District in FLDS town digging out of trouble
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
 
A school district in the polygamous border town of Colorado City, Ariz., is closer to digging itself out of financial trouble.

The Arizona Auditor General's Office released a report saying the Colorado City Unified School District is closer to being in compliance with mandated financial practices.

"We acknowledge the district's diligence in correcting its deficiencies," Arizona Auditor General Debra Davenport wrote. "However, we must emphasize that a number of deficiencies still exist."

The Dec. 19 report recommended the district's purchasing controls be improved, more control be exercised over student monies, more accurate accounting sheets and better documentation over conflicts of interest. Still, the embattled district could be released from receivership at an upcoming meeting of the Arizona State Board of Education.

"It's been a long road," said Carol Timpson, principal of the El Capitan School, a K-12 school that currently has about 475 students.

The problems essentially began when enrollment in the school district plummeted to about 250 in 2000 after Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs told church members to pull their children out of the public school. About two-thirds of the district's student population left.

"The majority of the community is still home schooling," Timpson said Tuesday. "We are still basically a non-FLDS school."

In 2005, Arizona authorities raided school district offices, seizing 135 boxes of records, computers and files. The district was placed in receivership, and the state took control based on allegations of financial mismanagement. Some teachers had gone months without pay, and questions were raised about the district's financial practices, including an airplane it once owned. The superintendent and financial director resigned.

"Just a bunch of circumstances came together that created a financial crisis," Timpson said.

A grand jury was reportedly investigating the matter when it issued subpoenas seeking records and witnesses in St. George and Salt Lake City in 2006. Some of the evidence has been returned, and no criminal charges have been filed.

"At this time we have no pending investigations or charges pending against the Colorado City School District or its employees," Arizona Attorney General's spokeswoman Anne Hilby told the Deseret News Tuesday.

"The district and the board have done a fantastic job turning around a very challenging situation," said Peter Davis, an accountant appointed as the district's financial receiver. "They've shown a commitment to the education of the children. They've set the district in a position to excel. They've paid back a number of debts."

The El Capitan School is excelling academically, earning high marks in a recent state study. Playing against the stigma of coming from a polygamous community, its athletic teams have dominated the basketball court. A Deseret News story in February on the El Capitan Eagles led to a donated scoreboard for the tiny school and talk of an improved gym to enable the team to compete against other schools in the Utah High School Activities Association, but Timpson said that will have to wait.

"It's going to come down to funding and right now we don't have funding," she said. "We need classrooms, and it's going to take a community effort."

Davis plans to recommend that the district be placed out of receivership. Another audit of the district is scheduled next month, and Timpson's hope is it is in the clear by March 2009.

"We've got a lot of spirit," she said.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
DeseretNews.com
Originally published Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008
 
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