Senate Bill 1073, regarding school district consolidation, introduced in the Arizona State Legislature by Arizona Sen. Sylvia Allen [R-District 6], passed in the Arizona House of Representatives on Thursday, April 11, by a vote of 53-7.
The bill already passed in the Senate on Feb. 21, but, due to some changes made by the House, it had to go back for conference and another vote before going to the governor’s desk for his signature. On Tuesday, April 16, the Senate concurred with the House by a vote of 17-13, sending it to the governor.
SB 1073 arose out of repeated efforts to unify the Mingus Union High School District with the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District, which was set to go to a vote last November, before being halted by a lawsuit by the MUHSD Governing Board.
In the course of the preparations for the potential consolidation, it was revealed that, under current law, unification between MUHSDand COCSD would lead to the two districts, which represent two of the five seats on the board of Valley Academy Career and Technical Education, automatically pulling out of their partnership with the CTE district.
Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter requested that Allen seek to make the change in consolidation law.
“If a school district that was participating in a career technical education district at the time that the school district was unifiedor consolidated … the successor school district that results from that unification or consolidation shall automatically continue to participate in that career technical education district in the same manner as the former school district that was unified or consolidated,” Section 1 of SB 1073 reads.
Initially, all parties involved in the consolidation fight — including the MUHSD board, which has consistently opposed consolidation — supported the bill. Consolidation opponents felt that, if it were to happen, it would at least be preferable to allow both districts to remain part of VACTE in the process.
However, as the bill has moved through the legislature, it has featured some changes, leading to MUHSD coming out in opposition. The current bill changes the repeal date of a bill passed in last year’s legislative session that changed the consolidation rules for certain school districts.
When last year’s bill passed, which allows for voters to petition a consolidation election if only one of the relevant districts has voted for consolidation, it included a self-repeal clause, meaning that the bill would only be effective through Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2020.
This year’s bill extends the self-repeal clause in last year’s bill from 2020 to 2022.
With the COCSD Governing Board having repeatedly voted in favor of consolidation, this change means that consolidation advocates have the option to push for an election any time in the next three and a half years, even without the cooperation of MUHSD.
With the MUHSD board arguing that a district consolidation would cut funding from education budgets by shifting teacher pay scales and changing the tax district, they continue to oppose any effort towards consolidation.
“It is sad that our legislators believe removing funding from our public schools will make it easier to put more into the classroom,” MUHSD president Lori Drake wrote in an email.
The Committee for Better Upper Verde Valley Schools, who has advocated in favor of consolidation, celebrated the passage of the bill.
“The Committee is extremely grateful to Senator Allen for helping advance 1073,” Bob DeGeer wrote in an email on behalf of the committee. “It’s a short trip now to the governor’s desk.”
DeGeer also trumpeted support for another potential bill in the Arizona legislature that would give county superintendents the power to redraw school districts within their county.
“Consolidation can help save money, ultimately returning those dollars back to the classrooms,” DeGeer wrote.
Carter opposes the bill that would give him control over school districts, saying that he believes in maintaining local control.
The major change by the House in its version of the bill was the addition of an emergency clause, meaning that the bill will go into effect as soon as the governor signs it, as opposed to the usual process wherein a bill takes effect after a period of several months after the end of the legislative session. Instead of going into effect in August, the bill would take effect whenever it leaves the desk of Gov. Doug Ducey.
The delay between the bill passing and going into effect was one of the issues in the lawsuit filed by the MUHSD board last year challenging the petition signatures that would have led to a consolidation election, which they argued were invalid since they came before the relevant legislation actually became law.
“Instead of us waiting until August for it to be completely lawful, it would be as soon as the governor sign it,” Carter said of the bill. “It takes that away as an issue.”
