risk Retention Trust stepping in to purchase warrants guaranteeing teachers in the district would be paid.

Panel backs new power for state

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast February 2, 2005

PHOENIX A divided House committee has endorsed a bill proposed in response to recent financial troubles of a polygamist community's school district whose teachers went unpaid.   The proposal by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is a response to troubles of the Colorado City Unified School District.   The bill was endorsed by the House Committee on K-12 Education today.   It would give the state Board of Education the power to appoint a receiver to run districts deemed to be insolvent or grossly mismanagement.   The committee's vote was 7-to-3, though some members who voted for the bill did so after voicing strong concerns that it goes too far.

Read the above mentioned Arizona House of Representatives Bill - HB 2417

ARIZONA STATE SENATE FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1476

school districts; financial mismanagement

Read this Fact Sheet Report

Colorado City schools under spotlight

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published February 23, 2005

PHOENIX A legislative committee today endorsed a bill that could allow a state takeover of Colorado City's school system as a senator said the polygamist community needs to stop victimizing young women.   The Senate K-12 Education Committee voted 6-to-2 for a bill to allow the state Board of Education to request court appointment of a receiver of grossly mismanaged or insolvent districts.   The bill and a similar one pending in the House are reactions to recent financial troubles of the Colorado City Unified School District.   The district's teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money.   Superintendent Alvin Barlow unsuccesfully urged the committee to reject the bill and he defended the district.  He blamed an enrollment plunge that occurred when polygamist sect members put their children into home and private schools.   Senator John Huppenthal said state funding of Colorado City's school system props up the community's economy and that the real issue is the victimization of young women.

Colorado City schools in spotlight at Legislature

By Paul Davenport Mohave Daily News Originally published Thursday February 24, 2005

PHOENIX (AP) - A legislative committee endorsed a bill that could allow a state takeover of Colorado City's school system as a senator said the polygamist community needs to stop victimizing young women.   The Senate K-12 Education Committee voted 6-2 for a bill backed by Attorney General Terry Goddard to allow the state Board of Education to request court appointment of a receiver for grossly mismanaged or insolvent districts.   The Senate bill (SB1476) and a similar House bill (HB2417) supported by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne are reactions to the recent financial troubles of the Colorado City Unified School District.   Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are dominated by members of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a splinter offshoot of the mainline Mormon church, which disavowed polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates those who practice plural marriage.   The Colorado City district's teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money - a development which critics blamed on a bloated workforce and purchases that included a $220,000 airplane.   During Wednesday's Senate hearing, one committee member asked Superintendent Alvin Barlow whether the district pays at least some school bus drivers more than starting teachers.     Read more

Polygamist Leader Drives Public School into Deep Financial Trouble

KSL TV Channel 5 KSL.com Originally broadcast March 13, 2005

Accusations are swirling around a public school on the Utah-Arizona border.   There are stories of financial mismanagement and corruption stemming from domination by a fanatical polygamist leader.   John Hollenhorst has returned from that controversial community and joins us with details.   The polygamist community sprawls on both sides of the border.   The school serves students from both states, but Arizona officials are taking the lead and may step in.   They say the public school has been badly mismanaged into a deep financial crisis.   The majority of community residents are followers of Warren Jeffs, a fundamentalist prophet who's taken an increasingly firm grip.   He triggered the financial crisis by ordering his followers to take kids out of the school.  Since then the problem has deepened.   Arizona officials say the school overspent its budget by 1.2 million in the last 20 months.   That's partly because of allegedly wasteful purchases such as a half-dozen Ford Excursions and a Cessna aircraft.   There are also accusations that school staff faithful to Jeffs have diverted school vehicles, equipment and supplies to personal or church use.     Read more

Public School in Polygamist Town at Center of Controversy

John Hollenhorst Reporting KSL TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast March 13, 2005

Accusations of mismanagement and corruption are swirling around a public school on the Utah-Arizona border, and critics say it stems from domination by a fanatical polygamist leader.   Arizona lawmakers are debating bills to allow a state takeover for schools in financial crisis.  It's prompted by the public school in the polygamist community of Colorado City, which gets students and taxes from both sides of the border.   The Colorado City Public School overspent its budget by $1.2 million in less than two years, Arizona authorities say.  They've looked into a host of irregularities.   Mike File, Mohave County, Ariz. School Superintendent: "Supplies and materials and furniture that were purchased but can't be found."   Critics say the root of the problem is that most of the community is loyal to Warren Jeffs, a polygamist prophet with a tightening grip.   Gary Engels, Mohave County, Ariz. Investigator: "Everything he says and does, according to him, comes from God."   The school crisis began four years ago when Jeffs ordered his followers to take kids out of the public school.  Enrollment plummeted, causing a steep drop in tax funding.  At the time Richard Holm was a Jeffs follower.   Richard Holm: "He's so driven, so supercharged with the idea that he's got to purify a people and purify himself, that I think he borders on insanity in many cases."     Read more

County school official slaps MCC recall effort

By Jena Scheuneman Mohave Daily News Originally published March 24, 2005

FORT MOJAVE - "Bull" is what Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File called accusations made about two Mohave Community College board members who are involved in a recall attempt.   File, guest speaker at Thursday's Mohave Mesa Kiwanis meeting, spoke on several issues related to education in Mohave County.   File said he is concerned about the spending practices of one Mohave County school district.   "I can tell you in today's times, where budgets are running about 88 percent just on staff salaries, there isn't a whole lot of frivolous spending that can take place beyond that," he said.   "And I can say, of the 12 districts in this county, 11 of them are fighting tooth and nail, right down to the end to keep budgets in line and there is one that just sort of does their own thing.  If the law - from the governor and the attorney general's office on down - if they want to start laying the hammer on Colorado City, at some point it's up to them.  Because who it affects is all of us, the taxpayers."   Colorado City and its neighbor across the Arizona-Utah state line, is a polygamous community.   File called the budgeting and bookkeeping practices in the Colorado City school district "outrageous."   He compared the student-staff ratio of the district to that of Chloride's district.  In Chloride, there were 300 students and 24 staff members.  In Colorado City, there are 259 children and 170 staff members on the payroll.  The district continually runs over budget, writing checks for much more than there are funds to cover.     Read more

School district legislation

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published March 24, 2005

MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. – Lack of power to regulate problem school districts has prompted new proposed legislation.   In response to problems associated with the Colorado City Unified School District, Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File has worked with Arizona superintendent Tom Horn on some new legislation.   "I worked with Tom Horn on developing legislation that would make the county school superintendent offices receivers in those districts that do that type of stuff," said File.  "It was moving along quite nicely and then it took a back seat to the budget stuff."   File said the failure of the Arizona Risk Retention Trust to have any effect on the improper use of funds in Colorado City is one of the events that prompted him to look to new legislation to correct these problems.

Politics killing district rescue

Bill for takeover of schools falters

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published April 16, 2005

A political fight over when and how the state should take over a mismanaged school district could kill a bill designed to prevent the financial collapse of a northern Arizona district.   In October, the Colorado City Unified School District began bouncing teacher paychecks despite buying its own airplane.   For more than three years, the 350-student district hasn't paid teachers and vendors on a consistent basis and has missed state and Mohave County deadlines to account for its spending.   Unlike a corporation, the Arizona Attorney General's Office said, teachers and vendors can't force a school district into bankruptcy, and the state has no authority to push it into court.   The district, along the Arizona-Utah line, is $1.5 million in debt at 6 percent interest to the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust, a corporation that insures Arizona schools, said Jim Mullen, administrator of the trust.  The Retention Trust has been covering checks to prevent lawsuits, Mullen said.   The Colorado City District School Board is expected to vote next month to raise property taxes to pay back the debt, said Michael File, Mohave County school superintendent.   "They keep spending and spending and spending, and no one up there is going to hold them accountable," File said.   The Attorney General's Office found itself powerless to shut down Colorado City Unified or put it into receivership.  It consulted with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and other education leaders this fall and created legislation to change that.   The proposal passed the House and Senate, but lawmakers decorated the proposal with all sorts of new amendments and language.   Now the once-harmonious creators of the proposal are fighting over exactly when, why and how the state can take over a district.   It's a fight that could sink the bill.     Read more

Blunted reforms

School bill to battle polygamous cult needs resharpening

Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published April 19, 2005

The sword was sharp.  It was a bill to allow the state to take over a corrupted school district being run for the profit of a bunch of polygamists in northern Arizona.   But the blade was dulled by unnecessary changes.  The result could leave the cultist polygamists laughing once again at the inability of law-abiding, child-cherishing Arizonans to do anything against a foul and perverse lifestyle.   How foul?   Women are considered property.  Girls are married off as young teens to old men who have multiple wives.   Young men are driven away.  A lawsuit charges the cult's leader, "Prophet" Warren Jeffs, with raping his young nephew in God's name.   How corrupt?   The polygamous cult calling itself the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints controls the Colorado City District School Board, which bought a $220,000 private plane while going more than $1.5 million in debt and issuing rubber checks to its teachers.   Ordinarily, angry voters would oust school board members who behaved that way.  But in Colorado City, cult members vote the cult's ticket.     Read more

Remedy is possible in cases like Colorado City schools

Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published April 23, 2005

Regarding "Blunted reforms" (Editorial, Tuesday): Many people were shocked as it became clear how dysfunctional was the Colorado City school district, that no branch of government had any power to do anything about it.   I proposed a bill for consideration by the Legislature.  Many technical parts of the bill were prepared by the Arizona Attorney General's Office, which did an excellent job.   The educational judgments contained in the proposed bill were the responsibility of the Department of Education.   The proposed bill was submitted in the House of Representatives.  A number of education groups sought to water down the bill.  One of the groups is under strict orders from its constituency to oppose any reduction in local powers, no matter how meritorious the need.   The lobbyist for the attorney general, now acting in a political capacity, quarterbacked this group, which held a number of meetings to prepare a watered-down version of the bill, without seeking any input from the Department of Education on education policy issues.  The original bill called for appointment of a receiver to operate a school district so that students' education would not suffer in the case of "systemic and egregious mismanagement of the school district's finances, financial records or other duties."   The watered-down version limited this to "financial" issues.  The next extreme case that we have will be unpredictable.     Read more

School accountability accounting

By Neal McCluskey The Washington Times Originally published April 24, 2005

"Public accountability" is what we get from public schools, and what we would lose if parents could choose their child's school, especially private schools.   Government schools, we're essentially warned, are all that stand between us and academic anarchy akin to philosopher Thomas Hobbes' "state of nature," a "war ... of every man against every man" in which life is "nasty, brutish, and short."   But public accountability has failed to erect a wall around the state of nature.   Instead of keeping corruption and marauders at bay, poor parents and their children, as well as taxpayers who pay for the schools, have been locked into failure and corruption.  Every day, around the country, the news makes this obvious.  Consider just a few recent examples:   The Arizona Republic April 19 ran an editorial about the Colorado City, Ariz., school district, where a "polygamous cult calling itself the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints controls the Colorado City District School Board, which bought a $220,000 private plane while going more than $1.5 million in debt and issuing rubber checks to its teachers."     Read more

Senate rejects broad grounds for takeovers of school districts

Mohave Valley News Tri-State Online Originally published Thursday, April 28, 2005

PHOENIX (AP) - Breaking a logjam on an issue arising from a polygamist community's troubled school district, the Senate voted Thursday to limit the possible grounds for state takeovers of dysfunctional districts.   The Senate voted 20-8 to allow the appointment of receivers only for financial mismanagement, rejecting a proposal that also would have allowed takeovers for such reasons as failing to hire certified teachers or have students take a state-required test.   The bill (HB2417) now awaits a formal Senate vote.  Passage would send it back to the House for consideration of changes made by the Senate.   State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has pressed for broader grounds for the state Board of Education to appoint receivers to run districts, while the Arizona School Boards Association and other education groups as well as Attorney General Terry Goddard wanted to limit the grounds to financial mismanagement.   The legislation is a reaction to problems experienced by the Colorado City Unified School District.  Its teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money - a development which critics blamed on a bloated work force and purchases that included a $220,000 airplane.     Read more

Receivers OK'd for financially mismanaged districts

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast May 4, 2005

PHOENIX The Legislature has passed and sent Governor Napolitano a bill to allow the state to appoint receivers to take over operation of school districts deemed to be financially dysfunctional.   The bill is a response to the financial troubles of the unified school district serving Colorado City, a polygamist community in a remote area of northern Arizona.   Teachers in the district went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money.  Critics blamed the district's financial problems on a bloated work force, among other things.   The House today approved a Senate-passed version of the bill that makes it only allow appointments of receivers of districts for financial mismanagement.   An earlier House-passed version of the bill would have allowed state takeovers under other circumstances.

