by Matthew Holloway | Oct 13, 2025 | Education, News
By Matthew Holloway |
As enrollment dips and two schools are considered for repurposing, Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) is promoting a biking event for “girls, nonbinary youth, and gender-expansive” children in family-facing communications.
In an October 9th post to X, parental rights organization Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity (SUEI) wrote: “Parents confirmed @ScottsdaleUSD is using their district-wide communication system to promote an event for ‘nonbinary youth’ and ‘gender expansive’ children. Girls in Gear (and apparently boys, too) claims that these lessons are Social Emotional Learning. Email: GovBRD@SUSD.org.”
The “Girls in Gear” program, which focuses on cycling skills and social-emotional learning, includes participants who identify outside traditional gender norms, according to a district email sent to families. A post on X by SUEI shared the event flyer, which lists the inclusive criteria.
According to the Girls in Gear website, the event “is open to any rider who identifies as a girl. If a rider identifies as a girl, then the rider is welcome to participate in Girls in Gear.”
In a reply to the SUEI post, Arizona Women of Action drew attention to the contradiction that SUSD is continuing to focus on gender ideology despite reduced enrollment, school closures under discussion, and at-risk federal funding.
Arizona Women of Action wrote in its reply:
“1. Identifying as a gender that is not innate (boy or girl) is often the first step of the ‘trans’ path. By Scottsdale Unified recognizing these identities (non-binary, gender expansive) the district can contribute to a child’s ‘trans’ path. Change in pronouns and presentation are next, irreversible puberty blockers and hormones follow.
2. This is no longer a girls’ event if non binary or gender expansive youth can participate.
3. SUSD is closing schools. This kind of choice could be a contributing factor to low enrollment.
4. Isn’t there an EO about this? Yes. And schools can lose federal funding.”
The organization also called up on followers to call “the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at 1-800-421-3481 to report non-compliance.”
District reporting in February revealed that under SUSD Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel, enrollment has consistently dropped. As of February 2025, enrollment stood at 19,367, a decrease of 390 students from 2024, down 355 from the previous year. Over the past seven years, enrollment has dropped precipitously by 13%, from 22,608.
In response to the enrollment trends, the SUSD governing board voted 3-2 on October 7th to advance a proposal to repurpose Echo Canyon K-8 School and Pima Elementary School for the 2026-27 school year, according to AZ Family. Menzel addressed the looming closures with families in a September message and cited under-enrollment at both schools.
The promotion of the program also comes amid federal policies addressing gender-related content in schools. President Trump’s Executive Order 14190, issued January 29, 2025, directs the withholding of federal funds from K-12 programs that promote gender ideology or other specified materials, and reestablishes the 1776 Commission for patriotic education. Additionally, a Department of Health and Human Services directive on August 26, 2025, requires states to certify that sex education programs do not reference transgender youth or gender ideology to receive funding, affecting 46 states and territories, including Arizona. Several Democratic-led states have filed lawsuits challenging the directive. Despite pending legal action, the Executive Order and HHS Directive both remain in effect at present.
SUSD has previously addressed transgender-related policies, including student transition plans and LGBTQ curriculum, and run afoul of the Arizona Department of Education and parents alike. In prior incidents, the district faced questions over notifications to parents and the use of school spaces for related activities, such as a “sexuality-safe-space” at Mohave Middle School, as reported by the Arizona Daily Independent.
Last month, a BrainPOP lesson on LGBTQ topics prompted review under state DEI restrictions, with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne citing potential violations.
Other community responses in the thread include comments from users expressing concern over the event’s inclusivity and district priorities.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Oct 10, 2025 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
A school social worker “gone rogue,” who resigned to avoid firing in 2023, claimed she had the approval of a governing board member.
Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) investigated and ultimately released a now-former Peoria Flex Academy social worker, Allyson Jamee Ross, for treating students and taking them off campus without parental consent, according to records obtained and first reported on by the Arizona Daily Independent.
Ross worked in PUSD from around 2019 to 2023. Prior to that, Ross worked with the Child Protective Services and foster care systems in both Arizona and Virginia.
Ross defended her actions — which included taking students to doctors appointments and serving as their health advocates, helping a student plan to run away from home, taking a pregnant student to a Wiccan for consultation, and assisting a student with securing a birth control prescription — as necessary, comparing parents to “wolves” when describing their involvement.
“Our students don’t have the parents or guidance to teach them those skills,” said Ross. “I will be in the wrong, but I will never send a student away because I don’t have a consent form.”
