By Staff Reporter |

The state’s Democratic leaders, Governor Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, have been taking aggressive action to undo school choice in Arizona, even as the Auditor General has exposed another public school district for poor finances. 

Earlier this month, Mayes launched an investigation into the usage of school choice funds to purchase supplementary materials. Mayes also submitted a letter to the Department of Education ordering parents to submit a curriculum for all requests for supplemental materials. 

Meanwhile, over 40 school districts were determined to not be in compliance with audit reporting requirements for the 2023 fiscal year. The latest public school district to be reported on by the auditor general, Baboquivari Unified School District (BUSD), not only spent nearly $500,000 on out-of-state travel for trainings and conferences found to be “unnecessary and potentially wasteful” in under two years — it spent over $8,400 for its board to hold board meetings and retreats out of town at a casino. 

The BUSD Board traveled to Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson — over 115 miles round trip — where they addressed agenda items that the auditor general determined weren’t preclusive to public attendance. The board held three special meetings and five weekend board retreats at this casino.

The auditor general noted that these meetings were potentially in violation of the state’s open meeting laws. 

In its response to the audit, BUSD said that if it were to have meetings out of town again, such as in a casino, it would ensure the public could watch via livestream or other methods.

The auditor general also noted that BUSD potentially violated the state constitution’s gift clause requirement with its $500,000 travel expenses. The report cited a specific instance of several thousand spent on an individual involved with overseeing education on behalf of the tribal government, not employed by the district, to travel and attend an educator training course in Georgia: an expense the district couldn’t show it approved in advance. 

A majority of the objectionable travel expenses, over $340,000, occurred when BUSD sent staff to an out-of-state professional development conference. That mass expense included the attendance of a “substantial” number of non-educators — including a custodian, IT staff, business office staff, and Board members — and a repeat trip for seven staff members. 

The auditor general found that if BUSD had excluded non-educators from the conference, the district would have nearly halved its costs. Further, if BUSD had chosen to only send a handful of “key employees” capable of training the other staff members, the district could have saved 97 percent of its costs. What’s more, the conference had a virtual training option, which would have eliminated the large expense of travel costs to the district entirely. 

During the audit, BUSD indicated to the auditor general that they wanted to send nearly all of its staff to the conference to “energize and motivate teachers and staff” in order to improve student attendance and achievement. 

In the last reporting year (2022-23), BUSD had “significantly lower” student achievement than its peer districts and the statewide average. Only two percent of students passed state assessments in math (compared to 27 percent), six percent in English (compared to 33 percent), and three percent in science (compared to 23 percent). 

In its response to the auditor general, BUSD said that its business office was aware and had questioned the excessive travel and training costs, but the superintendent at the time had dismissed their concerns.

According to the auditor general, there were other, more critical needs in which the district could have instead applied that excessive spending.

“[T]ravel expenditures did not always comply with State requirements and may not have provided intended benefits,” read the report. “In addition to travel costs exceeding State travel policies and spending limits, the District could have saved at least $389,000 that it could have used for other District priorities, such as increasing teacher pay, by limiting the number of District staff and Board members attending conferences.” 

BUSD was found to have ignored spending limits for lodging, overpaid staff and Board members for meals, failed to document its record of payments to staff members for travel expenses, and failed to ensure preapproval of travel expenditures.

The excessive spending resulted in BUSD spending over double per student on administration than its peer districts on average. The auditor general also found BUSD had operated schools below capacity, which also contributed to the higher spending. 

Since BUSD failed to maintain transportation records, per the report, the auditor general was unable to have a complete scope of review of the district’s school bus and fleet vehicle maintenance, inspection, and mileage documentation and procedures. 

BUSD didn’t have documentation to support that it performed the required school bus preventive maintenance. The district also didn’t maintain the required records for fleet vehicles, nor could it show that it safeguarded and monitored fleet vehicles to prevent unauthorized use, theft, or damage. 

Finally, the auditor general found that BUSD failed to comply with requirements to protect students and safeguard public monies and sensitive computerized data. BUSD lacked internal controls for conflicts of interest, payroll, and credit cards. This resulted in an increased risk for unauthorized purchases and fraud with public monies. BUSD also assigned too much access to its accounting system and failed to secure its IT equipment. 

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