Colorado City school files seized
 Officials stage raid after law is passed on mismanagement
 
By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
 
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. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard supported the legislation, which Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano signed into law last week.

Critics of the Colorado City school district allege the district is wasting money on a bloated work force and purchase of a small airplane for travel. Teachers' paychecks bounced a few times last year when the district ran out of money and was unable to extend its credit line. The teachers have since been paid and school is out of session for the summer months.

Barlow testified before a legislative panel that the district's troubles resulted from a dramatic plunge in enrollment several years ago when most children were pulled from public schools by their parents.

Two-thirds of the district's students belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members practice polygamy. FLDS church leaders counseled members to pull their children out of public school and enroll them in private or home schools, which they did en masse.

E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published May 25, 2005
 
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