Ross claimed she acted with the approval of her boss, Peoria Flex Academy Principal Cybill Jacob, and PUSD governing board member Melissa Ewing.
“She [Jacobs] knows exactly what I’m doing with students every single week. She knows very well, and even brags to Melissa [Board Member] about how her social worker goes so above and beyond and does all these great things like taking them to doctor’s appointments, food stamps, social security, etc.,” said Ross in an interview with investigators. “It was completely supported by everyone, driving students in personal vehicles. The van is never available, always broken, stolen catalytic converter, or always in the shop.”
Ross also violated district policy by transporting them regularly in a personal vehicle. School leaders attempted to resolve Ross’ infractions through trainings and meetings before turning her over for an investigation that concluded with giving her the option to voluntarily resign or face punishment.
PUSD didn’t file a statement of charges against Ross since she voluntarily resigned and voluntarily surrendered her social worker certificate.
PUSD also reported Ross to the Arizona State Board of Education.
PUSD Board President Heather Rooks shared the report on Ross. Ewing admonished Rooks for sharing the article and the detail of her alleged knowledge of the incident publicly.
“I had no knowledge of this happening and never would have supported this. You could have placed a phone call to me to ask me that as we sit on the same board. We have sat together for almost 3 years. We have both heard the same information both in public and in executive session,” said Ewing. “As President of the Board, you could have asked that this be reviewed in executive session – oh wait you did, despite it happening 2 years ago. All 5 board members heard the same information.”
State Senate candidate Anthony Kern (also a former state lawmaker) said that this incident justified the opposition he and other Republican lawmakers share over having social workers on school campuses.
“[Social workers] are tools of the deranged Democrats,” said Kern. “Get your children out of public schools. Sign up for an ESA account.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Oct 9, 2025 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
The superintendent of Tolleson Union High School District (TUHSD), Jeremy Calles, declined to show up to a legislative hearing to audit his district.
Instead, Calles had a notice of defamation claim served to the committee ahead of their hearing. State Representative Matt Gress, House Education Committee chairman and Joint Legislative Audit Committee vice chairman, explained that Calles filed the $150,000 defamation claim because lawmakers were holding the hearing.
Gress also said Calles wanted to charge him up to $28,000 for “basic” public records pertaining to the district’s finances. Gress requested those records in August following a separate committee hearing the previous month.
“This is a very unusual situation,” said Gress. “I’ve not seen a school district or any political subdivision of the state for that matter, be so antagonistic to the legislature’s constitutional authority and responsibility to investigate allegations of wrongdoing.”
Lawmakers held a joint audit committee hearing on Tuesday to discuss TUHSD finances under Calles.
TUHSD came under legislative scrutiny following a $25 million leaseback agreement to rescue the Isaac School District (ISD) at the start of this year — another district with allegations of financial mismanagement. Calles disclosed in the July hearing that initial conversations on the ISD deal began with the other role he holds as a consultant. Calles is the highest paid superintendent in the state.
Gress flagged the deal as potentially unlawful and challenged Attorney General Kris Mayes’ approval of the deal.
“This agreement raises glaring legal and financial red flags,” said Gress. “The Isaac School District has a long history of financial mismanagement, and now it’s relying on a last-minute bailout that may not even be legal. The Attorney General owes the public clear answers about how this deal was approved and whether it complies with state law.”
ISD was placed into receivership in January. Preliminary investigations into the district’s finances found it overspent nearly $30 million — mainly federal relief dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic — and falsified financial records.
Over the summer, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation inspired by ISD that would oust the school board of any district placed in receivership.
“[T]he financial mismanagement of the Isaac School District is unacceptable, and governing board leadership must take accountability and resign,” said Hobbs. “This bill appears to seek broad retribution rather than providing targeted methods to address problems. Mandating the upheaval of an entire elected school board is blatant legislative overreach that would create disruption and confusion for school districts during a time of crisis.”
Last November TUHSD spent nearly $77,000 on “luxury vacations” for its board members and administrators over the course of two days for just 30 people.
The bipartisan committee voted unanimously, 9-0, to audit TUHSD following testimony.
Felipe Mandurraga, who was a principal at Tolleson Union High School for eight years until he resigned following this spring semester, testified that Calles abused funding. One of Mandurraga’s allegations was that Calles handed out $20,000 vouchers to teachers without rules on their expenditure.