Bill passes to control mismanaged schools

Broke district in N. Arizona target of law

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published May 6, 2005

Lawmakers approved a bill giving the state power to take over any Arizona school district that "grossly mismanages" its money, and state officials said their first target would be the financially crippled Colorado City Unified District.   In October, the attorney general found himself powerless to shut down Colorado City Unified after the district began bouncing teacher paychecks despite buying its own airplane.   The new law allows the state to appoint a receiver who can fire or suspend a district's superintendent and override a district governing board's decisions and contracts.   The law protects working, licensed teachers from immediate dismissal.   The legislation passed the state Senate and House, and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said he expects Gov. Janet Napolitano to sign the bill into law.   Goddard called it disappointing that lawmakers didn't add an emergency clause, meaning the law will not take effect until 90 days from the last day of the legislative session.  Goddard said his office would "as quickly as possible" petition the Arizona State Board of Education to appoint a receiver to take over Colorado City Unified.   For three years, the 350-student district at the Arizona-Utah line hasn't paid teachers or vendors on a consistent basis and has missed state and Mohave County deadlines to account for its spending.     Read more

County may take over school district

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 7, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – A bill passed by Arizona lawmakers would allow the Mohave County School Offices to take over the Colorado City Unified School District.   According to county superintendent Mike File, he has been in contact with the Attorney General’s Office and with the state superintendent Tom Horne about what would happen if Gov. Janet Napolitano signs the bill.   File said once the bill is signed it won’t go into effect for 90 days and then it will be up to Horne as to whether or not the county will become in charge of the district as receivers.   A part of the bill taken out that File is disappointed with is the removal of the entire school board.   "The board will stay in tact but according to the Attorney General’s office whatever recommendations that the county school superintendent makes they have to approve," stated File.   File said he has been trying for five years to get something passed to fix the problems in the Colorado City School District.

County’s preliminary plan

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Tuesday, May 10, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – With the reality setting in that the Mohave County School Offices could soon take over the Colorado City Unified School District, they have come up with a preliminary plan.   "Our first plan is to go in and have a board meeting recommending that the administrative staff be terminated," said county superintendent Mike File.   According to File, the next step would be to replace the building principal because he is reportedly never at the school.   File added that there would have to be cuts on the staff side, but that couldn’t be done right away.   "There have been no evaluations done so that will be a lengthy process," said File.   The bill to allow this "takeover" has passed the House and Senate and is awaiting the signature of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Bill may help polygamist town's school district function

The Associated Press Tucson Citizen Originally broadcast May 11, 2005

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano says she hopes a bill she has signed into law will allow state officials to clean up financial troubles of a school district serving a northern Arizona polygamist community.   Napolitano on Monday signed a bill (HB2417) passed last week by the Legislature to allow the state to appoint receivers to take over operation of school districts deemed to be financially dysfunctional.   The bill (HB2417) is a response to the financial troubles of the unified school district serving Colorado City, located in a remote area of northwestern Arizona north of the Grand Canyon.   Teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money.  Critics blamed the district's financial problems on a bloated work force, among other things.   "I hope it has a significant impact," Napolitano said Wednesday.  "I think it finally gives the Department of (Education) and hopefully the attorney general some authority to go in there and clean up that situation and take care of that district."     Read more

School Superintendent moving on schools

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 13, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File is embracing a new law allowing state officials to move against financially troubled and mismanaged school districts.   He said the law signed Monday by the Governor has statewide application, but was crafted to target the Unified School District in the north Mohave County community of Colorado City.   Napolitano said the law gives the Department of Education and the Attorney General the authority to act on problems in the Colorado City District.   "From the conversations I've had with the AG's office is that as soon as that law goes into effect (early August) they're going to be called to the state and in front of the state school board and placed in receivership," File said.  "I have been asked to be that receiver."   File said that, prior to passage of the law, state and local officials were powerless to address the abuses he said he has monitored in the Colorado School District for years.  He said the district has an absurd number of personnel considering its student population, and that administrators mismanage and misallocate resources.   "My first plan is that those folks will have to be terminated," File said.  "I've been watching those guys in action for five years and they've proven their incompetence."     Read more

Education Reclamation

A new state law wrests control of Colorado City schools away from polygamist zealots

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published Thursday, May 19, 2005

Much to my amazement and delight, Arizona has finally delivered a powerful blow to the fundamentalist Mormon polygamist theocracy that controls all aspects of public and private life in Colorado City.   On May 9, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano quietly signed into law a bill that will allow state education officials to take over the Colorado City Unified School District from religious leaders who control the school board and key administrative posts.   While Napolitano signed the bill into law, she did little to advance the legislation that almost died when state school superintendent Tom Horne backed a competing bill.  But persistent lobbying by Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard and strong support from Republican Senators Toni Hellon and Linda Gray led to passage of the bill just days before the Legislature adjourned on May 13.   The law marks a historic transition in the state's half-century of complacency toward the nation's largest polygamist society based in this isolated community abutting the Utah border, a few miles south of Zion National Park.   For the first time in Colorado City's turbulent 70-year history, the school district will be operated outside the complete control of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway sect from the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church.   "I think this is great," says Benjamin Bistline, a former FLDS member who is an authority on the history of the polygamous community.  "It's something that should have happened 20 years ago."   Enactment of the law is also testament to the importance of another statute, the Arizona Public Records Law.  I relied heavily on the public records law to pry loose thousands of pages of Colorado City school district financial records that revealed in stark detail a well-entrenched pattern of corruption.   The public records showed that the FLDS leaders abused the school district to provide unneeded jobs, new vehicles, credit cards, school supplies and other perks to help church members support their huge polygamous families.     Read more

A visit to Colorado City

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 19, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Local School and state officials will be visiting Colorado City.  Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File and State Representatives Trish Groe and Nancy McClain will be in Colorado City today.  According to File the purpose of the visit is to address concerns about possible changes to the Colorado City School system.   File said that teachers are concerned about possibly losing their jobs.   "It wouldn’t be tough removing the Administrative staff which needs to be done but like I say those teachers you can’t just go in there with a broad based pen and just swipe everybody out," said File.   These concerns have come about after a bill was passed last week to allow the state to take control of school districts that are in financial trouble.

Superintendent addresses concerns

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Saturday, May 21, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – A visit to Colorado City left concerned teachers a little more at ease.  County Superintendent Mike File and Representatives Trish Groe and Nancy McClain visited Colorado City on Thursday to address the concerns of the teachers and community as a whole.  Superintendent File said that the meeting went well and some major concerns were addressed.   "Those teachers up there they should be applauded," said File.  "They stuck through this getting their faces and careers and names bashed in and they stuck through it for those kids."   File went on to state that the changes to the Colorado City school system were going to be a monumental task but will improve the lives of all involved.

State seizes records in probe of polygamist community's school district

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press The Arizona Republic Originally published May 24, 2005

Authorities on Tuesday served a search warrant and seized financial records from a school district in a northern Arizona polygamist community, Attorney General Terry Goddard said.   Goddard said boxes of financial records, other documents and computers were seized as part of a 2-year-old criminal investigation into alleged financial mismanagement of the Colorado City Unified School District.   Goddard also said he has instructed his staff to prepare to ask the state Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee the district.   Gov. Janet Napolitano on May 9 signed into law a bill allowing the state Board of Education to put a district into receivership for financial mismanagement.   Goddard and state Superintendent of Public Instruction sought the receivership legislation, which will take effect in August, because of the Colorado City district's financial troubles.   "We drafted this legislation to ensure children receive the education they need and deserve," Goddard's statement said.   "I am taking steps to make sure children do not suffer for the financial mismanagement of a school district."     Read more

Colorado City school files seized

Officials stage raid after law is passed on mismanagement

By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published May 25, 2005

ST. GEORGE — Arizona officials in a dramatic midmorning raid on Tuesday seized computers, records and files from the Colorado City Unified School District.   Officials with the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office arrived around 10 a.m. with a no-knock warrant, about 10 vehicles and a U-Haul truck, said Colorado City police marshal Sam Roundy.   "They came in like a SWAT team.  I thought it was overkill," said Roundy.   "We knew they were coming about 15 minutes before they got here when they drove through Apple Valley.  That's when we started getting lots of phone calls asking us why all these cop cars were coming into town."   Alvin Barlow, superintendent of the Colorado City school district, was not available for comment late Tuesday.  The move to confiscate records at the district office comes on the heels of a new law passed by the Arizona Legislature last month.   Ariz. HB 2417 allows the state to take over a financially mismanaged school district, a charge that has been leveled against Barlow and the Colorado City school district.     Read more

Arizona agents make raid on Colorado City school offices

Officers seek to ensure preservation of records amid finance investigation

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published May 25, 2005

COLORADO CITY - During a nine-hour search at the Colorado City Unified School District administration office Tuesday, agents from the Arizona Attorney General's Office packed up computers, file boxes and even beer cans confiscated from the office and district vehicles.   Curious bystanders looked on as the agents carried items from the school and cars.   The community is dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which teaches polygamy as part of its doctrine.   Arizona Highway Patrol troopers and members of the Mohave County Sheriff's Office provided security while the confiscated materials were placed in a 28-foot U-Haul truck.   School superintendent Alvin Barlow, school district business manager Jeffrey Jessop and assistant business manager Oliver Barlow looked on while the activity took place.   According to a press release, Attorney General Terry Goddard said his office has been investigating reports of possible financial mismanagement at the school for the past two years.   "We executed the search warrant today in an effort to be sure the records are not at risk of being destroyed, removed or altered if the district is placed in receivership and to help determine if any wrongdoing has occurred," Goddard said.   The search warrant and its related documents have been sealed by the Superior Court and remain confidential.   All the items seized during the execution of the search warrant were taken to Flagstaff for processing.     Read more

Arizona authorities cracking down on leaders of polygamist community

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast May 26, 2005

PHOENIX Arizona authorities are trying to squeeze religious leaders out of a community of polygamists along the state's border with Utah.   Armed with a search warrant, authorities seized boxes of financial records, other documents and computers Tuesday as part of a two-year-old criminal investigation into alleged financial mismanagement of the Colorado City Unified School District.   The sect and its estimated six-thousand members control the school district, municipal government and most property in the isolated towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah.   Arizona lawmakers recently passed a bill enabling the state to take control of school districts that are insolvent or suffer from mismanagement.   The law authorizes the Arizona Board of Education to appoint a receiver who can fire administrators and overrule decisions of elected trustees.

