Auditor warns Quartzsite schools over missed financial filing deadline

A missed audit filing could soon become a budget problem for Quartzsite Elementary School District, where state officials warned that continued noncompliance could trigger a holdback of up to 10% of state aid if the district does not file overdue financial reports within 90 days.

The Arizona Auditor General said in an April 16 letter that the district had not submitted its FY 2025 audited financial statements or its USFR Compliance Questionnaire, both due March 31, 2026. As of the notice, the reports were 16 days late, and the letter said the district was already considered out of compliance since October 2025 because of earlier audit-related deficiencies.

That history makes the latest deadline miss more serious than a routine paperwork delay. Quartzsite had already been notified on April 16, 2025 that its FY 2024 audit reports were not received by the March 31, 2025 deadline. The Auditor General later asked the State Board of Education for action on July 23, 2025 because the district still had not complied. In an August 2025 letter, the district was told its FY 2024 audit reports had been received and it was no longer in noncompliance for that year.

The new notice goes further by spelling out the state enforcement process. If Quartzsite still has not submitted the FY 2025 reports and questionnaire within 90 days of the April 16 letter, the Arizona State Board of Education can be notified and may direct the Superintendent of Public Instruction to withhold up to 10% of the district’s state monies under A.R.S. §15-272.

For a small rural district serving Quartzsite and Ehrenberg, that kind of penalty could reach far beyond accounting. A state funding holdback can affect staffing, transportation, classroom operations, vendor payments, and the district’s ability to plan ahead. For parents and taxpayers in La Paz County, the question now is whether district leaders can clear the filing backlog before state officials escalate the case again.

The letter was addressed to the governing board and copied to Superintendent and Principal Sadie Grimes, Business Manager Kelly Simpson, La Paz County Schools Superintendent Lonnie Lewis, and state education officials Meghan Hieger and Chris Votroubek. Quartzsite Elementary School District lists its office at 49241 Ehrenberg Road in Ehrenberg, and its website identifies Grimes as superintendent/principal and Simpson as business manager, underscoring that the district’s own leadership is the point of contact as the overdue filing remains unresolved.