A bill which would force school board members in struggling school districts to step down advanced in the state Legislature on Wednesday.
The bill was prompted by the Isaac School District which went under a receivership earlier this year due to severe financial mismanagement which left the district in millions of dollars of debt. Isaac was rescued by the neighboring Tolleson Unified School District.
Proponents of the bill want to ensure school board members will be punished if the situation arises again, giving the county superintendent the power to replace them.
“To me, it's not up to the Legislature to decide to force governing board members to resign. That should be up to the voters that elected those board members and the communities in which they serve,” Sen. Lauren Kuby (D-Tempe) told her colleagues.
Because Isaac School District is in Maricopa County, Republican Superintendent Shelli Boggs would’ve had the power to replace the board members under Matt Gress’ (R-Phoenix) bill.
Sen. Eva Diaz (D-Tolleson) was the only Democrat in the chamber to support the bill. She said as an Isaac alumna, the issue is close to her heart, and her constituents weren’t taken into consideration with the current situation.
“They have clear concerns with this transaction and there are things happening now that are just getting worse and that's why I support this,” Diaz said.
The bill passed out of the state Senate and will go back to the House for a final vote.
HB 2610 was introduced by Gress before the Isaac district came to an arrangement with the Tolleson district.
Gress opposed the deal which has Tolleson buying Isaac property for $25 million. Isaac will buy their property back over the next 12 years and pay 6% interest on it.
Gress’s bill has a provision which would ban deals like that in the future. It states that a school district would not be allowed to enter into “two or more real estate transactions” in a year if they’re with the same parties and property.
