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It's hard to imagine how one might go about losing a commercial freezer.

Or a small tractor.

Or a trailer.

Or a clothes dryer.

Nevertheless, they are among the roughly 1,800 items with original purchase prices totaling $1.6 million that the Tucson Unified School District wrote off as lost for fiscal 2006-07.

The figure isn't comprehensive, either. Of the 250 schools and departments that do annual property inventories, two dozen never responded.

"Lost" means just that — that if people wanted to locate an item within the district, they couldn't. TUSD has separate reports for stolen items, items trashed by students and items that are just so old that they're obsolete. In this case, the items disappeared during the year that elapsed between the annual January audits.

It doesn't necessarily mean someone walked off with the items — although there's nothing to say they didn't.

It could mean, said interim facilities manager Rudy Flores, that a principal left one school and took some items to a new location without filing proper documentation. Teachers might have taken them to new classrooms, or staffers just didn't put a great deal of effort into finding the items, he suggested.

"It can mean it's lost within the district. It might even be lost in the same building," he said.

There are some frequently missing items — such as 71 televisions with original acquisition prices of nearly $29,000 and five single-door commercial freezers worth more than $10,000. Other objects include a cappuccino maker used in the vocational-education program, a navy blue love seat, tubas, tricycles and a gas stove.

District policy requires the tagging and tracking of assets and sets up an annual physical inventory of all items at least worth $1,000 with at least a year's life left in them.

But there is no penalty for principals or department heads who lose control of the items — losses don't come out of paychecks, earn a mention in annual employee evaluations or come out of the following year's soft capital budget.

External auditors who evaluated district practices found its lost-property controls "weak." An independent audit committee of five community members also has identified the area as one to strengthen.

Unlike TUSD, Broward County Public Schools in Florida has a 21-page guide on its Web page that lists best asset practices and provides sample forms. The district, the fifth-largest in the nation, asks staffers to attend workshops on property control. Principals at schools with repeat problems must send along plans of correction.

Patricia Holub, executive director of technology issues for the San Antonio Independent School District, wrote a recent report noting that the average school district loses more than $80,000 a year in lost or damaged computer assets.

Computers are particularly vulnerable to what she dubs "PC drift" as they move from classroom to classroom or as staffers take them home to do work. They also are vulnerable to theft, she said, because of their portability.

Holub suggests districts invest in asset-management systems to keep tabs on computers.

Indeed, far and away the vast bulk of lost equipment within TUSD is of the electronic kind.

Computer-related equipment accounts for more than $1 million, although district officials stress that they consider those values inflated because they reflect what the items were worth at acquisition. They also note that newer laptops purchased by the district have tracking devices embedded in them.

It's clear that the district's policy needs to be strengthened, said Clifford Altfeld, an attorney who sits on the outside audit committee. But he cautioned against jumping to the conclusion that the items are being pilfered.

Items that move across classrooms aren't "a cost to the district," Altfeld said, because TUSD is still getting some use out of them. "But it should be kept track of so you can tell if someone is taking an overhead projector or a laptop home and leaving it there," he said.

He also cautioned against the assumption that schools with the most property losses are performing the worst. They might just be more vigilant than others about reporting, he said.

While Altfeld said property-management officials need more in their tool kit than just the word "please," whatever fix district officials come up with must strike a balance.

"We want principals working with students and teachers on things like reading and writing, not spending their days counting pencils," he said. "But on the other hand, we're talking about computers and cameras and expensive equipment."

Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen said her reading of the report shows that most of the list consists of older items, singling out a thermometer that cost $2,000 in 1981. "That's certainly not worth $2,000 today," she said.

"So while it calls our attention to the fact that we need to look at our accountability systems, I don't think it's an alarming, terrible list."

Of the 1,800 items on the list, about 1,000 were acquired before 2000.

In a district that has more than 100 buildings, items can easily be misplaced, Fagen said. And it's not her perception that principals are intentionally flouting the tracking system.

"When I was a principal, tracking down a stapler wasn't at the top of my list," she said, adding that's why it will be important to explain more clearly to staff workers how to comply with property standards.

Governing Board President Alex Rodriguez said the board is aware of the reporting gaps and said staffers are evaluating options to increase accountability. "The Governing Board expects 100 percent accountability of all property and equipment that TUSD purchases," he said.

What the report does show, however, is that the outside audit committee — which Rodriguez pushed for — is working to provide extra oversight.

"This reveals how crucial the TUSD audit committee has become in strengthening TUSD's internal financial controls to maximize every dollar and every cent," he said.