Appointee labors on Colorado City school finances
 State receiver trims airplane, cell phones, cars from budget
 
By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
 
ST. GEORGE — An Arizona state receiver charged with taking financial and administrative control of the beleaguered Colorado City Unified School District has confiscated credit cards, cell phones and vehicles, and hired new staff.

Peter Davis, a certified public accountant and owner of Simons Consulting in Phoenix, was hired in early December to investigate and reform the rural school district. The district serves about 355 students living in the polygamous communities that surround Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border.

In a Jan. 15 report submitted Monday to the Arizona State Board of Education, Davis outlined the progress made to date and his plans for the future.

"We're still putting out financial fires," Davis said Tuesday.

Colorado City's school system was placed into receivership last year after Arizona legislators passed a bill aimed at taking control of financially mismanaged school districts in the state. As part of an agreement signed with the Board of Education, district superintendent Alvin Barlow and financial director Jeffrey Jessop resigned Dec. 31.

Davis said 20 additional non-classroom employees also abruptly announced their intention to retire at the end of the year, including the school principal, counselor, accountants, clerks, transportation supervisor, bus drivers and business manager.

"We have already hired a new principal," Davis said, noting the new administrator, Carol Timpson, is a longtime educator in the area who will also serve as the district's business manager.

Davis also closed the old school building that housed only 10 district employees, saving $70,000 annually in utility costs. The district's Cessna 210 airplane will be sold at public auction in Phoenix within the next two months, as will about 10 of the district's 18 vehicles.

The district's use of 52 credit cards has been slashed down to two approved cards for the new principal and transportation director. Other cost-cutting measures, such as trimming the number of cell phones issued from 35 down to seven, are being implemented in addition to new security measures, the report states.

Of chief concern for Davis is the $1.3 million the district owes the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust for covering outstanding debts last year, including teacher paychecks that bounced. Paying down that debt will be difficult since most residents living within the school district boundary are refusing to pay property taxes, the report states.

Most residents of Colorado City and nearby Hildale in Washington County are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and do not send their children to public school.

FLDS members live on property owned by the polygamous church through the United Effort Plan Trust, which is also being reformed in Utah under a court-appointed receiver.

Under Arizona law, the state can temporarily fund the primary property tax deficit until tax lien sales and property foreclosure sales bring in enough money to cover the bill. Paying the secondary property tax obligation, however, likely will require passage of legislation, Davis noted in his report.

E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Wednesday, January 25, 2006
 
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