Colorado City schools' bill tallied
 
By Sara Bisker
Today's News-Herald - Havasu City
 
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.

Because of this order, a large majority of the fundamentalist teachers and students withdrew from the school district, cutting the student body from about 950 students to 300.

However, the FDLS-based administrators, school board and principals remained in their positions, effectively controlling the school, according to reports.

Peter Davis, the state-appointed receiver who works for Phoenix-based Simon Consulting, said his work with the administrators and educators has been varied.

"For a rural school, its doing great," he said, but the financial side is a "disaster."

He said the staff was reduced "significantly" after he was installed as the receiver.

Between Christmas and New Year, he said 18 people announced their resignations.

"This review of the employees was performed in order to evaluate and to implement cost cutting measures including the reduction of excess staff," the report states. "Certain key employees have agreed to stay on long enough to train the newly hired employees. However, by Feb. 5, 2006, all of [the interim employees] will no longer be employed with CCUSD."

"We're headed in the right direction," he said. "My goal is to get this thing running by itself."

One of Davis' first orders was to relinquish all financial rights from the district and place them into his own hands. He took control of all bank accounts and obtained sole signature authority for the bank accounts, according to the report.

A 60,000-square foot building housing less than 10 CCUSD employees was closed, approximating an annual savings of $70,000 in utility costs.

A Cessna Stationair 210 airplane, which was used for travel to Arizona cities and has an estimated value of $175,000 to $240,000, will be auctioned off, according to the report. The receiver also plans to sell six trucks, six SUVs and four busses owned by the district.

The report found CCUSD had an "excessive" amount of cell phones in use and effectively shut off 28 of them. Davis also is in the process of canceling about 52 credit cards, three car wash cards and two membership cards as well as two subscriptions to Dish Networks being billed to the credit cards.

Davis plans to establish one credit card for the interim business manager/principal with a $5,000 limit and one for the transportation director with a $2,000 limit.

"I think the receivers up there and the individuals put in charge got off to the right start," File said. "I was monitoring very closely, but the people who had the authority to do it, weren't doing it. It escalated so far out of the realm of reality that they had to do something."

Davis said he would be issuing a 120 Day Report, that would discuss the future of the district in the coming months.

You may contact the reporter at bisker@havasunews.com.
 
havasunews.com
Originally published Thursday, January 26, 2006
 
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