Apart from finances, Mandurraga also alleged TUHSD officials allowed a teacher in a relationship with a student to resign with full benefits without launching an investigation, filing a report with police, or reporting the incident to the Arizona State Board of Education (ASBE). Mandurraga further alleged the teacher in question was hired two weeks later by another district and has no pending complaints according to ASBE.
Mandurraga also alleged that Calles denied the removal of a student suspected of possessing a gun on campus; several months later, that same student was involved in a Phoenix shooting.
Calles denied knowledge of the alleged incident to members of the media.
The committee also heard testimony from the Citizens for Schools Accountability.
Auditor General Lindsay Perry said the audit would take until January 2027 to complete.
Last December, TUHSD placed Calles on paid leave amid tensions between himself and several board members. Months before, Calles had filed a formal sexual harassment complaint against then-Governing Board President and current State Representative Elda Luna-Najera.
An independent investigation by TUHSD found that Calles and Luna-Najera were in a consensual, sexual relationship. Calles filed a complaint of retaliation for his placement on paid leave.
In January, TUHSD paid Calles $450,000 to settle his complaints of sexual harassment and retaliation. TUHSD Governing Board President Leezah Sun read the statement announcing the settlement. Sun resigned from the state legislature last year to avoid expulsion after the House Ethics Committee found she violated ethics rules.
Prior to becoming TUHSD superintendent in 2023, Calles served as the district’s chief financial officer for six years.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Oct 8, 2025 | Education, News
By Matthew Holloway |
A new report on Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) shows a robust jump in ESA enrollment of nearly 15,000 students since last year.
According to the detailed report, the school choice program has reached a milestone with 92,362 students enrolled as of September 15, 2025. Projections indicate that ESA numbers will reach 103,000 this fiscal year.
The report from CSI is released on a quarterly basis to address “a lack of reliable and consistent data about who is using the program and how.” CSI noted, “Applying scrutiny to hundreds of thousands of individual transactions on an almost real-time basis has made the program vulnerable to exaggeration, misinformation, and mischaracterization. No comparable program is subject to this kind of examination.”
The quarterly findings indicate the program is maturing from an initial stage of rapid growth to a more steady-state. Universal eligibility, rolled out in 2022, has fueled the fire, but the real story now is “switchers”—57% of new enrollees ditching public schools for tailored options like private academies, therapies, or homeschooling setups. The report underscores how shrinking school-age cohorts (down 20,241 since 2021) aren’t slowing the momentum.
Glenn Farley, Director of Policy & Research at CSI and the report’s author, explained, “Arizona’s ESA program is reaching a point of steady participation. The rapid expansion is behind us, and future growth will be shaped more by broader demographic trends and the choices families make across an increasingly competitive K–12 landscape.”
The key questions that CSI seeks to address include the ultimate cost of the program at full expansion, the steady-state count of how many people are using the ESA program, its ultimate extent, the demographic characteristics of its users, and the efficiency and good operation of the program.
CSI found that total ESA costs are on track to reach $1.0369 billion in FY 2026, with an average award of $10,349 per student. Notably, 88% of funds have already been spent, the highest percentage ever recorded. Administrative approval rates are at a peak of 88.8%, and reimbursements are processed in just 13 days on average, with a whopping 455,142 orders handled in the last quarter alone.
As far as budgetary impact is concerned, a common complaint from opponents like Governor Katie Hobbs, the CSI projects that “state K–12 Basic State Aid costs will exceed appropriations by $35 million in FY 2026, due largely to higher ESA participation and lower-than-expected district enrollment.”
The report also offers a firm, authoritative rebuke to allegations that the program is most used by “the wealthy.”
“Nearly 57% of ESA recipients live in ZIP Codes with a median family income of between $75,000 and $150,000 – up slightly since our last report. A quarter of ESA users may be lower-income, 13% reside in rural areas, and nearly 20% are estimated to be nonwhite,” the report states.
Farley concluded the CSI report’s findings, writing, “Administrative reform throughout 2025 by the Department of Education has improved various high-level metrics: the Department is approving purchases faster and at greater volume and embracing its statutory authority (risk-based auditing, Handbook language noting use-tests for technology purchases and not limiting the purchases directly, etc.). However, the ESA environment often remains narrative rather than fact driven. We remind users: ESA enrollment costs are offset by reduced enrollment in other K-12 programs; ESA misuse rates are lower than comparable programs; ESA growth is slowing and increasingly driven by students switching from traditional public options.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Oct 6, 2025 | Education, News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) announced on Thursday that it has entered a multi-year partnership with The Jed Foundation (JED) to expand the state’s training options for school mental health professionals. According to the ADE, JED is a resource that “protects emotional health and prevents suicide among teens and young adults nationwide.”
