Senate committee recommends continuing Arizona School Facilities Oversight Board with revisions after auditor general review
Summary
The Senate Education Committee of Reference heard the Auditor General’s sunset review of the Arizona School Facilities Oversight Board, received responses from board vice chair Scott Thompson and public testimony from Glendale assistant superintendent Mike Barragan, and voted to recommend continuing the board with revisions.
Jeff Gove of the Arizona Office of the Auditor General presented the office’s sunset review of the Arizona School Facilities Oversight Board, summarizing the board’s statutory responsibilities and several recommendations to improve efficiency, transparency and conflict‑of‑interest safeguards.
Gove said the board, established in 2021 after the School Facilities Board was reorganized, approves distributions from the new school facilities fund, establishes minimum facility adequacy guidelines, and considers district requests to reduce student square footage, demolish condemned buildings or reconfigure space. He also noted the board contracts inspections and certificates of adequacy and that some of those duties overlap with the Arizona Department of Administration’s (ADOA) School Facilities Division.
Key findings Gove reported included: the board has process steps for reviewing new facility projects and updated adequacy guidelines in December 2022; the board has not adopted the Auditor General’s prior recommendation to require multiple enrollment projections (best/expected/worst) from its contractor; the board received inconsistent information when considering square footage‑reduction requests and should adopt written procedures; at least one board member had not filed required annual conflict‑of‑interest disclosures; the board lacked a regular process to assess projection accuracy over time; and statutory inspection requirements between the board and ADOA duplicate each other.
Scott Thompson, vice chair of the Arizona School Facilities Oversight Board, said the 2021 reorganization that placed the board within ADOA has largely worked and has allowed the board to focus on policy while ADOA staff handle day‑to‑day operations. Thompson said the board is piloting an “end‑of‑useful‑life” process to address aging buildings and conceded demolition and disposal are expensive for districts that lack capital funds: "It costs a lot of money to tear down a facility," he said, noting asbestos remediation and other liabilities can make demolition prohibitive.
Glendale Elementary School District Assistant Superintendent Mike Barragan offered public testimony describing his district’s experience closing five schools in response to declining enrollment and said districts do undertake downsizing after public engagement. Barragan said some closed campus sites are leased or repurposed, while others have exceeded their useful life and present maintenance and vandalism risks when left unused.
After discussion, a committee member moved that the Senate Education Committee of Reference recommend that the Arizona School Facilities Oversight Board be continued "with revisions." The motion was adopted by voice vote; members responded "aye" and no opposition was recorded. The committee said revisions will be drafted with input from staff, the board and interested stakeholders and that legislation may follow.
Ending: Committee members expressed interest in working with the board and ADOA to refine statutes and programs for end‑of‑useful‑life, demolition financing, enrollment‑projection methodology, conflict‑of‑interest compliance and inspection role clarity. The Auditor General said the office will follow up on recommendations and issue a follow‑up report in coming months.
