PHOENIX — Republican state Rep. Matt Gress is condemning Tolleson Union High School District for allegedly refusing lawmakers’ request for financial transaction records.
“These are simple reports that you can run and produce them easily,” Gress told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Friday. “To me, it’s a flagrant attempt to distract the legislative oversight process.”
Gress submitted his request for two years of financial transaction records in late August. He said in a Thursday announcement that the district is now requesting around $26,000 for the electronic records.
Details about spat between lawmaker, Tolleson Union High School District
The current issue began with Tolleson Union’s $25 million property leaseback deal with the Isaac School District, which helped keep schools running during a financial crisis. Gress said Tolleson Union Superintendent Jeremy Calles came up with the idea to loan the taxpayer money to the Isaac Elementary.
“In exchange for the $25 million that Tolleson loaned Isaac, Isaac would need to pay back their $7 million in interest and the superintendent was very proud of that ability to earn quite a return on an investment in Isaac. So that raised one concern,” Gress said.
After a Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing in July that focused on the deal, Gress requested related documents in order to investigate potential conflicts of interest.
Why does Matt Gress want school district’s financial transaction records?
“He testified that he did consulting business in district property space and on normal operating hours of the district, so, it raised a lot of concerns and then we heard from the community,” Gress said.
Specifically, Gress asked the Tolleson Union High School District to provide electronic ledgers for fiscal years 2023–2024 and 2024–2025, according to ABC15. These ledgers would include purchase orders, contracts, and payments made to all vendors, consultants and contractors.
“We spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money on our schools,” Gress said. “To not get the data that we need, the financial data of how they are spending the money that we are providing to them seems absurd to me.”
He said he hopes to pass a law that prevents school districts from loaning money to other schools.
“You can’t loan money from your school district to another school district, especially when it’s far away from your geographic boundaries,” Gress said. “Schools should be in the business of educating students, not engaging in land speculation or accruing real estate in order to make a buck later on down the road.”
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