School Search Warrants Served

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 26, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – State authorities served search warrants Tuesday at the offices of the Unified School District in the north Mohave County community of Colorado City.   Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said boxes of financial records; other documents and computer equipment were seized.   "For the past two years, my office has been investigating reports of possible financial mismanagement in the Colorado City School District," Goddard said.  "We executed the search warrant in an effort to be sure the records are not at risk of being destroyed, removed or altered if the district is placed in receivership and to help determine if any wrongdoing has occurred."   Goddard said his office is preparing to petition the State Board of Education to place the district in receivership under recently passed legislation that was crafted with Colorado City in mind, though it can also be used in other districts that are allegedly mismanaged, financially troubled or both.   "We drafted this legislation to ensure children receive the education they need and deserve," Goddard said.  "I am taking steps to make sure children do not suffer for the financial mismanagement of a school district."   Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File said officials in Goddard's office and the state education board have discussed with him the likelihood of File's office being named as receiver to manage the district until order is restored.   File said his office is planning accordingly, expecting to take on the responsibility sometime in August.

Representatives tour Colorado City

By Caleb Soptelean Today's News-Herald Originally published May 26, 2005

Two area legislators joined County School Superintendent Mike File on a trip to Colorado City last week.   The trip was made "to assess the situation in result of the receivership bill passing," File said.   The state Legislature recently passed and Gov. Janet Napolitano signed a bill to put the Colorado City Unified School District in receivership.  This was done to bring the district's finances under state control after its employees couldn't cash their paychecks for several months earlier this year.   We got to see the monumental task at hand," File said.  "The administration isn't talking to the teachers.  They're still being kept in the dark."   File said the teachers are "highly underpaid" and have "no materials to teach with."     Read more

Colorado City raid result of 2-year review of finances

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published May 27, 2005

COLORADO CITY - The search at the Colorado City Unified School District No. 14 administration building on Tuesday by the Arizona Attorney General's Office was the result of a two-year investigation, press secretary Andrea Esquer said Thursday.   Esquer said the Attorney General's Office became concerned when the district began running out of money and cutting worthless checks to teachers.   "We wanted to ensure teachers are compensated correctly and protected and the kids are entitled to a public education," Esquer said.  "The reason we did this (served the search warrant) is we are starting to prepare a case for receivership when the law comes into effect in August, and we wanted to make sure the record remained intact and were whole."   During the nine-hour search, agents from the Attorney General's Office nearly filled a 28-foot U-Haul truck.   Mohave County School District Superintendent Mike File said there were problems at the school, which served about 300 students.   "Arizona prides itself on local control, and it works everywhere but there (Colorado City) because there is no accountability," File said.   File said among some of the problems at the school was the fact that some bus drivers were making more money than the teachers, and there was never any clear track of what the administrators - Superintendent Alvin Barlow, business manager Jeffrey Jessop, assistant business manager Oliver Barlow and Principal Kimball Barlow - were earning.     Read more

Polygamists' offices searched

Computers and records are seized by the state in northwest Arizona in a probe of school district spending.

The Associated Press Tucson Citizen Originally published Saturday, May 28, 2005

PHOENIX - State authorities are investigating questionable spending and possible misuse of vehicles and equipment owned by a polygamist community's financially troubled school district, newly released records indicate.   Investigators for the attorney general on Tuesday seized a truckload of computers and paper records from the Colorado City Unified School District offices in the isolated community north of the Colorado River in far northwestern Arizona.  The community is dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous offshoot of the mainstream Mormon Church.   In an affidavit requesting a search warrant, Special Agent Meg Pollard cited the district's purchase of an airplane, officials' use of district vehicles, the transfer of the district's bus barn to the town of Colorado City without apparent benefit to the district and the full-time employment status of officials' relatives whose work appeared to consist of driving school buses.   Pollard's affidavit, which was filed Sunday and unsealed May 27, also said there was "probable cause" to believe that district Superintendent Alvin S. Barlow, business manager Jeffrey P. Jessop and assistant business manager Oliver B. Barlow had committed the crime of misuse of public funds.     Read more

Warrant list gives insight into case

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published May 28, 2005

While the Arizona Attorney General's Office is saying relatively little about the search that took place Tuesday at the Colorado City Unified School District No. 14 office, a copy of the search warrant and a list of items seized obtained by The Spectrum on Friday afternoon provides insight into the reasons behind the search.   In the documents released to the newspaper, the attorney general's office states that from on or about Jan. 1, 2000, to the present, Arizona officials think probable cause exists to believe that the crime of misuse of public funds is being or has been committed.   The search warrant was addressed to Alvin S. Barlow, Oliver B. Barlow and Jeffrey P. Jessop, who hold the positions of superintendent, assistant business manager and business manager, respectively.   However, none of the men have been charged with any crimes.   In addition to the district office, Oliver Barlow's office at the school on Cottonwood Street was included in the search, in addition to two vehicles owned by the district.   A Cessna P210 airplane, which was purchased by the district, was not included on the list of places to search.   Andrea Esquer, press secretary for the Arizona Attorney General's Office, said she could not comment on why investigators did not include the airplane on the search warrant.  She said the biggest concern for the attorney general's office was that vehicles owned by the district should be used for district purposes only and not for personal or other organizations' business.     Read more

Uncle Sam Wants Them

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published June 1, 2005

Webmaster note: the first section of this article is not included because it does not pertain to the FLDS Good news keeps coming on the state's effort to dislodge a fundamentalist Mormon polygamist sect from control of the Colorado City public schools.   On May 24, a police task force raided the Colorado City Unified School District headquarters in northern Arizona north of the Grand Canyon and seized the district's financial records and dozens of computers.  Police removed enough equipment from district offices to fill a full-size rental truck.   The raid uncovered "several new investigative leads" that could result in criminal charges against top school administrators, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard tells me.   The search warrant, which was unsealed on May 27, states that school Superintendent Alvin Barlow, business manager Jeffery Jessop and assistant business manager Oliver Barlow are targets of a state criminal investigation alleging misuse of public funds.   The raid comes 25 months after I exposed widespread financial abuses at the Colorado City school district ("The Wages of Sin," April 10, 2003).   Police sources say investigators discovered evidence indicating that school district property was being used to conduct private business.   Investigators, for example, seized surveying equipment from the back of a district-owned Ford F-350, 4X4 crew cab assigned to Jessop, who operates a private surveying business on the side.   Police also discovered unopened cans of beer in Jessop's truck.  Jessop, like Alvin Barlow and Oliver Barlow, is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway sect of the Mormon Church, which forbids alcohol consumption.   Investigators are focusing on allegations that the school district diverted large amounts of public money into unknown activities.     Read more

On a Wing and a Prayer

Finding the Colorado City school district's airplane could lead to polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs' arrest

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published Thursday, June 30, 2005

Where's the airplane?   The airplane I'm talking about is the infamous Cessna P210 purchased in late 2002 by fundamentalist Mormon polygamists who control the 350-student Colorado City Unified School District.   The $220,000 aircraft hasn't been seen in more than four months.   Neither has accused pedophile Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist cult that long ago broke away from the mainstream Mormon church.   Until recently, both Jeffs and the airplane were based in the remote village of Colorado City north of the Grand Canyon.   Is there a connection between the elusive Colorado City school district aircraft and the prophet on the lam?   It wouldn't surprise anybody if there is, including Mohave County Superintendent of Schools Mike File, who says he's concerned that the school district plane has been used to fly Jeffs and underage girls out of the Colorado City area.   "I very much believe that is the case," File tells me.     Read more

Colorado City school budget's oversight remains in limbo

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published July 7, 2005

COLORADO CITY - The school board unanimously passed a $2 million budget for Colorado City Unified School District 14 at a meeting last Thursday, but who will administer the budget is still uncertain.   In May, the school district's administration offices were searched by officials from the Arizona Attorney General's office.  During the search, computers, files and other financial records, including payroll documents, were seized.   The school's high budget and number of staff are some of the issues under investigation by the Arizona Attorney General's office, which is continuing to put together two cases - one for the state school board and another that is part of a criminal investigation, said press secretary Andrea Esquer.   "We are still reviewing the documents and computers - everything that was taken into custody," Esquer said.  "One part of the process is to put the case together for the state school board to put the school into receivership when the law comes into effect."   During the last legislative session, a bill was passed, Arizona HB 2417, which addresses intervention at schools with financial mismanagement.   Mohave County School District superintendent Mike File said the state school board will meet on Aug. 22 and come up with a list of possible receivers for the state.     Read more

School board fights for files

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published July 30, 2005

COLORADO CITY - Keeping the three schools that make up Colorado City Unified School District No. 14 operating has been difficult since district records and computers were seized by the Arizona Attorney General's office in May.   School district assistant business manager, Oliver Barlow, said not only is the district missing critical files, but that staff had to work overtime to get the system back together.   "We had to create new files and our computers were returned with cloned hard drives," Barlow told school board members at a meeting Friday night.   As part of an investigation that began two months ago into alleged mismanagement of funds by the district, the Arizona Attorney General's office seized records and computer files relating to district spending.  Barlow told the board that some of what was seized was beyond the scope of the search warrant and that district officials have many issues with some of the affidavits the Attorney General's office filed.   With school scheduled to begin Aug. 22, the district is looking to retrieve records needed before the semester starts.     Read more

Insurer helps district cover its bills

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press East Valley Tribune Originally published August 8, 2005

PHOENIX (AP) -- A nonprofit insurer serving most of Arizona's public school districts is helping prop up a financially troubled school district serving a polygamist community in northwestern Arizona.   The Arizona School Risk Retention Trust Inc. last year began covering warrants - IOUs - issued by the Colorado City Unified School District after the district couldn't afford to pay workers, including teachers who went without pay for two months.   Clyde Dangerfield, a Gilbert Unified School District assistant superintendent who is president of the trust, said the trust is paying the Colorado City district's warrants because as the district's insurer, the trust would be on the hook for any damages payable in potential lawsuits - including some that could produce triple damage awards - from vendors or others.   "That's why the trust stepped in," Dangerfield said.   "We're just looking at the insurance liabilities and responsibilities based on the coverage."   The trust uses a $1.8 million line of credit through two banks and at one point had approximately $1.2 million outstanding, but the current balance is down to $900,000, with the debt carrying a 6 percent interest rate, Dangerfield said.     Read more

Ariz. poised to seek receivership for schools in polygamist town

By Paul Davenport Associated Press The Arizona Republic Originally published August 8, 2005

PHOENIX- Arizona officials already have seized a truckload of records, computers and other material in a criminal investigation of the school district serving an isolated polygamist community in northwestern Arizona.  Now, the state is preparing to take over the district itself.   A new Arizona law taking effect Friday will allow the state Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee administration of the Colorado City Unified School District, including financial and personnel matters that have drawn scrutiny from authorities.   The Arizona Legislature enacted the measure last spring at the urging of state Attorney General Terry Goddard and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.  That came after the district missed deadlines to file budget reports to the state and ran out of money, leaving teachers unpaid for several months last year.  The paychecks resumed after an insurer began cover the district's IOUs.   "It was apparently grossly mismanaged," Horne said of the district.  "They have misused money that was intended for the classroom."     Read more

Lack of education hurts the people

Opinions The Spectrum Originally published August 11, 2005

It seems that we can't open the newspaper these days without another article about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its members jumping out at us.   Some time ago, the Spectrum ran an Associated Press article on this subject.  The majority of the article neither surprised or shocked me, but one small statement has haunted me since then.  The reporter, with a private detective as his source of information, stated that " most (of the) residents are considered to be functionally illiterate." (Travis Reed, The Spectrum 3/6/05).   I suppose in an area where public schooling is shunned and private schooling is abandoned around the sixth grade, this statement shouldn't affect me so much, but I truly feel that this is one more crime being committed against the "faithful" victims of this church.   Noted educator Paulo Freire once said, "literacy is the practice of freedom."  Logically then, people who are illiterate cannot truly be free.  Historically, literacy has been used as a tool of leverage by the advantaged few to dominate and control the illiterate majority.  Why would church leaders do such a thing to people they claim to be helping?     Read more

