TOLLESON, AZ — Some community members are calling for the resignation of the entire Tolleson Union High School Governing Board. The frustration comes after a lease-back agreement with another Valley school district and a sexual harassment claim involving the now-former Board President.
Tuesday’s meeting was fiery, with governing board members at times raising their voices. This was met by people in the audience doing the same.
“We need a turnover of the entire board,” said long-time community member Olga Aros.
Aros and others were part of a group that came to the meeting holding signs calling for resignations.
Some brought up communication with the community and the wording on the agenda about a budget proposal. Some believed the vote was for the final adoption.
Suzie Moreno called the board “dysfunctional” and brought up their spending on land and a lease-back agreement with the struggling Issac School District.
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“I never believed the Tolleson Union High School District became a lending institution,” said Moreno.
The Tolleson Union Education Association President was not against the agreement with Issac.
“I would hope if our district was in that situation, we would have someone that would help us out as well,” said Melissa Girmscheid
She told ABC15 that she does have concerns about the board members’ behavior.
“This is frustrating,” said Girmscheid. “It’s distracting from student education.”
Dr. Elda Luna-Najera, who was formerly the board’s president, continually squared off with the rest of the board members.
Members of the audience yelled to let her speak, but she did not want to provide a comment to ABC15 as she walked out of the meeting.
In the fall of 2024, Superintendent Jeremy Calles accused Dr. Luna Nujera of sexual harassment.
Supt. Calles did take ABC15’s questions after the meeting.
“I would say that it does cause a distraction to have one board member who is essentially rogue from the other board members,” said Supt. Calles.
He said this is their current situation to they have to deal with.
As for the agreement with Issac, Supt. Calles called it a mechanism that would allow the district to have “earnings it can use."
“You hear the comments of the fact that, well, this is wasting Tolleson Union money,” said Supt. Calles. “The funds would have otherwise sat in maintenance and operations.”
A group called Citizens for Schools Accountability spoke about the agreement and the district’s spending earlier this month in front of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee at the State Capitol.
They voiced their concerns to state leaders like Representative Matt Grass.
He has pushed back against the lease deal and asked the Attorney General to review it. Rep.Gress stated in a letter it was a misuse of money.
He is also behind legislative efforts to prevent deals like this lease-back agreement from happening in the future.
Supt. Calles said he will be giving a presentation of his own in front of the committee next month.
