🚌 A First-Grader Died Because TUSD Couldn't Afford to Communicate: Transportation Tragedy Exposes Education Crisis
Dr. Trujillo on tragedy, voucher losses, and why Prop 414 is now a matter of life and death
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 10/30/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers. Analysis and opinions are our own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
TUSD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo appeared on the Buckmaster Show to urgently explain why Proposition 414—a $45 million annual override 💰—is critical for Tucson’s largest school district 🏫.
Teachers are fleeing TUSD because neighboring districts pay $7,500 more per year 💸, forcing the district to operate with fewer counselors 🧑🏫, no music 🎶 or PE 🏃♀️ in elementary schools, and crumbling infrastructure 🏚️.
Arizona’s universal voucher program 🏷️ has stripped $20 million from TUSD’s budget 💔, while demographic shifts 🏘️ and rising housing costs 🏡 push families to cheaper suburbs 🌆, creating what Trujillo called a “poison cocktail 🍸 of enrollment disaster 😞.”
A heartbreaking tragedy 💔—a first-grader killed 🚨 after exiting a Sun Tran bus 🚌 because her family didn’t know TUSD transportation existed 🛑—exposed how resource scarcity creates deadly consequences ⚰️ in immigrant communities 🌎.
TUSD’s flagship Tucson High 🏫 has operated with interim principals 👩💼 for two years because qualified administrators won’t work there at current salaries 💼, and the district’s structural $20 million deficit 📉 means deeper cuts loom if voters reject the override on November 4th 📅.
The stakes are brutally clear 🔥: vote yes ✅ to fund teacher raises 📈, restore counselors and arts programs 🎨, and invest in students 🧑🎓—or watch Arizona’s largest Tucson-area district descend further into crisis 😔.
🎓 When Your District’s Only Override Is Desperation: Dr. Trujillo Makes the Case for TUSD’s Future
🗝️ Takeaways
✅ Prop 414 override = $45M annually to fund $3,000 teacher raises EVERY YEAR for 5 years, plus counselors, PE, music, and arts programs — costs homeowners ~$200/year on a $200K home
💔 TUSD teacher exodus accelerating: Average salary $57,500 vs. Flowing Wells’ $65,000; that $7,500 gap is bleeding the district’s best educators to neighboring districts
🪲 Arizona’s “poison cocktail” of educational collapse: Vouchers (4,000 students, $20M lost), demographic shifts (fewer K-12 families), housing costs (families fleeing to suburbs), and charter competition creating a perfect storm
🚌 A preventable tragedy sparked policy reform: A 6-year-old died after taking Sun Tran alone because the family didn’t know TUSD buses existed; the district now mandates universal transportation access communication
🏫 Tucson High leadership crisis exposes systemic dysfunction: Two consecutive years of interim principals at the flagship 3,200-student school due to the inability to attract qualified permanent leaders at TUSD’s compensation levels
🎯 TUSD is Southern Arizona’s only district WITHOUT current override protection, making it uniquely vulnerable to structural deficit cuts that will directly slash programs and teacher pay
⚡ Override vote is November 4th and make-or-break: Failure means immediate cuts to counselors, arts/PE teachers, and job security; passage means competitive salaries and program restoration
On a crisp October morning at the Buckmaster Show studios in Central Tucson, Dr. Gabriel Trujillo sat down with host Bill Buckmaster to deliver a message that couldn’t be more urgent: Tucson Unified School District is bleeding teachers, and without voter intervention, the hemorrhaging won’t stop.
The superintendent of Arizona’s third-largest school district came bearing stark numbers and a straightforward ask—pass Proposition 414, the maintenance and operations override on the November 4th ballot.
But this wasn’t your typical political pitch. This was a superintendent admitting what conservatives have denied for years: Arizona’s systematic defunding of public education has created a crisis that communities must now solve themselves because the state sure as hell won’t.
The Override: A Lifeline Disguised as Policy
“We are operating without a budget override, and we’re the only Southern Arizona district that does not have a maintenance and operations budget override,“ Trujillo explained during the October 30th Buckmaster Show interview, laying out TUSD’s uniquely vulnerable position.