State officials prepare to seize control of Colorado City school district

By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services Arizona Daily Star Originally published August 11, 2005

PHOENIX - State officials will move Friday to seize financial control of the Colorado City Unified School District on Arizona's northern border.   The move - unprecedented in state history - follows an investigation that Attorney General Terry Goddard said shows "very serious story of mismanagement of public money."   That includes an administrative payroll padded with members of a church that controls the community, unnecessary expenses and misuse of district property.   "And the children who attend the school district, the schools in Colorado City, ultimately are the victims," he said.   But Goddard said he could not act until a law permitting a district to be placed in receivership took effect.  And that will not occur until tomorrow.   The petition filed with the state Board of Education charges that school board members, administrators and employees "have routinely charged personal expenses to district-issued credit cards."  But Goddard said that isn't the only problem.   He said there were more than 1,200 students in the district in 2000 before Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, ordered followers in his polygamous sect to pull their children out of public schools.   Goddard said while enrollment dropped to fewer than 250, the number of administrators - mostly FLDS members - not only remained the same but the district in 2002 bought a $200,000 airplane.     Read more

Arizona should take over district

Editorials The Spectrum Originally published August 11, 2005

The law will allow the Arizona Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee the financial and personnel matters of the district, which has been under investigation after what can only be described at best as woeful tracking of public funds.   In fact, the district ran out of funds last year and had to have an insurance trust pay money owed to teachers.   Rarely do we like to see local officials lose control of any agency or service.  In general, decisions are best made by the people who live and work in the community - in this case, people who know the challenges faced by teachers and students.   But this is an exception.  A criminal investigation has resulted in law enforcement officials hauling away computers, records and other materials from the district offices.  The school district missed payroll more than once and ran out of money before the end of the last school year.   District officials also missed deadlines to the state for filing budget reports.   All of that casts a cloud over the district and demands that the state step in to take control.     Read more

State plans to outline plans for receiver

The Associated Press KPHO News 5 - Phoenix Originally broadcast August 11, 2005

KINGMAN, Ariz. Arizona's schools chief says it may be several weeks before the State Board of Education considers recommendations to place Colorado City's financially troubled school district in receivership.   State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says he's recommending that Phoenix-based Simon Consulting be appointed as receiver.   Arizona General Terry Goddard has scheduled a news conference today to outline the petition for receivership that he'll file tomorrow with the Board of Education.   A new Arizona law taking effect tomorrow will allow the Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee administration of the Colorado City district.   Arizona officials already have seized a truckload of records, computers and other material in a criminal investigation of the district, which serves the polygamist community of Colorado city in northwestern Arizona. ___ Information from: Dave Hawkins/KGMN-FM, http://www.kgmn.net/

Office of Attorney General Terry Goddard

STATE OF ARIZONA ANDREA M. ESQUER DEPARTMENT OF LAW PRESS SECRETARY 12 75 W. WASHINGTON STREET PHONE: (602) 542-8019 PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85007-2926 CELL PHONE: (602) 725-2200 WWW.AZAG.GOV     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Terry Goddard Filing Petition to Place Colorado City School District in Receivership (Phoenix, Ariz. - August 11, 2005)   Attorney General Terry Goddard will file a petition Friday - the first day legally possible - charging Colorado City School District officials with gross financial mismanagement and requesting the School District be placed in receivership.   "We now have a tool in place to help our children receive the education they need and deserve," Goddard said.   "The financial mismanagement of the Colorado City School District is egregious.   It is time to put its finances in competent hands."   The petition follows the enactment this spring of a state law that allows the Arizona State Board of Education to place a school district in receivership if it finds evidence of financial mismanagement.  The new law takes effect Friday. The petition, to be filed with the State Board of Education, outlines charges that include: Excessive Expenditures and Misuse of Public Dollars The District has spent and continues to spend excessively and irresponsibility on administrative items, including travel, cellular phones, computer equipment, credit cards, vehicles and an airplane.     Read more

Ariz. Eyes Polygamist Town School Control

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press Washington Post Originally published August 11, 2005

PHOENIX -- Arizona is seeking financial control of a school district serving a polygamist community, alleging "systematic and egregious mismanagement" that included a $200,000 airplane purchase and a landscaping contract worth more than $100,000.   The receivership petition drafted for filing Friday with the state Board of Education also says Colorado City school officials took family members on business trips without reimbursing the 344-student district, and that the district paid for satellite television at an administrator's home.   Colorado City is a secluded northern Arizona community controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that broke away from the Mormon church.  Sect members also live in neighboring Hildale, Utah.   "What we found in putting together this petition is a very serious story of mismanagement of public money, and the children who attend the schools of the school district in Colorado City ultimately are the victims," state Attorney General Terry Goddard said.   District Superintendent Alvin Barlow did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.     Read more

Colorado City district faces bankruptcy

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published August 12, 2005

Under a sweeping new law that takes effect today, the state attorney general will ask education officials to force a northern Arizona school district into bankruptcy after it buried itself in $1.8 million debt while it purchased a plane and cars for its administrators.   "We found a very serious story of mismanagement," Attorney General Terry Goddard said Thursday.   Goddard released a copy of the 11-page petition detailing a litany of allegations against Colorado City Unified District, which sits on the Utah boarder and has about 250 to 300 students and 18 administrators. Goddard will officially file the petition under the new law today.   Goddard said that the state is carefully heading into new legal territory because the law is broadly written and has few details. Legislators approved the new law after Colorado City Unified began bouncing teacher paychecks in October and Goddard found himself powerless to do anything about it.  The law allows the state to push any Arizona school district into bankruptcy if it "grossly mismanages" its money.   The fate of Colorado City Unified ultimately rests with the Arizona State Board of Education, which has the power to decide if the district did indeed "grossly mismanaged" its money, as Goddard has alleged in the petition.     Read more

AG: District mismanaged funds

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published August 12, 2005

COLORADO CITY - The Arizona Attorney General will go to court today to ask that Colorado City School District No. 14 be put into receivership because of what he terms as "gross financial mismanagement."   In a brief prepared for the court, state attorney general Terry Goddard cited thousands of dollars that he says were spent needlessly each month on cell phones and satellite television bills for a district employee and on forfeited prepaid rents to the United Effort Plan, the financial arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   The 11-page petition outlines charges that district officials forfeited $190,000 in rent to the Colorado City Improvement Area, a wholly owned subsidiary of the UEP, after terminating its contract for several buildings in 2000.  However, two years later, officials said they needed a new school because of overcrowding, even though district enrollment dwindled from 1,200 to less than 350 students.     Read more

State alleges mismanagement in polygamist town's school district

By Paul Davenport Associated Press Writer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 12, 2005

State officials' receivership petition against a school district serving a northern Arizona polygamist community alleges "systematic and egregious mismanagement," including a nearly $200,000 airplane purchase, a six-figure landscaping contract and the forfeiture of prepaid rent for a school.   The petition drafted for filing with the state Board of Education also says Colorado City Unified School District officials took family members on business trips without reimbursing the district and that the district paid for satellite television at an administrator's home.   Attorney General Terry Goddard said the alleged mismanagement has resulted in top-heavy administration and extravagant spending that benefited those who ran the 344-student district in Colorado City, a Mohave County community controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The sect, whose members also live in Hildale, Utah, espouses plural marriage.   The petition, drafted by Goddard's office on behalf of state Superintendent Tom Horne and the Board of Education's executive director, is to be filed Friday, the day a new law permitting the state to place school districts in financial receivership takes effect.   "What we found in putting together this petition is a very serious story of mismanagement of public money, and the children who attend the schools of the school district in Colorado City ultimately are the victims," Goddard said.     Read more

State seeks receivership for school district

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast August 12 , 2005

PHOENIX Arizona officials have filed a petition seeking financial control of a school district serving a northern Arizona polgymaist community.   The receivership petition alleges that taxpayers and students were being harmed by mismanagement of the 344-student Colorado City Unified School District.  According to the petition, the alleged mismanagement included purchase of a $200,000 airplane, questionable disposal or use of buildings and equipment and poor fiscal practices that led to teachers not being paid for two months last year.   Attorney General Terry Goddard filed the petition with the state Board of Education on behalf of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and the state board's executive director.   A lawyer for the district said the petition presents only one side of the story.   Attorney Matthew Wright says the public will see a completely different picture once the district has had an opportunity to respond.     Read more

School district denies allegations of impropriety

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Thursday, September 8, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - The Colorado City School District has denied allegations in a petition requesting that the District be placed in receivership.  The denial is detailed in a legal response to the receivership initiative undertaken by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.   The petition Goddard filed August 11 alleged the school district and its officers engaged in excessive and unjustified spending and mismanaged district resources.  Goddard has asked the State Board of Education to appoint a receiver to manage district assets and resources until the district can do so itself.   Matthew W. Wright, with the Phoenix law firm of Holm Wright Hyde and Hays, filed the school district's response on August 31.  The response denies the petition allegations and challenges authority and jurisdiction for the receivership effort.   Vince Yanez, the Executive Director of the State Board of Education, said the Board is charged with making the decision regarding receivership.  He said a special meeting of the Board for that purpose will likely be scheduled sometime in October.

Arizona school district fights receivership

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press Tucson Citizen Originally published September 15, 2005

PHOENIX - A northern Arizona polygamist community's school district is fighting the state's effort to take over financial control of the district.   The 344-student Colorado City Unified School District has filed a detailed response to the state's receivership petition scheduled to be considered by the state Board of Education during an Oct. 20 special meeting.   The state alleged that taxpayers and students have been harmed by mismanagement that included purchase of a nearly $200,000 airplane, questionable dealings concerning buildings and equipment and poor fiscal practices that kept teachers from being paid for two months last year.   Colorado City is a secluded northern Arizona community controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that broke away from the Mormon church.   Sect members also live in neighboring Hildale, Utah.   The district's response argues that its board and administrators have acted responsibly and that some of the circumstances that caused it money problems were outside its control.     Read more

Bills that passed

Bills pushed by Horne

The Arizona Republic azcentral.com Originally published October 12, 2005

State schools chief Tom Horne has had some success in pushing bills through the Legislature, including: A law that will ban soft drinks and candy from Arizona public elementary and middle schools beginning in July 2006. A law that allows the state Board of Education to appoint a receiver who can take charge of a school district that "grossly mismanages" its money. The legislation came about because of problems in Colorado City where, according to the state, school officials bought an airplane and vehicles for administrators while forcing teachers to take pay cuts. A law that makes school labels, such as "excelling" and "failing," easier for schools and parents to understand.

State board postpones hearing on receivership

The Associated Press KPHO News 5 - Phoenix Originally broadcast October 19, 2005

PHOENIX The state Board of Education has postponed a hearing which had been scheduled tomorrow on state officials' petition to place the Colorado City Unified School District in financial receivership because of alleged mismanagement.   Board executive Director Vince Yanez says the board's president granted the district's postponement request, which cited scheduling conflicts for the district's attorney and which was not opposed by the state.   Yanez says he hopes to hold a meeting later this month with lawyers in the case to agree on a new date for the hearing and to work out issues related to pre-hearing disclosures, the number of witnesses and facts that can be agreed on by both sides in advance.   The district has denied the state's allegations in the receivership petition filed on behalf of Attorney General Terry Goddard, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Yanez.

December hearing set for receivership petition

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast November 2, 2005

PHOENIX - A state Board of Education hearing on state officials' petition to place the Colorado City Unified School District in financial receivership has been rescheduled for early December.   The hearing was originally scheduled for last month but it has been reset for December 8th and 9th because of scheduling conflicts.   The petition filed on behalf of Attorney General Terry Goddard, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Board of Education Executive Director Vince Yanez alleges mismanagement by the district and its top officials.  The district denies the allegations.   The district serves Colorado City, a polygamist enclave along the Arizona-Utah line.

