Lawmakers target ailing district, would extend receivership law
 
The Associated Press
KVOA News 4 - Tucson
 
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.

The conferees' agreement to iron out differences between House and Senate versions of a bill (HB2305) also would create a between-session legislative study committee that would submit a report on school district receivership issues to the full Legislature by Dec. 15.

The Colorado City district, located in a remote area of Mohave County north of the Grand Canyon, remains in receivership.

However, the district is under new management and has satisfied most conditions that would permit it to emerge from that status while remaining under state Board of Education monitoring for a period, said Vince Yanez, the board's executive director.
 
KVOA.com
Originally published May 18, 2007
 
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