Ariz. Eyes Polygamist Town School Control
 
By Paul Davenport
The Associated Press
Washington Post
 
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.

According to the petition, the district is the only one in Arizona with an airplane, a $200,000 Cessna piloted by the son of a governing board member.

The district also granted a $107,700 contract for grounds maintenance at a time when it had only an office building and one school building. Goddard said it appeared a crew of men in a pickup truck spent about an hour a day picking up trash.

The petition says the district spends less than 43 percent of its funding for classroom education, well below the state average of more than 58 percent.
 
washingtonpost.com
Originally published August 11, 2005
 
Back