AZ, Colorado City District Agree On Receivership

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press KUTV Channel 2 Originally published December 2, 2005

PHOENIX, Arizona A public school district that serves a community dominated by a polygamist sect and whose teachers went unpaid for two months last year will be placed under state financial control and have two top administrators step down under an agreement disclosed Friday.   The agreement reached between the Colorado City Unified School District and the Arizona Attorney General's office is subject to approval by the state Board of Education, which will consider it Monday.   Acceptance would cancel a hearing later in the week set for the board to consider a receivership petition filed by state officials.   The agreement calls for the Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee the district's financial administration.  Also, the district's superintendent and business manager would retire and resign, respectively, on Dec. 31, and lose their administrative powers in the meantime if the state board approves the agreement.     Read more

State to take over district

Colorado City settles finance mismanagement case

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published December 3, 2005

The state's crackdown on polygamous sects reached into a community's schools Friday when top district administrators in Colorado City agreed to resign or retire and turn over operations to the state.   The settlement with the Arizona Attorney General's Office must still be approved by the Arizona State Board of Education, which will consider it Monday.   In agreeing to the settlement, the district's board members capitulated to a powerful new Arizona law that allows state officials to appoint a third party to run a district found to have "grossly mismanaged" its finances.  But administrators in the northern Arizona district denied any wrongdoing or violations of state laws.   It would be the first time the state has taken over an entire school district, reflecting its growing ability to intervene in schools where there are major problems.  In this case, it can appoint a receiver to take charge and override the School Board's decisions and contracts, from hiring to budgets.     Read more

Arizona will take financial control over polygamist school district

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press Rocky Mountain News Originally published December 5, 2005

MESA, Ariz. — The state Board of Education invoked a new Arizona law for the first time today, approving the financial takeover of a school district in a secluded community dominated by a polygamist sect.   The board voted 8-1 to approve a settlement between the Colorado City Unified School District and state officials to immediately place the district under the financial oversight of an appointed receiver.   Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that practices polygamy and broke away from the mainline Mormon church.   The district's teachers went without pay for two months last year, and state officials' receivership petition alleged that students and taxpayers were harmed by gross financial mismanagement that included the purchase of a nearly $200,000 airplane and questionable dealings in hiring, buildings, equipment and contracts.     Read more

Ariz. board OKs takeover of schools in polygamous community

The Associated Press KGBT Channel 4 - Harlingen, TX Originally broadcast December 5, 2005

MESA, Ariz. Arizona's assumption of the financial control of the school district in the polygamous community of Colorado City has been ratified.   The Arizona Board of Education gave its approval today.   The vote immediately places the school district under the financial oversight of an appointed receiver.   Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a receivership petition on behalf of state officials in August.   Goddard alleged that taxpayers and students have been harmed by gross financial mismanagement of the school district.   Colorado City, located north of the Grand Canyon, is dominated by the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   The sect also has a presence in Hildale, Utah, in Schleicher County, Texas, and in Bountiful, British Columbia. On the Net: State Board of Education: http://www.ade.state.az.us/stateboard

Cheer (then fight)

Justice in Colorado City deserves kudos from taxpayers

Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published December 7, 2005

There's a fight brewing.  But first it is time to celebrate.  So hold the debate.   The good news about the state's takeover of a school district run by a polygamous cult should not be eclipsed by controversy over Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne's push for greater state power over school districts.   The carefully crafted law that allowed the state to appoint a receiver to run the Colorado City Unified School District was not the first step down the proverbial slick hillside.  The law was targeted to Colorado City.   It was aimed at a known problem.   Lawmakers did the right thing by steering clear of controversy and passing that law without the broader powers Horne sought then - and still wants.   The situation in Colorado City is - thankfully - unique.   That public school has been run by members of a polygamous cult that treated public school funding like the cult's piggy bank.  Members of Warren Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints served as board members and bought an airplane with district funds.   They failed to pay teachers.   They dug the district $2 million into debt.     Read more

IN OUR VIEW Arizona right to take over schools

Opinion The Spectrum Originally published December 8, 2005

The allegations in the case involved financial mismanagement and had nothing to do with who is married to how many people.   Arizona acted upon claims that teachers had gone unpaid, that the very small district had spent nearly $200,000 on an airplane and that the education of students was suffering because of questionable financial dealings in a number of areas that have left the district nearly $2 million in debt.  The proceedings never mentioned religious beliefs - only dollars.   The Grand Canyon State should be congratulated.  It identified a problem within a state-funded entity.   The state legislature passed a law that would allow the state's attorney general to address the problem.  He filed for receivership on Aug. 12, the first day allowed under the new law, and then followed through on the petition until its completion on Dec. 5.  From inception to finish, Arizona took care of a situation that needed its attention.     Read more

Crash Course

Fundamentalist Mormons lose control of Colorado City's school district, as a criminal investigation

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published Thursday, December 8, 2005

As the December 3 Colorado City Unified School District board of governors meeting draws to a close, Alvin Barlow, Arizona's longest tenured public school superintendent, instinctively opens his pocket calendar to set the date for the next meeting.   Barlow flips through the calendar for a few seconds and fumbles with his pen.   Then he stops, and stares across the classroom inside the adobe building he helped construct 45 years ago -- a collective effort by fellow fundamentalist polygamist Mormons to improve education in this isolated community 60 miles north of the Grand Canyon.   Without making an entry, Barlow slowly closes the calendar.   There will be no more school board meetings for Alvin Barlow.     Read more

Cost cuts begin in Colorado City

School district staff also slashed by state

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published January 24, 2006

Arizona cut Colorado City School District's administrative staff in half, canceled its 52 credit cards and sold nine of its 18 vehicles, according to a report made Monday to the state Board of Education.   Despite the cost-cutting moves, two Utah educators visited the troubled district's classes and found education programs passing most state and federal requirements.   The staff cuts and disposal of property are part of a state takeover triggered in December when the board found the district had "grossly mismanaged" its money.  The 378-student district sits in a remote community on the Arizona-Utah line that is home to several polygamist religious sects.   State-appointed receiver Peter Davis, owner of Phoenix-based Simon Consulting, also cut the district's 35 cellphones down to seven and closed a 60,000-square-foot office building, where only 10 staff members were working.     Read more

Colorado City schools' bill tallied

By Sara Bisker Today's News-Herald Originally published Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Colorado City Unified School District owes the state $360,000 for budget overruns, has a bond debt of $1.2 million and owes $1.3 million to the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust, which has been helping it cover checks, according to a report issued Monday to the Arizona State Board of Education.   "Deception was the name of their game," said Mohave County Superintendent of Schools, Mike File.   Since December 2005, CCUSD has been under state appointed receivership to clean up financial mismanagement.   The school district is located in Mohave County on the Arizona/Utah state line.  The community is dominated by a religious faction called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), which embraces polygamy and is led by Warren Jeffs.   On July 16, 2000, Jeffs ordered FLDS members to have no contact with "2nd Warders," a group located in the unincorporated community of Centennial Park and viewed as "traitors of God" by FLDS members, according to published reports.   "If you are choosing to socialize with apostates, to join with them in any way, you are choosing to get on the devil's ground," Jeffs stated in a 2000 church sermon.     Read more

Schools in polygamist community may get state bailout

By Paul Davenport Tucson Citizen Orinally published February 15, 2006

PHOENIX - Arizona legislators are moving to provide a $1.3 million bailout to a financially troubled school district serving a remote community long dominated by a polygamist sect.   The House K-12 Education Committee on Wednesday unanimously endorsed the bill after a state-appointed receiver assured members that the Colorado City Unified School District is under new management and that it shouldn't fall under the sect's sway again.   Receiver Peter Davis said the district needs the state loan largely because members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are not paying taxes on property owned by a trust under which church members collectively hold their property.   The state Board of Education appointed Davis in December under a 2005 law enacted because of the district's financial problems.  Those problems included teachers going without pay for several months during 2004.   The district's top administrators stepped down as part of a consent agreement and the Mohave County school superintendent has already appointed two non-FLDS members to fill vacancies on the district's five-member board, Davis said.   There have been discussions about expanding the district's boundaries so that the FLDS membership no longer constitutes a majority of the district's voters.     Read more

Groe: State Relief For School District

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published February 17, 2006

COLORADO CITY, AZ - The state of Arizona may soon provide funding to bail out the Colorado City School District.   The district is now in the hands of a state appointed trustee/receiver after gross mismanagement of funds under the leadership of the Colorado City polygamist sect.   State Representative Trish Groe helped sponsor the bill and believes it is the state’s responsibility to take care of the children in Colorado City.   "We really need to step in and make sure we rebuild the School District with a solid foundation," said Groe.  The district plans to to repay the funds as they sell off investment capital.

Colo. City schools improving

By Sara Bisker Today's News-Herald - Havasu City Originally published March 23, 2006

In the midst of a "five-year battle" to fix a broken financial situation in the Colorado City Unified School District No. 14, a 120 day report written by the appointed state receiver reveals a school district in repair.   The school district, located on the northernmost border of Arizona and Utah, teaches to about 425 students, comprised of communities in Colorado City/Hildale, Centennial Park and Cane Beds.   According to the report, Davis said, "The cultural and religious differences between these communities is pronounced, giving CCUSD a unique diversity that includes fundamentalist polygamists who follow Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), polygamists (referred to as Centennial Park or Second Ward) and non-polygamists who live predominately in the community of Cane Beds."   In November 2005, the Arizona Auditor General's Office issued a 90-day letter to the school district.  It warned the district that it was not in compliance with the Uniform System of Financial Records for Arizona School Districts; if the district did not fix problems to satisfactory conditions then the state would intervene.     Read more

Receiver: Colorado City school district improving

The Associated Press Mohave Daily News Originally published Thursday, March 23, 2006

LAKE HAVASU CITY (AP) - The receiver put in charge of the Colorado City Unified School District in December by the state of Arizona says the district has improved dramatically under new leadership.   The changes are so great that receiver Peter Davis said it is no longer necessary for him to be on site on a daily basis because the district can now "function as a self-sustaining organization," according to a report he submitted to the state Board of Education.   The district, which serves the polygamist community of Colorado City in extreme northern Mohave County, teaches about 425 students.   The district needed a $1.4 million bailout after falling into debt last year.     Read more

Plane on auction block in FLDS town

Arizona is trying to pay off debts of the school district

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, March 24, 2006

A small airplane belonging to the troubled school district in the polygamous border town of Colorado City, Ariz., is scheduled to be auctioned off to the highest bidder Saturday.   It's the first of what could be several auctions of property belonging to the Colorado City Unified School District, seized by the state of Arizona.   "We're trying to bring the district back into the black," said Andrea Esquer, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Attorney General's Office.  "The purpose is to pay off debt."   The Cessna P210 has been sitting in a hangar since Arizona authorities took control of the school district last year.  Colorado City school officials claimed they used the plane to attend meetings because of the large geographic area of Mohave County, Ariz.   The airplane could fetch as much as $170,000 at Saturday's auction, said George Cunningham, the auctioneer and president of Cunningham & Associates.     Read more

Receiver gets more power in Colo. City

By Jacques Billeaud The Associated Press The Arizona Republic Originally published March 28, 2006

State education officials agreed Monday to extend the powers of a receiver who was put in charge of the Colorado City Unified School District, a financially troubled district serving a remote community long dominated by a polygamist sect.   The procedural move by the State Board of Education lets receiver Peter Davis, a consultant hired to turn around the 410-student district, carry out his plan to improve the district's finances.   Davis said steps taken thus far to improve the district's operations have produced dramatic improvements, leaving him poised to transition from a hands-on approach to more of a monitoring role.   "The situation has significantly stabilized," Davis said.   Colorado City in northern Arizona and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that practices polygamy and broke away from the Mormon Church.   After the sect's leader ordered followers to withdraw their children from the district's schools, teachers went without pay for two months last year.   State officials say that students and taxpayers were harmed by financial mismanagement, including the purchase of an airplane and questionable dealings in hiring and contracts.     Read more

Legislative Briefs

School taxes

Capitol Media Services The Arizona Daily Star - Tucson Originally published April 7, 2006

The House voted 38-19 Thursday to block the boards of several school districts from raising taxes.   SB 1206 is aimed at districts where the combined city, county, school and other primary property tax rates for at least half the homeowners exceed $10 per $100 of assessed valuation.   That is the constitutional cap on primary taxes, meaning that any excess costs are picked up by the state.   Backers of the legislation, which now goes to the governor, say that is not fair to taxpayers elsewhere who end up subsidizing these districts.   Foes said it will hamper the ability of schools with high costs such as for desegregation programs to meet their legal requirements.   Affected districts include Ash Creek Elementary, Ash Fork Unified, Bowie Unified, Colorado City Elementary, Combs Elementary, Eloy Elementary, Empire Elementary, Hayden-Winkelman Unified, Isaac Elementary, Mammoth/San Manuel Unified, Maricopa Unified, McNeal Elementary, Paloma Elementary, Picacho Elementary, Red Rock Elementary, San Simon Unified, Santa Cruz Valley Union, Toltec Elementary and Tucson Unified.

