SE Arizona News

The Arizona Auditor General notified members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee about Young Elementary School District’s (YESD) “lack of compliance” in responding to the Auditor General’s recommendations from a December 2022 performance audit report of the district.

“We have recently issued a follow-up report of the Young Elementary School District (District) regarding the implementation status of the recommendations from our December 2022 performance audit report,” said an email from Arizona Auditor General Lindsey Perry to Joint Legislative Audit Committee Chairman Rep. Matt Gress (R-Phoenix), Vice Chairman Sen. Sonny Borelli (R-Lake Havasu City), and members of the committee. 

“However, the District did not respond to 5 requests we made seeking information and documentation regarding its progress toward implementing the report’s 12 recommendations,” wrote Perry. “Absent the District’s response to our requests for information, we were unable to independently assess the District’s efforts to implement these recommendations.”

Established in 1883, YESD is located in Young, Ariz. in Gila County. The district operates one school, Young Public School, which provides preschool through 12th grade. The superintendent is Patrick O’Connell and the president of the district's Governing Board is Linda Chapman.

The auditor general’s 2022 report found that YESD “spent $264,000 more on administration than peer districts in fiscal year 2020 and $21,600 of unauthorized monies on its community preschool program in fiscal year 2021 that it instead could have spent on instruction or other District priorities.” 

The report also found that YESD failed to always use renumbered receipts or “ensure all cash collected was deposited in a timely manner." The auditor general said this could have resulted in lost cash and increased risk of errors or fraud.

The district also did not adequately limit access to its online accounting system. The auditor general report said this “excessive access” to online data and “other IT deficiencies” increased the risk of “unauthorized access, error, fraud, and data loss.”

The Arizona Department of Education (AZED)’s report card for YESD reports that 71.7% of students in the district are white, with the remaining racial breakdown not publicly available because it is “redacted.” 

64%t of students in the district were “minimally” or “partially” proficient on the 2023 state English assessments, with only 12% listed as “proficient” and 25% listed as “highly proficient.”

Only 30% of students in the district were “proficient” or “highly proficient” on the state math assessment, with 59% listed as “minimal proficient” and 12% listed as “partially proficient.”