Public commenters press Ajo Unified board on alleged firing and school security; board points to executive session

Two public commenters used the meeting’s public-comment period to press the Ajo Unified District board on personnel and school-safety concerns, and trustees said the items are in executive session and could not be discussed in public.

David Leco, introduced himself and said the district’s handling of a coach’s termination or resignation appeared to him to be based on false pretenses. 'What's wrong is wrong, and what's right is right,' Leco told the board, adding he did not want litigation but would pursue 'every legal outlet possible' if he believed justice required it.

Later, Nathaniel Hardy raised specific safety questions he asked the board to investigate: whether the district has received allegations of assaults in bathrooms, whether teachers have faced threats, whether security cameras had experienced outages and how many cameras are currently nonworking. 'Have you heard of any allegations of kids getting assaulted in the bathroom?' Hardy asked. He said he had not yet obtained documentary evidence but urged the superintendent to forward any reports to him.

Board members and the presiding officer told the meeting that a related complaint was listed for consideration in executive session and therefore could not be discussed or answered in open session. A district representative reiterated the board's public-comment rules and said action on non-agendized personnel matters is limited to directing administration to investigate or scheduling the issue for future consideration.

No formal public responses or detailed staff reports were offered in open session; the meeting later moved into executive session where trustees indicated the complaint was listed for confidential review.

The board did not take public action in response to the comments during open session.