Receiver: Reduced bailout could force Colorado City district into bankruptcy

The Associated Press Mohave Daily News Originally published April 18, 2006

PHOENIX (AP) - The state-appointed receiver for the school district serving a polygamist-dominated community says the latest version of a legislative bailout bill could put the district at risk of having to file for bankruptcy.   A Senate committee on Tuesday reduced a House-approved bill's proposed loan to the 400-student Colorado City Unified School District to $181,300 from $1.3 million.   The reduced amount would be enough to cover two payments on bonds previously sold by the district to investors, but far short of the approximately $1 million needed to repay a school insurance trust that bought the district's warrants when it was short of cash and couldn't pay its teachers.   Colorado City, in extreme northwestern Arizona, and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that practices polygamy and long ago broke away from the Mormon church.  After the sect's leader ordered followers to withdraw their children from the district's schools, teachers went without pay for two months in 2004.   Because of the district's financial troubles, the state Board of Education placed the district in receivership in December.     Read more

FLDS subpoenas filed

Arizona asks Utah authorities to help serve papers to businesses

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Grand jury subpoenas are being served upon businesses connected to the Fundamentalist LDS Church and an embattled school district in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.   The existence of an Arizona grand jury investigation was revealed Tuesday when the Arizona Attorney General's Office filed papers in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court, asking Utah authorities for help to serve the subpoenas.   The subject of the subpoenas is Jeffrey P. Jessop, the former financial director of the Colorado City Unified School District.  The court papers demand any financial documents, invoices, tax forms, contracts or correspondence involving Jessop between 2000 and 2005.   "It's nothing I can comment on," said Andrea Esquer, spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.  "Anything that deals with the state grand jury in Arizona is confidential."   FLDS-linked companies Valley Transportation, Valley Truss, Steeds Inc., and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints are being served with the subpoenas.  The Jody Wilkinson Acura car dealership is also being served, but employees there said they had no idea why.   "I'm not sure I know who Jeffrey Jessop is.  That I can recall, I don't think I've met him," said Rod Parker, a former lawyer for the FLDS Church who was to be served one of the subpoenas.  Reached in New York City where he was visiting on business on Tuesday night, Parker said he did not know what the grand jury was investigating.     Read more

Firms with FLDS ties to present financial records

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Businesses that have ties to the Fundamentalist LDS Church and a troubled school district in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., are scheduled to appear in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City today.   The businesses are being ordered to show up at the Matheson Courthouse with records pertaining to Jeffrey P. Jessop, the former financial director of the Colorado City Unified School District.  The hearing is part of an Arizona grand-jury investigation by that state's attorney general's office — presumably into the embattled school district and its finances.   "I can't tell you what the target is," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said in an interview Monday with the Deseret Morning News.   In 2000, Jessop became the financial director of the Colorado City Unified School District.   That same year, FLDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, now a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, ordered members to pull their children out of public school, causing nearly two-thirds of the district's students to leave.   Jessop resigned under pressure in 2005.  The state of Arizona took over the school district after teachers went months without pay, and allegations of financial mismanagement surfaced.  Police raided district offices and seized computers, records and files.     Read more

State officials seize control of Colorado City schools

By Javier Soto KTVK NewsChannel 3 - Phoenix Originally broadcast Tuesday, May 9, 2006

For years the Colorado City Unified School District has been plagued by financial problems until recently when state officials seized control.   According to an investigation by the Attorney General's Office, the Colorado City School district mismanaged hundreds of thousands of dollars.   The state seized control of the district.  The call out for help to get rid of the school items came from an unlikely place.   "At first it was like walking into The Twilight Zone," said Clint Bleeker describing Colorado City.   "It was a beautiful school district.  They had the best of everything.   The furniture was immaculate," he said.   So with the help of dozens of fellow Lion's Club members, they took a trip to the polygamous sect not known for welcoming outsiders.   "I had to wonder where are all the people," he said.  "Are they watching you from the windows?  Where are the people?"   So desks, chairs and even school buses were brought back.   "We left a large portion of duplicate items behind.  Chairs and desks behind," he said.     Read more

Firms cooperate in FLDS investigation

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Companies with links to the Fundamentalist LDS Church appear to be cooperating with an Arizona grand jury investigation into the polygamous church and an embattled school district in Colorado City.   That's what the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office reported to a judge Tuesday morning in 3rd District Court.   The DA's office has been helping the Arizona attorney general serve subpoenas on FLDS-linked businesses Village Transportation, Village Truss and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the FLDS Church.   "I know we were able to serve them," DA's spokesman Bob Stott said Tuesday.   Steeds, Inc., which was in Midvale is no longer in business.  No one from the companies showed up at the Matheson Courthouse Tuesday.   The target of the subpoenas is Jeffrey P. Jessop, the former financial director of the Colorado City Unified School District.  He resigned under pressure in 2005, after the state of Arizona took over the district amid allegations of financial mismanagement.  The subpoenas ask for records related to Jessop.   "I told them that my dealings with the fundamentalist church are protected by legal privilege," former FLDS lawyer Rod Parker told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday.   "Nevertheless, I don't have any records that are responsive to the request, privileged or not."     Read more

Serving papers is tough in 2 polygamous towns

People hide, refuse to answer door or vanish in the desert

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, May 19, 2006

ST. GEORGE — Of the 17 men supposed to appear in court here to answer to an Arizona grand jury subpoena, only one has showed up.   That's because he's in jail.   Police and prosecutors are finding it increasingly difficult to serve court papers in the polygamous border towns of Hildale and Colorado City.   People hide, refuse to answer doors or vanish altogether in the desert.   "They run into that frustration sometimes that people won't answer the doors.  It appears people are there but they're not willing to answer doors or cooperate," deputy Washington County Attorney Jerry Jaeger told the Deseret Morning News on Wednesday.   Thomas V. Barlow has so far been the only one to show up to court to answer to a subpoena to testify before an Arizona grand jury reportedly investigating financial mismanagement within the Colorado City Unified School District.  He was already in jail on an unrelated charge.   On Wednesday, a judge said Barlow can testify if Arizona can transport him to the courthouse to appear before their grand jury.   Meanwhile, subpoena serving is slow going in Hildale and Colorado City.  Even the Arizona Attorney General himself has been unsuccessful at it.   "In the middle of the week and no one is in City Hall," Terry Goddard told the Deseret Morning News last week.  "They were avoiding us."     Read more

Polygamist items auctioned off in Flagstaff

Arizona Daily Star -Tucson, Arizona azstarnet.com Originally published May 21, 2006

Rusty Personett holds up a theodolite to attract a buyer at the Sunrise Lion's Club Annual Government Surplus Auction, held Saturday in Flagstaff.   A theodolite is an instrument used in surveying to measure horizontal and vertical angles.   This one was among hundreds of items seized from the bankrupt school district of Colorado City, a polygamist community in Northern Arizona that has come under government scrutiny.     See photo

FLDS-tied firms in court?

Arizona won't confirm, but grand jury expected to see S.L. businesses

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Thursday, May 25, 2006

People with ties to the Fundamentalist LDS Church and a financially troubled school district were scheduled to appear before an Arizona grand jury in Phoenix on Wednesday.   Whether or not they showed up is not being discussed.   "I can't comment on anything that involves the grand jury," said Arizona attorney general's spokeswoman Andrea Esquer.   "Anything that attends to the grand jury in Arizona is confidential."   The target of subpoenas issued in Salt Lake City and St. George is Jeffrey P. Jessop, the former financial director of the Colorado City Unified School District.  He resigned under pressure in 2005, after the state of Arizona took over the district amidst allegations of mismanaged funds and teachers working months without pay.  Police raided the district's offices in Colorado City, seizing computers and boxes of files.   Those ordered to provide the grand jury with records related to Jessop on Wednesday included Salt Lake-based businesses that have had ties to the FLDS Church.  They include Village Transportation, Village Truss and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the FLDS Church.   Car dealer Jody Wilkinson was also served with a subpoena for records.     Read more

County attorney's office helps serve Hildale subpoenas

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published July 8, 2006

ST. GEORGE - Looking to serve subpoenas on several people living in Hildale, the Arizona Attorney General's Office enlisted the help of the Washington County Attorney's Office.   None of those people of interest appeared in 5th District Court before Judge James Shumate on Friday afternoon, but all had hired attorneys, said Deputy Attorney Jerry Jaeger.   "Basically, the Arizona Attorney General's Office was looking to serve subpoenas on individuals and businesses which had dealings with the Colorado City School; however, since the individuals lived in Hildale, we were asked to help," Jaeger said.   The court action was brief as three attorneys represented their clients.   Attorney Heath Snow, who is representing several individuals, declined to comment after the court hearing.   Shumate commented for the record that one of the individuals, Willie Jessop, owner of R & W Excavating, did the excavation work for his home.     Read more

Gains cited for school district in polygamist enclave

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published August 25, 2006

PHOENIX -- A northern Arizona school district serving an isolated community long dominated by a polygamist church "has a completely different look and feel" and hopes to emerge from under a state-appointed receiver's supervision within a year, the district's newly appointed governing board says.  Since the state Board of Education appointed a receiver to oversee the Colorado City Unified School District last December because of its financial woes, all district officials affiliated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have resigned.  Authorities contend that the church's leadership used the school district as a cash cow, diverting money for questionable purposes such as purchase of an airplane.  Many FLDS members have left Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, some for FLDS enclaves in Texas and British Columbia, and church leader Warren Jeffs is a federal fugitive.  The district's teachers went without pay for two months in 2004 after church leaders directed followers to withdraw their children from public schools.  The district remained financially afloat largely because of financing providing by a school insurance trust, but the Arizona Legislature in June approved a $318,000 bailout for debt repayment.  More recently, a fiduciary appointed by a Utah court to oversee the church's financial trust has reported success in getting church members to pay past-due property taxes that are a funding source for the district.     Read more

Morning Devotional by Warren Jeffs, Sept. 10, 2002

sltrib.com Originally published October 27, 2006

This is the morning devotional given by FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs on Sept. 10, 2002, at the Jeffs Academy in Hildale -- two days after the death of his father, Rulon.

