At the same time Arizona’s Attorney General and Department of Education are attacking parents and students using Arizona’s school choice program with accusations of indiscriminate spending, school district officials serving some of Arizona’s most underserved students spent nearly $500,000 on travel to out-of-state training and conferences between 2021 and 2023.
According to the Arizona Auditor General’s Office, despite the fact the Baboquivari Unified School District failed to maintain transportation records, thereby limiting the scope of the review; auditors found that officials “spent nearly $500,000 on travel, including a substantial amount of travel that was unnecessary and potentially wasteful; limited public access to some Board meetings; operated schools below capacity; and failed to comply with requirements to protect students and safeguard public monies and sensitive computerized data.”
With over 57 percent of Baboquivari Unified School District families falling far below the poverty rate, students in the mostly Native American-serving District, were denied guaranteed safe transportation at the same time staff was jet-setting to Atlanta.
Auditors found that the District “failed to maintain required transportation records, limiting the scope of our review of school bus and fleet vehicle maintenance, inspection, and mileage documentation and procedures, and increasing its risk of undetected student safety concerns, fraud, waste, and misuse.”
Auditors also found that the “District spent more than twice as much per student on administration than its peer districts averaged, primarily due to higher salaries and benefit costs.”
It appears most of the money was spent on attendance at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.
During the audit, District officials indicated that the goal of sending nearly all of its staff to the Academy was to energize and motivate teachers and staff to create a fun and engaging learning environment for students, which they believed would ultimately improve student attendance and achievement. Based on the most recent testing completed during the 2022-2023 school year, the gamble did not pay off.
Between September 2021 and July 2023, the District spent approximately $342,000 to send 135 employees and 1 non-employee to attend various sessions of the Ron Clark Academy (Academy), an educator training course, in Atlanta, Georgia. However, our review of the District’s records related to the travel identified several issues. Specifically:
District paid for non-educators to attend the teacher training and allowed some staff to attend multiple times—
Although the Academy is designed to train educators, the District sent a substantial number of employees whose jobs were not directly related to educating students, including a custodian, IT staff, business office staff, and Governing Board (Board) members.
Additionally, the District allowed and paid for 7 staff members to attend the conference twice. If the District had sent only educators to the Academy, it would have saved an estimated $168,000 in travel costs that it could have used for other District priorities, such as improving student achievement or increasing teacher salaries. If the District had sent 5 key employees who could have subsequently provided training to other staff members, the District could have saved an estimated $330,000.6 The District could have also considered the Academy’s virtual training option, which is available to large groups and would have eliminated out-of-state travel costs.
During the audit, District officials indicated that the goal of sending nearly all of its staff to the Academy was to energize and motivate teachers and staff to create a fun and engaging learning environment for students, which they believed would ultimately improve student attendance and achievement. Based on the most recent testing completed during the 2022-2023 school year, the gamble did not pay off.
District’s student achievement was significantly lower than its peer districts and the State-wide average, with only 2 percent of the District’s students passing State assessments in Math, 6 percent in English Language Arts, and 3 percent in Science. By contrast, its peer group student achievement average passing rates were 27 percent, 33 percent, and 23 percent in these subjects, respectively. District officials indicated that the District is still applying the teaching methods it learned at the Academy and is seeing improvements in student engagement.
Expenditures for Academy travel expenses lacked required District administrative approvals and support—
Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, the District spent nearly $60,000 more than its Board approved for the Academy-related travel expenses. District staff and other personnel were divided into 10 groups that attended the Academy on various dates between September 2021 and November 2022. Although the Board approved 2 purchase orders totaling $282,040 to pay for travel and training costs, the District spent nearly $342,000.
The District was unable to explain how it spent these monies without Board approval because the former superintendent who authorized the District to spend these monies was no longer employed by the District. Further, contrary to the District’s travel policy, the District’s chief financial officer and grants director had not approved 1 of the purchase orders for $200,000. When we asked the chief financial officer and grants director, neither of whom attended the training, why they had not documented their approval of the purchase order, both indicated they had not done so because they opposed the travel spending. Despite their opposition, the former superintendent overrode the District’s policy requiring such approvals and submitted the purchase order directly to the Board for approval. We observed that the purchase order submitted to the Board in their meeting handouts did not contain the signatures required by the District’s policy, but the Board proceeded to approve the purchase order.
District could not demonstrate that its travel complied with gift clause requirements—
The District may have violated the State Constitution’s gift clause by paying an estimated $2,354 for an individual involved with overseeing education on behalf of the tribal government, but not employed by the District, to travel to and attend the Academy without any indication that the District received anything of value in return. District officials were not able to provide evidence that the Board approved paying for the individual to attend the event. District officials stated that the District’s former superintendent invited the individual to attend the event. Finally, the District also authorized and paid for 7 employees to attend the Academy twice, but did not have an explanation of the public purpose and benefit of doing so.
In addition to the monies it spent on travel for the Academy, in fiscal year 2022 the District spent more than $141,000 for Board member and administrative staff travel, which was significantly higher than its peer districts spent on administrative travel. Specifically, although the District’s peers spent an average of $6.34 per student on administrative travel, the District spent $175.17 per student, or more than 20 times what its peers spent per student. Our review of the District’s travel found instances where the District could have reduced its travel costs by limiting the Board members and administrators who attended these events or opting for more cost-effective options.
Additionally, the District unnecessarily spent $8,422 in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 on travel for special meetings and Board retreats held away from the District’s usual meeting place. As previously discussed, SAAM establishes guidelines to ensure that travel is in the best interest of the district, expenses are reasonable and necessary, and the most economical travel means are used.
Although District officials stated that the District routinely conducts the retreats at Desert Diamond Casino because they believe they get a favorable rate that they could not get elsewhere, our tour of the District’s facilities found that in addition to the location where the regular Board meetings are held, the District has a performing arts center that it uses only on rare occasions. The District could have used either of these locations for its retreats and spent the travel monies on other District priorities, such as improving student achievement. Moreover, holding Board meetings and retreats out of town makes them less accessible to the public and is contrary to open meeting law requirements.
