Key Points:

• Lawmakers approve special audit of Tolleson Union High School District

• Audit follows questionable financial decisions and leadership concerns

• State agency has 15 months to complete audit

Lawmakers are continuing their oversight of a public school district where they say unusual activity may be happening, approving a special audit of the district from the state’s auditor general. 

Members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee unanimously passed a request to audit the Tolleson Union High School District after a series of financial decisions that have caused community members and legislators to question the district’s leadership, including a $25 million contract with Isaac Elementary School District earlier this year to help Isaac recover from a budget deficit. 

“There’s a disservice being done and I feel for the community. I feel for the staff, parents and the kids,” said House Majority Leader Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye. 

Audit Committee members have been examining the district for months, dating back to when the Legislature was in session. The Oct. 7 vote instructs Auditor General Lindsey Perry to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit into the district’s practices and policies. 

The audit ends a spat between district Superintendent Jeremy Calles and the audit committee’s chairman, Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, over a public records dispute. The district informed Gress that he would need to pay about $26,000 for financial records. However, state law requires school districts to hand over any records to Perry’s office that she determines are necessary for the special audit. 

The decision to audit the district reflects a bipartisan goal to address numerous complaints from Tolleson community members about the district’s leadership, resulting in a recall campaign that’s targeting the Governing Board President Leezah Sun and Vice President Steven Chapman.

Recall organizers previously told the Arizona Capitol Times they’re confident they’ll get enough signatures to get the recall election on the ballot. 

The audit committee gave district officials the chance to respond publicly to its investigation and prior hearings. Instead, Gress said he was served a $150,000 claim of defamation by a process server from Calles. 

“This committee and this institution will not be deterred by any threats or intimidation,” Gress said. “We will leave no stone unturned.”

One issue many community members have grown weary of is a plan from the school district to build a domed stadium for athletic events, graduation ceremonies and other indoor events at the venue. The low end estimate of the project is about $80 million.

“If you build it, you can’t afford to heat and cool it,” said Dave Briggs, an organizer with the Tolleson community group Citizens for Schools Accountability. “It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars to even consider such a thing.”

Felipe Mandurraga, a former principal at Tolleson Union High School, testified to the committee and said he resigned from his position with the district in March because of a “toxic” work environment that he said was created by Calles.

“The toxic work environment and continuous harassment from Jeremy Calles had taken its toll on my ability to run an effective and safe campus and I didn’t get any sense that it would be improving,” Mandurraga said.

He described several complaints with the district under Calles’ leadership, including putting average daily membership ahead of student safety, “reckless” spending, and alleging Calles is obsessed with building the domed stadium for the district.

One incident Mandurraga described was when a student had allegedly brought a gun to campus in 2023 and pulled it on another student. Two other students corroborated the student having the gun and Mandrurraga said he had grounds to expel the student, but was instructed by Calles to allow the student back into the school for classes immediately.

“I pleaded unsuccessfully that we look to provide an alternative school option for this student,” Mandurraga said. “It did not send a good message that two students reported a kid with a gun and he was back on campus two days later.”

Two months later, that student was arrested after shooting two other kids on Thanksgiving morning, Mandurraga said. The students who were shot survived their injuries.

Lawmakers also said they were alarmed by the district’s controversial financial decisions, noting that 26% of students were proficient in the state’s English standardized testing and 22% in math. State proficiency averages are 40% and 32% respectively, which Sen. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, said he’s also not happy with.

The audit request gives the Auditor General’s Office 15 months to complete it, so a final report may not be published until 2026. Sen. Eva Diaz, D-Tolleson, said she looks forward to Perry’s findings.

“The district really needs to get back to students as the priority,” Diaz said.