Unidentified man: Oh, rejoice to hear our prophet's message.  At this time, ask Uncle Warren to speak to us:   Warren Jeffs: Let's have all the children stand and stretch a minute and wake up.  Breathe deep. Think a prayer.  I am here to do the will of my father.  You can only listen if you're smiling.  OK, have a seat.  I ask our Heavenly Father to bless me with his holy spirit and invoke that spirit upon you.  I declare to Heavenly Father I'm here to do the will of my father, whom he has sent.  May the spirit of our prophet burn in our minds and hearts as he is among this people, working with the elders and their families, working with his own family,  by the power of priesthood.  This is a wonderful occasion.  We are privileged to meet in priesthood schools, even with the whole wicked world wanting to destroy us.  The almighty hand of God is protecting this people because the Lord has promised all the prophets he would have a prepared people.  Every priesthood home and every priesthood school should be a school of the prophets.  The prophets want every child to be filled with the spirit of God.  A prophet or prophetess is a person who is always lead by Heavenly Father's spirit.  So, we met in priesthood schools.  The schools will only be as good as the families who come.  And every person and each priesthood school should have this attitude: The success of this school depends upon me, the individual.  If there are problems, everyone look to themselves: What can I do better?     Read more

Lawmakers target ailing district, would extend receivership law

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published May 18, 2007

PHOENIX -- Arizona legislators are poised to place a financially troubled school district under state control and temporarily extend a state law that was enacted in 2005 so another ailing district could be placed in receivership.   House-Senate conferees agreed Thursday on emergency legislation that would order the state Board of Education to immediately place the 1,200-student Saddle Mountain Unified School District in western Maricopa County under control of an appointed receiver because of alleged mismanagement.  Also under the legislators' agreement, several other school districts would be granted more time to repay state aid received as a result of the districts' miscalculations of their budgets.  The proposed legislation endorsed by the conferees and expected to be considered by the full House and Senate next week would temporarily extend the 2005 law that the Board of Education used to place the Colorado City Unified School District in receivership.  The 2005 law is now set to expire on Dec. 31 but the proposed change would extend its life through the end of the 2008 regular session to give lawmakers time to consider the receivership law further.     Read more

Lawmakers OK Action Against Ailing School District

The Associated Press KTAR News 92.3 - Phoenix Originally broadcast May 24, 2007

The Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to a bill to place a financially troubled Maricopa County school district under state control and temporarily extend a state law that allowed another ailing district to be placed in receivership.  The Senate's 20-3 vote came one day after the House approved, 43-15, the bill (HB2305), which now goes to Gov. Janet Napolitano.  The bill, an emergency measure that take effect upon Napolitano's signature, would order the state Board of Education to immediately place the 1,200-student Saddle Mountain Unified School District in western Maricopa County under control of an appointed receiver because of alleged mismanagement.  Also under the bill, several other school districts would be granted more time to repay state aid received as a result of the districts' miscalculations of their budgets.  The legislation would extend a 2005 law that the Board of Education used to place the Colorado City Unified School District in receivership.     Read more

State may take over Saddle Mountain district

By Emily McCann West Valley View - Litchfield Park, Arizona Originally published May 25, 2007

A House Bill passed by the Legislature May 24 is bittersweet for the Saddle Mountain Unified School District in Tonopah.  On one hand, HB 2305 allows the district to pay back its approximate $3.5 million debt in five years, but it also requires the state to step in and oversee the district's future spending.  The district has overspent its maintenance and operations budget for the past three fiscal years, and is projected to be over-budget again this year.  In 2004, the district exceeded its budget by 11 percent.  However, in 2005 and 2006, that amount increased to 40 and 56 percent, respectively.  In January, a group of community members set out to have the district declared insolvent.  Paul Roetto, one of the group leaders, doesn't see the bill as a victory.  "I'm looking back and saying, 'What did we do wrong?  Why didn't we get here sooner?'  And the other thing is, this is like an addict admitting we have a problem," he said.  "I feel we've finally got the person in rehab, now let's see if we can get them sober."  The group argued the district has wasted capital funds on "extravagant purchases" and cited the purchase of a $500,000 synthetic-turf football field for the high school as an example.     Read more

Governor signs emergency bill on financial ailing districts

The Associated Press KMSB TV - Tucson Originally published May 25, 2007

PHOENIX (AP) -- Troubled by several Arizona school districts' financial problems, legislators plan a between-session look at whether to keep on the books a soon-to-expire state law that has already been used to put one district in receivership and soon another.  Gov. Janet Napolitano on Friday signed into law a bill that orders the state Board of Education to immediately put the Saddle Mountain Unified School District in receivership, extends the receivership law's scheduled expiration into mid-2008 and orders creation of a special study committee.  Napolitano acted one day after lawmakers completed action on the emergency bill largely prompted by the 1,200-student Saddle Mountain district's troubles.  "We're talking about a pattern of people seeing things coming and ignoring it," said Sen. Robert Blendu, R-Litchfield Park.  The Tonopah-based district has overspent its budget in recent years and would have been unable to meet its payroll without another provision in the newly signed bill (HB2305).  The provision changes a school finance law to allow repayment of extra state aid over a longer period, said Vince Yanez, the state board's executive director.  The bill also would give several other school districts more time to repay state aid received as a result of budget miscalculations.  Those districts are Cedar Unified, Indian Oasis Unified, Tombstone Unified and Eloy Elementary.  The 2005 receivership law was enacted because of problems at the Colorado City Unified School District in a polygamist enclave in northern Mohave County that remains in receivership.     Read more

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL

SPOTLIGHTS COLORADO CITY’S UNLIKELY BASKETBALL PROGRAM WHEN IT RETURNS FEB. 11, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

Press Release HBO Sports Originally published Thursday, February 7, 2008

Winner of 19 Sports Emmys® in 12 years, REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 131st edition debuts MONDAY, FEB. 11 (10:00 PM ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. *New School.   For the residents of Colorado City, Ariz., the El Capitan High School basketball program signifies change in a community desperate for something new. For years, Colorado City has been infamous for the practice of polygamy and for being the home of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and its recently imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs. Now, as the town looks to emerge from Jeffs’ shadow, its inhabitants see the El Capitan basketball program as a vehicle to introduce Colorado City to the outside world and dispel the myths surrounding the community’s residents, many of whom have no link to the FLDS. Correspondent Andrea Kremer reports this intriguing story. Producer:   Ezra Edelman. REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL has won the Sports Emmy® for Outstanding Sports Journalism ten of the last 12 years, in addition to being the first sports program honored with the duPont Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. The executive producers of REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL are Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein; Kirby Bradley is senior producer.

Playing against prejudice:

Teams from FLDS area face plenty of obstacles

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Sunday, February 17, 2008

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — The insults hurled at the kids were cruel.  "Plyg kids!" they would shout.  "Go home to your wives!"  The players on the El Capitan School basketball teams just ignored it.  "They'd try to pick fights at us and throw snowballs at us," said 14-year-old David Hammon.  "I don't really mind, 'cause it makes me play better."  This year, no one is making fun of them.  That's because the boys and girls teams have dominated the competition with an 11-5 season for the boys, and a 13-2 record for the girls.  The El Capitan Eagles are playing with numerous obstacles in their path.  They come from an area notorious for polygamy and a lot of negative publicity accompanying it.  Their school district is under financial control of the state of Arizona — more fallout from the multi-state crackdown on the Fundamentalist LDS Church and its leader, Warren Jeffs.  Both inside and outside these communities, some don't want these kids to play.  "This is one of the most positive things that has come out of this community in a long time," said boys coach Joel Heaton.     Read more

Colorado City school hopes gym can end stigma

Donations would allow town to keep basketball program

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Sunday, March 2, 2008

The El Capitan Eagles hope a new gym will erase the negative stigma associated with their hometown — and allow them to compete as equals against other schools.  The public K-12 school on the border of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., is raising money for a new gym so boys and girls basketball teams can compete with other schools in Utah.  "I want this to be a place that every student is proud of and happy to be here," El Capitan principal Carol Timpson said Friday.  The Eagles have faced not only prejudice on and off the court, but also financial pressures.  At games, kids from the polygamous border towns have endured taunts and threats of violence.  Some schools declined to play them after learning they were from Colorado City.  Yet they have persevered to winning seasons, playing in a gym too small to host bigger schools in the Utah High School Activities Association, an organization that El Capitan wants to belong to in order to play in the 1A division.     Read more

New scoreboard delights Colorado City school

By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Saturday, March 29, 2008

Coach Natalie Zitting is down to just six basketballs at the El Capitan Public School in Colorado City, Ariz., and she doesn't know where she'll get the money to buy more.  But she's smiling — the Eagles finally have a scoreboard.  "It's awesome!" Zitting said.  "Any progress helps the kids, and helps them feel they're the same as any other school."  The scoreboard was donated last week by Chris Sonntag, whose company sells bleachers, scoreboards and playgrounds used in schools.  "They're nice, good people and I just felt like they deserved a break," he said.  A story in the Deseret Morning News in February highlighted the challenges the El Capitan Eagles have faced.  At games, the kids from the polygamous border towns have endured taunts of "plyg kids" or "go home to your wives!" as well as threats of violence.  Some schools wouldn't play them after hearing they were from Colorado City.  "When I read that, I thought: 'They deserve better,"' Sonntag said, explaining why he was donating the gently used scoreboard to the school.  Others have rallied around the Eagles.  The nearby Kaibab Piute tribe donated $1,000 to help install the scoreboard.     Read more

FLDS Update: Lost Boys - Education

Reported by Cody Rodriguez KLST News - San Angelo, Texas Originally broadcast May 8, 2008

Man landed on the moon in 1969.  That's something that almost every student learns in school.  The woman who operates a rescue organization for FLDS Lost Boys in Salt Lake City says that's just one example of a gap in history for children who grew up in FLDS communities in Arizona and Utah.  She says that she has yet to find young FLDS members with an education higher than the eighth grade level.  Some of the gaps in knowledge could be attributed to that fact that most kids do not get an education like other children in America.  The FLDS Children according to former member Flora Jessop is based on their church.  About eight years ago FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs asked members to take their children out of the Colorado City Arizona Public Schools.  Many of the kids then were home schooled or began attending the Alta Academy where Warren Jeffs was Principal.  They listened to tapes voiced by Warren Jeffs as teaching aides.  Warren Jeffs: You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth or rude and filthy, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind."  Flora Jessop says students would listen to those tapes and then be required to write reports on the what they learned.  Their man focus according to former FLDS members is that their community is superior.  This narrow education makes adjusting to the outside world difficult for former FLDS members.

