Pueblo High School is the focus of a culture and climate report being compiled in the Tucson Unified School District after some staff detailed a culture of sexism, preferential treatment and leadership failure.
The report was called for last spring after staff reached out to the TUSD Governing Board.
More than a dozen speakers voiced concerns about Pueblo’s culture and Principal Frank Rosthenhausler at Tuesday night’s board meeting. Three others spoke out at the May 26 meeting.
The uncommon process of a culture inquiry at TUSD’s second-largest high school has consolidated voices across Pueblo’s campus to talk about intimidation and leadership. While the district says it is working through the process, Rosthenhausler says he has signed his principal’s contract for next year.
Leadership at any school is critical to student outcomes. At Pueblo, a Title I school where about 90% of students identify as Latino, the school earned a C letter grade from 2017 to 2022. Starting in the 2022-23 school year, it has earned a B in every year since, according to Arizona State Board of Education data. Rosthenhausler, a former assistant principal, was named Pueblo’s interim principal in 2018 and became principal in 2019.
“Unfortunately, Pueblo does not have a supportive principal. We are constantly disrespected as professionals. When we share our expertise, thoughts, and ideas, we are swiftly shut down, publicly shamed and often threatened,” said Christabel Saldana-Buckner to the board on Tuesday. “Our input is never valued, and instead, it is received as an attack.”
Saldana-Buckner, a math teacher, detailed to the board an anecdote after she shared an idea with Rosthenhausler in his office.
“After sharing it, he went to the corner of his office, grabbed a wooden baseball bat from his window, sniffed it as he paced in his office, holding the bat with two hands,” she said. “At first, I dismissed that incident, thinking it might be a fluke. Then I started to notice a pattern. Every time I gave my input, and especially if I disagreed with him, he would issue some sort of threat. I cannot recall many conversations with Mr. R., where he did not threaten me in an emailed or explicit fashion.”
Of the nearly 20 public speakers on Tuesday night, more than half discussed their experiences at Pueblo — including teachers, former students and employee relatives. After each speaker, the audience applauded, and sometimes snapped its fingers in agreement.
Principal Rosthenhausler, who once taught at Tucson High and has worked for TUSD for nearly 20 years, did not attend the meeting and spoke with Arizona Luminaria the following day. When asked if he would respond to Pueblo staff comments, Rosthenhausler said he could not speak fully while the review is ongoing.
“Because I am where I am at in this process, believe me I would love to give an interview and say my side,” Rosthenhausler told Arizona Luminaria. “I am going to continue to show up and do my job. It helps because I am from around here. My grandmother’s house is two streets down from Pueblo. I am a proud Hispanic.”
TUSD does not have a timeline for the report and it will continue to assemble it throughout the summer, the district says.
A culture and climate report is rare and the district compiles “maybe one or two a year,” TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo told Arizona Luminaria.
“We want to make sure that employee relations gets a full objective assessment through a mutually agreed upon process,” Trujillo said. “It is not something we do every day. It’s a pretty extensive process.”
Arizona Luminaria has a pending request with TUSD for the approval and length of Rosthenhausler’s current contract and whether he has had any prior documented complaints against him. Rosthenhausler said he’s “never been written up like that.”
A culture and climate review happens when “we get a cluster or a good cross-section of a staff having concerns about working conditions, overall treatment and the quality and effectiveness of a school or a department’s leadership,” Trujillo said.
“It’s designed to be open-ended because we have 88 different schools that could have 88 different types of concerns,” he said. “And so putting a policy prescription on something that is meant to be flexible and to meet the needs of the school has never been anything that I’ve recommended. I introduced the concept of a culture and climate review in my earliest days of the superintendency back in 2017.”
At the Tuesday meeting, Pueblo teacher Victoria Bodyani questioned the report itself and the compilation structure.
“There is no set, written policy for how a culture and climate review should go,” she told the board. “That gives teachers pause. How are we supposed to trust the process is on the up-and-up if we don’t know what the process is?”
Trujillo acknowledged the process “will take as long as it takes” and employees have multiple ways to participate. The same questions are asked of everyone, while leadership will also be interviewed.
About 20% of the Pueblo staff has participated in the review so far, either in an onsite meeting with Employee Relations, via email, Zoom or on the phone, the district says.
Pueblo staff initiated its own survey last spring in conjunction with teachers union representatives from the Tucson Education Association. The anonymous survey showed about 72% participation, Bodyani said, including teachers, custodians, grounds, monitors, counselors, front office and cafeteria staff.
Results of that survey shared with Arizona Luminaria show roughly 70% percent of sampled staff or 89 people scored Rosthenhausler as unsatisfactory or basic.
The survey is an evaluation of administrator responsibilities using the Danielson Framework for Teaching as a model. It shows dissatisfaction with leadership including claims that the principal:
• Fails to treat staff and students equally, with gender acting as a basis for differential treatment
• Has poor and inconsistent communication practices
• Fosters an unhealthy work environment
• Fails to conduct himself professionally
English teacher Jeanette Rupel asked Tuesday if the board has a plan of improvement “for someone who does not believe they have deficiencies.”
“Rather than self-analyze, self-correct, Mr. Rosthenhausler has sown mistrust, anxiety and fear,” she said. “If 10% of my students told me that they were afraid and unheard in my classroom, I would change my behavior and my instruction. That’s what a good leader does.”
Reading a letter on behalf of another educator during the public comment section of Tuesday’s meeting, teacher Ryan Simpson cited “instances of sexism and leadership failures.”
The same teacher also wrote to the board in support of Pueblo’s assistant principals.
“Our assistant principal team works incredibly hard. They are visible in hallways, provide support and guidance when faculty and staff need it, respond to emergencies in a professional and calm way, communicate directly and consistently, and encourage meaningful change at our site. I believe this to be effective leadership.
“It is surprising that our principal would address the stellar team as ‘pains in my ass’ and ‘his little boogers’ during professional development meetings,” the teacher wrote. ”It is important to note that our (assistant principal) team consists entirely of women. This is the way he speaks about women publicly. I do not feel comfortable speaking with him privately, without a male colleague in the room.”
Arizona Luminaria reached out to the three assistant principals via email and has not yet heard back.
Rosthenhausler, 51, says he will wait for the results of the climate and culture review and will listen.
“There’s always complaints,” he said. “You can’t escape that.”
Pueblo, which opened in 1956, has about 1,700 students as of May 2026 according to Arizona Department of Education data.
With a new school year starting in about six weeks, Trujillo said the process will likely require mediation, which could include structured communication, goal setting and collaboration.
“We’ll probably have to go get a third party to mediate some of the damaged relationships, some of the strained relationships between the administrator and the parties that are speaking at the call to the audience,” he said. “We’re going to have to set very structured non-negotiable expectations with both the administrator and this group for desired outcomes, mutually beneficial norms for communication, collaboration. I think with both parties, we need to engage with them about what expectations for success look like.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