The ADE and JED shared that nearly 1 in 4 high school students in Arizona report seriously considering a suicide attempt every year, with 1 in 10 attempting.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said in a press release, “Across student age groups, suicide is one of the leading causes of death. It is imperative that our mental health professionals are provided with the latest information to help recognize and the best practices to respond to the warning signs that may help families avert these devastating tragedies.”
The initiative with JED will provide school mental health professionals with “an evidence-informed suicide prevention training course,” according to the ADE. The initiative was designed based on Arizona’s policies, staffing structures, and cultural and educational contexts, the Jed Foundation stated.
“School-based mental health supports are critical to student well-being, stronger academic outcomes, and preparing young people for the workforce and future opportunities,” Dr. Tony Walker, senior vice president of school programs and consulting at JED, said in a statement. “We’re proud to partner with ADE and help to ensure Arizona’s school-based mental health professionals are prepared and confident to identify warning signs, act quickly in a crisis, and connect students to the right support so they can thrive in school and in life.”
According to JED, the two-hour training course, entitled “Suicide Prevention for Arizona School Mental Health Professionals,” will train attendees to:
- Identify signs of self-injury and crisis, including signs of suicidal thoughts or intense emotional distress.
- Understand the role of suicide risk screening in a comprehensive prevention approach and learn how to administer screening tools.
- Take action when a student is in crisis by engaging the support team, ensuring immediate safety, and documenting and following school protocols (or helping to establish protocols, when needed).
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Oct 5, 2025 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Several Northern Arizona University (NAU) students were captured on film targeting a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) table with vandalization, theft, and threats of violence.
These incidents occurred in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the organization’s founder and former CEO. Kirk was assassinated last month during an open-air debate event at Utah Valley University.
Frontlines, the public awareness and news group associated with TPUSA, published footage of the incidents. The footage came from the field representative that advises the NAU chapter, Susie Sullivan.
In one video, a student pushed all the merchandise off the TPUSA chapter’s table before stealing a sign. In another video, a different student handed the table volunteers a note with a drawn depiction of Kirk’s assassination and an implied threat that those who share Kirk’s beliefs — or, Christians, which the individual characterized as “Nazis” — deserve death.
“A good Nazi is a dead one,” said the note. “Free speech!”
The wife of NAU President Joe Luis Cruz Rivera and professor at NAU’s honors college, Rima Brusi, called Kirk (alluded to as “person X”) “morally repugnant” and “a bad person” following his assassination and preceding his memorial service in Phoenix, while acknowledging that his murder was “morally wrong” in a Facebook post:
“I’m honestly perplexed (not surprised but perplexed) at how many don’t seem to get this bit of logic but for what it’s worth, here it goes: 1) Murdering (including murdering person X) is wrong and 2) person X was demonstrably and consistently a bad person—these two statements are NOT mutually exclusive and almost any human brain should be able to handle both at the same time. Saying that ‘those who say X was a bad person who did damage are celebrating his murder’ is propaganda, not a logical conclusion — except when ‘those’ are truly ‘rejoicing’ (not just pointing out basic facts showing that X was a bad human, or reminding us of facts such as ‘the murder of W and Z went unacknowledged’). Anyway — perhaps those intent in erasing history from our classrooms would be open to the idea of adding ‘intro to philosophy: logic’ to the the curriculum. As ‘objective’ (and classic) a subject as they come. Don’t obey in advance. Buy and protect books for later sharing. Take screenshots of news in case they ‘disappear’. Download the contents of science databases. Support your librarian. Make truth and fact-checking as habitual and natural as teeth-brushing and food. Because truth IS nourishment, its protection is healthy, and its friends (science, research, literature, and why not – Wikipedia!) are our friends. Truth and fact-checking are the new and real herd immunity.”
TPUSA has reported over 62,000 new chapter requests from high school and college students since Kirk’s assassination. There are around 27,000 high schools and around 4,000 degree-granting postsecondary institutions, according to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics.
In other words: the amount of requests received to establish TPUSA chapters, if all nonduplicative and approved, would cover every single high school and postsecondary institution in the nation.
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