Officials say FLDS kids miss school

By PAUL DAVENPORT The Associated Press Mohave Daily News Originally published Thursday, July 24, 2008

PHOENIX - Possibly hundreds of children may not be receiving an education in a Mohave County community long dominated by a polygamist sect, officials said Thursday.  The assessment concerns some children of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that long ago broke away from the Mormon church, which renounces polygamy.  In remarks submitted to a U.S. Senate panel in Washington, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said hundreds of children in Colorado City could be going without schooling.  Goddard also discussed his comments during a telephone interview.  Goddard said children are frequently seen playing outside during school hours and school-age boys as young as 12 reportedly are working at construction sites.  But Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File said the number of children not in school could be lower because some FLDS members have left Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, with many moving to a new enclave in Texas.  Arizona law requires children to be enrolled in a public or private school through age 16 if not home-schooled.  Failure by a parent to enroll a child in school is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.  Failure by a parent to file a home-school affidavit is a petty offense punishable by a fine up to $300.  The FLDS' jailed leader, Warren Jeffs, previously had members withdraw children from public schools and instead either home school them or enroll them in the sect's private schools.  But the private schools have since closed, and Goddard said only 12 parents have filed home-school affidavits.     Read more

Sect kids not being educated, Arizona's AG tells Congress

By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services Arizona Daily Star Originally published Friday, July 25, 2008

Hundreds of children in the polygamous community of Colorado City are not getting an education, Attorney General Terry Goddard said Thursday.  But the Mohave County school chief said that figure is likely exaggerated.  Goddard, testifying before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said close to 1,000 youngsters were pulled out of Colorado City public schools in 2000 on the orders of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints.  But Goddard said the church-run schools have been closed since Jeffs' arrest two years ago.  Goddard acknowledged that Arizona law permits parents to educate children at home.  He said, though, the law requires the parents to file affidavits with the county school superintendent of the intent to home school.  Goddard said only 12 such affidavits have been recorded.  "Children are consistently observed in the late morning playing on the streets throughout Colorado City and (the Utah community of) Hilldale," he testified.  "We also have received information that boys as young as 12 years of age are sent out to work on construction sites."  Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File acknowledged enrollment in the school district went from close to 1,100 to about 150 after Jeffs' decree.  But File said about 300 of those children have since re- enrolled in the schools.  And he questioned Goddard's estimate of those who are truant.  "My personal opinion, having been up there in late March, I don't think there's that many children left in the community," File said.  He said many families have moved elsewhere, possibly to other FLDS communities, like El Dorado, Texas.  File conceded that doesn't mean every child who is supposed to be in public school — everyone between ages 6 and 16 — is there or being legally home schooled.  "You can't walk up and go door-to-door and say, 'You need to sign this affidavit,' " he said. "As we see, they don't follow the prototypical laws that everyone else does anyway."     Read more

Volleyball Game Scratched

(Press Release) 09-08-2008 Mesquite Local News Originally published September 9, 2008

The Virgin Valley High School JV and freshman girls volleyball game at El Capitan on Tuesday has been cancelled.  The games, originally set to take place at the El Capitan high school in Colorado City, were cancelled because the school was unable to come up with enough players to form a full team.  The games will not be rescheduled.  The next action for the JV volleyball team will be on Monday, Sept. 15, at home against Lake Mead Christian Academy.  The next game for the freshman girls will be Thursday, Sept. 18, against Pine View in St. George.

U.S. News bestows county high schools with medals

By Mara Knaub White Mountain Independent - Show Low, Arizona Originally published December 11, 2008

NAVAJO COUNTY - Two schools in Navajo County- Joseph City High School and Mogollon High School in Heber - were recognized with bronze-medal designations by the U.S. News & World Report magazine in its annual America's Best High Schools issue.  U.S. News teamed up with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 research and analysis business that provides parents with education data on schoolmatters.com, to produce the rankings.  They analyzed academic and enrollment data from the 2006-2007 and ranked 21,069 public high schools, including charter schools, "to find the very best across the country."  The top schools were then placed into gold, silver, bronze or honorable mention categories.  The analysis is available on www.usnews.com and newsstands as of Dec. 8 in the magazine issue dated Dec. 15-22, 2008.  U.S. News' Robert Morse explained that the schools were judged "based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are bound for college and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show that the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators."     Read more

Schools in polygamist town clear financial hurdle

The Associated Press KSWT-TV - Yuma, Arizona Originally published December 30, 2008

PHOENIX (AP) - The school district serving a northern Arizona community long dominated by a polygamist sect is back in compliance with state financial reporting standards and is a big step closer to being released from state control.  The Arizona Auditor General's Office says that the Colorado City Unified School District still has deficiencies but now complies with mandatory financial standards.  That finding is necessary for the district to emerge from receivership imposed on it by the state Board of Education in December 2005.  But another requirement remains unmet.  That's a finding from the Auditor General's Office that the district itself is financially solvent.  An official says the office is considering how to make that determination once it is formally requested.

District in FLDS town digging out of trouble

By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008

A school district in the polygamous border town of Colorado City, Ariz., is closer to digging itself out of financial trouble.  The Arizona Auditor General's Office released a report saying the Colorado City Unified School District is closer to being in compliance with mandated financial practices.  "We acknowledge the district's diligence in correcting its deficiencies," Arizona Auditor General Debra Davenport wrote.  "However, we must emphasize that a number of deficiencies still exist."  The Dec. 19 report recommended the district's purchasing controls be improved, more control be exercised over student monies, more accurate accounting sheets and better documentation over conflicts of interest.  Still, the embattled district could be released from receivership at an upcoming meeting of the Arizona State Board of Education.  "It's been a long road," said Carol Timpson, principal of the El Capitan School, a K-12 school that currently has about 475 students.  The problems essentially began when enrollment in the school district plummeted to about 250 in 2000 after Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs told church members to pull their children out of the public school.  About two-thirds of the district's student population left.  "The majority of the community is still home schooling," Timpson said Tuesday.  "We are still basically a non-FLDS school."     Read more

Big Love Community College

By David Moltz Inside Higher Ed - Washington, DC Originally published February 20, 2009

A community college in rural Arizona is asking local law enforcement and social service groups to leave their office space on campus, following claims by the local polygamous community that their presence made the institution unwelcoming.  Mohave Community College's Colorado City campus is located along an isolated patch of the Utah-Arizona border, near communities that house a high concentration of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and other known polygamous religious sects.  About five years ago, when the college moved its northernmost campus to Colorado City from Fredonia - about 30 miles to the east - it leased part of its property to the Mohave County government for its use.  The county uses the land to house an outpost for the offices of the sheriff and county attorney.  Until recently, the county facility was also the office of Gary Engles, a special investigator for the county who helped piece together a sexual misconduct case against Warren Jeffs, the former FLDS leader and Colorado City resident who was jailed in 2006.  The county also sublets some of its space to other state government entities and Defenders of Children, a nonprofit child advocacy group known for acclimating former FLDS members to the outside world.  Leaders of the polygamous groups, whose enrollments at the college have apparently been dropping, have made it known that they want the government offices gone.     Read more

College enrollment dips in polygamous church town

Deseret News Originally published Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — College enrollment in a northern Arizona polygamous community has dropped more than 50 percent in the past five years — a decrease some say could be tied to a government center that shares the property.  Officials at Mohave Community College are now asking the county officials to stop use of the multiuse facility that is home to a police investigator and offices of an anti-polygamy social services group.  Chancellor Michael J. Kearns says the college will not renew a property lease that expires on April 1.  Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which practices polygamy.  Members have attended the community college, as do members of nearby Centennial Park, another polygamous group.

Kingman improvement district proposed

By Suzanne Adams Kingman Daily Miner Originally published Sunday, March 1, 2009

KINGMAN - Some Kingman area residents may be working on a way to get their streets paved sooner rather than later.  The County Board of Supervisors will consider approving a new County Road Improvement and Maintenance District at its meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the County Administration Building, 700 W. Beale St.  According to county documents, the district will cover nearly 130 acres of land between Hidden Ridge Road and Harvard Street on the east and west sides and Ranch Road and a section line near Painted Trail Way on the north and south sides.  If approved, residents within the district will be allowed to form an improvement district in order to assess themselves for the building, paving and repair costs to roads within the district.  They will no longer have to petition the county in order to have a road or street taken into the county road maintenance program before the road is paved and improved.  They can assess the cost to themselves and pay for the improvements themselves.  The Board will also discuss the termination of a property lease with Mohave Community College.  The college notified the county on Feb. 5 that it would not renew its lease of property in the Colorado City area to the county.  The county has until April 1 to remove any tenants from the property and any buildings.  Currently, the county has a mobile office on the property.  It was subletting the building to the Arizona Department of Economic Security and Defenders of the Children.

Arizona to close state offices in FLDS town

By Suzanne Adams Kingman Daily Miner Deseret News Originally published Monday, March 2, 2009

KINGMAN, Ariz. — Over the objections of the sheriff, attorney and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors approved the removal of property from satellite state and county offices in the Colorado City area by a 2 to 1 vote.  The adjoining polygamist communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, are both home to the Fundamentalist LDS Church.  A five-year lease the county has with Mohave Community College expires April 1.  The college sent a letter to the county on Feb. 5 stating it will not continue to lease the property to the county and requested that the county remove all items, including a double-wide trailer, from the property.  The trailer houses satellite offices for the Mohave County sheriff, county attorney, Arizona attorney general and Arizona Department of Economic Security.  It also houses an office for the Defenders of Children.  The move could make it more difficult for residents in the area to receive county services and make it more difficult to provide adequate law enforcement or emergency services in the area.  "This is just a lease expiring," community college chancellor Michael Kearns said Monday, when asked if the termination of the lease had anything to do with the Defenders of the Children or the drop in MCC enrollment figures in the area, "There are many, many factors that come into play in that area (Hildale/Colorado City). We're not trying to pre-empt or respond to anything. We're not making a statement about anyone."  There are plenty of other properties in the area the county could use, he said.  The topic was first brought to the attention of the board in January, when a sublease with the Defenders of the Children was brought up for renewal.  At that time, a representative from the Colorado City area objected to the renewal of the lease.  The board was to meet with the MCC governing board or Kearns about the situation.     Read more

Polygamy Safety Net booted from college campus

By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Thursday, April 2, 2009

ST. GEORGE — A committee to help victims of abuse and neglect within a closed polygamous society won't be allowed to meet at a community college in Colorado City, Ariz.  "In an attempt to serve all populations of our communities, (Mohave Community College) administration has taken a stand to maintain a neutral, safe zone for all who wish to seek an education," Susan Hammon, the dean of the school, wrote in a letter made public at Thursday's meeting of the Safety Net Committee here.  "Many organizations such as the Safety Net provide valuable services to the area; however, Safety Net does land under the category of a political organization.  To this end we are asking Safety Net and other committees with political ties to seek another location for their local meetings."  The decision has left the Safety Net seeking a new place to meet.  "I have to respect that the Safety Net does have a political connotation, and if it is keeping certain students from attending ... we don't want to get in the way of education," said Pat Merkeley, the committee coordinator.  Members of the committee are considering other buildings within Colorado City, including public schools.  The school recently opted not to renew the leases of county, state and federal offices that were housed in a trailer on its property.  The community is home to members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church.  The Safety Net Committee is a coalition of government agencies, social welfare groups, polygamists and activists seeking to combat abuse and neglect in isolated communities. — Ben Winslow

Watch the Colorado City and the Underground Railroad documentary trailer on the new prophet Warren Jeffs and his ordering the children out of the public schools

See the Ad for the Cessna P210 from the Arizona State Receivership of the Colorado City School District auction held at Falcon Filed, Mesa, AZ on Saturday March 25, 2006.

Read the "Petition RE: Gross Financial Mismanagement and Request for Appointment of a Receiver and Other Relief" Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard presented to the court on August 11, 2005 regarding the Colorado City Unified School District.

SEARCH WARRANT on the Colorado City Unified School District Office, 50 N. Colvin St., Colorado City, Arizona and in the office occupied by OLIVER B. BARLOW at the Colorado City Unified Public School, 225 N. Cottonwood St., Colorado City, Arizona

STATE OF ARIZONA,       Plaintiff           vs OLIVER B .BARLOW, JEFFERY P. BARLOW, and ALVIN S. BARLOW,       Defendants

Read the first search warrant No. SW2005-001445

Read the second search warrant No. SW2005-001445A

Read the return of the search warrants - Property Invoice and Receipt of items confiscated.

Colorado City Unified School District No. 14

Posted on the Arizona Department of Education web site www.ade.az.gov

Download the Fiscal Year 2004-05 budget approved by the Governing Board of the Colorado City Unified School District on July 26, 2004. This is an Excel file.    School District Annual Expenditure Budget

Download the Revised Fiscal Year 2004-05 budget approved by the Governing Board of the Colorado City Unified School District on December 13, 2004. This is an Excel file.    Revised School District Annual Expenditure Budget

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