State officials have filed a petition seeking financial control of a school district serving a northern Arizona polgymaist community.

The receivership petition, filed Aug. 12, alleged that taxpayers and students were being harmed by mismanagement of the 344-student Colorado City Unified School District. The alleged mismanagement included purchase of a $200,000 airplane, questionable dealings concerning buildings and equipment and poor fiscal practices that led to teachers not being paid for two months last year, the petition said.

Attorney General Terry Goddard filed the petition with the state Board of Education on behalf of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and the state board’s executive director.

A lawyer for the district said the petition presents only one side of the story. “Once the district has had an opportunity to respond to these allegations, there will be context from which the public will see a picture completely different than those sinister acts painted by the petittion,” attorney Matthew W. Wright said.

Colorado City is a secluded northern Arizona community controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that broke away from the Mormon church. Sect members also live in neighboring Hildale, Utah.

Mr. Goddard filed the petition on the first day possible under a new state receivership law which he and Horne urged legislators to enact because of the Colorado City district’s troubles. —

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.