Tolleson Union High School District Superintendent Jeremy Calles is being accused of ducking out of the final hearing of the Arizona Joint Legislative Audit Committee looking into mounting allegations of financial mismanagement and misconduct.
Superintendent Jeremy Calles, who had previously requested the opportunity to respond, abruptly refused to appear at the hearing just hours before the start, notifying legislative staff by email.
In what Citizens for School Accountability call “a stunning escalation,” Calles had JLAC Chair Representative Matt Gress served with a $150,000 defamation notice moments before the hearing, a clear attempt to intimidate critics and chill public scrutiny.
Instead of appearing before lawmakers, Calles held a separate press conference on the eve of District Board President Leezah Sun’s criminal sentencing. He chose to stage his own narrative from behind a podium, free from facts or accountability. There, Calles lashed out at critics, recited a list of supposed enemies, and attempted to shift blame with decades-old distractions and finger-pointing.
At the legislative hearing he skipped, testimony from former Tolleson High School Principal Felipe Manduragga proved both explosive and deeply disturbing. Manduragga testified that under Calles’ leadership, students were treated as financial assets rather than children. He also revealed that a known sexual predator was not reported to authorities and that a student who brought a gun to campus was allowed to return without law enforcement notification.
The testimony revealed a pattern of reckless leadership, moral indifference, and systemic cover-up within TUHSD. Calles’ refusal to appear publicly, followed by his attempt to legally threaten those seeking the truth, only underscores a deep resistance to accountability and a deliberate effort to evade public oversight.
Citizens for School Accountability (CSA) says they remain steadfast in their mission to protect students and taxpayers and will continue to advocate for transparency, responsibility, and integrity within TUHSD.
CSA is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the Tolleson community and enhancing educational quality within the Tolleson Union High School District.
Tolleson has cleaned up a lot of surrounding neighborhoods, blacktopped streets, new school and Rec center but just can’t seem to clean out the snakes in the swamp! Smh
How do we keep getting guys like this in our school system? Where is it broken? These people land in district after district and never run out of districts to destroy. It is our school boards! They are too stupid to hire professional business leaders to come in a run them right.
You simply have to scratch your head and try to figure out why the piece of scum was hired in the first place and why the board hasn’t done their job and terminated the trash when it was needed. But then, with the liberals on the board, stealing, lying and using your position to gain power and wealth is the true democrat way and this man was rewarded for doing exactly that.