According to Arizona Luminaria’s comprehensive voter guide, the override package would generate approximately $45 million annually for the first five years, funded by property taxes that would cost the average homeowner about $200 per year on a $200,000 home.
But unlike bond money—which funds capital projects like buildings and buses—override dollars go directly to the people and programs that make schools function: teacher salaries, counselors, music and PE teachers, and academic programs.
“Our teachers are our greatest asset, and they’re our most important asset,“ Trujillo emphasized, driving home the point that TUSD’s competitiveness in recruiting and retaining educators hangs in the balance.
The numbers tell a brutal story about teacher compensation. While TUSD’s average teacher salary hovers around $57,500, neighboring Flowing Wells pays closer to $65,000. That’s not a minor gap—it’s a $7,500 annual difference that sends TUSD’s best educators fleeing to districts that can actually afford to value them.
“Teachers are hardworking professionals. They’ve got families. And we don’t want to be losing our best and brightest for economic reasons,“ Trujillo said, articulating what should be obvious to anyone not actively trying to dismantle public education.
The override would provide $3,000 annual raises for every single teacher, every year of the five-year override. Compare that to the current year-over-year raise: a single step, a pathetic $500. Because apparently, in conservative economic logic, teachers should survive on vibes and vocation while the cost of groceries, gas, and housing continues to skyrocket.
What $45 Million Actually Buys: Programs Kids Deserve
Beyond teacher compensation, the override would transform TUSD’s ability to provide essential programs that have been systematically stripped away through years of austerity:
PE and music teachers in every elementary school. As Trujillo noted during the Buckmaster interview, “It’s something our kids deserve. It’s something our parents have asked for for years.“
Counselors in all high schools and middle schools with dramatically reduced caseloads. The current ratio? One counselor for every 500 students. The override would bring that down to 1:400—still absurdly high, but at least movement in the right direction. Imagine trying to provide meaningful support to 500 teenagers dealing with everything from college applications to mental health crises to truancy. That’s not counseling—that’s triage.
Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs that prepare students for high-wage careers without requiring a four-year degree. TUSD’s CTE portfolio serves over 7,000 students across programs ranging from 3D animation to diesel repair, culinary arts to dental assistance, according to Trujillo’s interview.
Buckmaster highlighted Cholla High School’s award-winning welding program out at Starr Pass on the southwest side, where students graduate as certified welders having completed their apprenticeships.
“Those kids graduate from Cholla, certified welders, having finished their apprenticeship. They go work for home builders, and they probably make more money than I do,“ Trujillo said with a mix of pride and pragmatic recognition.
“At 18 years old, even perhaps 17. It’s unbelievable the money that can be made,“ Buckmaster marveled.
This is workforce development as it should be—meeting students where they are, recognizing that not every brilliant kid wants or needs a traditional college path, and providing pathways to economic security. It’s also an indictment of how we’ve stigmatized the trades for decades while simultaneously complaining about skilled worker shortages.
The Stakes: $20 Million Structural Deficit Meets Override Rejection
Trujillo didn’t sugarcoat the consequences of failure. If Proposition 414 doesn’t pass, TUSD loses a protected funding source that would shield these programs and teacher compensation from the district’s approximately $20 million structural deficit. Without the override, those dollars become subject to budget cuts.
This structural deficit didn’t materialize out of thin air.
As Fox News reported in July 2025, it’s the predictable result of Arizona’s universal voucher program, which has drained roughly $1 billion from public education statewide to subsidize private and religious school tuition—including for wealthy families who were already sending their kids to private schools.
TUSD has lost approximately 4,000 students to vouchers, costing the district about $20 million. As Three Sonorans has previously documented, this represents a systematic defunding of public education masquerading as “choice.”
Transportation Tragedy Sparks Policy Reform
The interview took a somber turn when Buckmaster asked about transportation issues. Trujillo’s voice grew heavy as he discussed a preventable tragedy that occurred about a month prior to the interview.
“We lost a six-year-old little girl, a beautiful, precious little girl, Hollinger’s student, first grade,“ Trujillo said, describing how the child had taken a Sun Tran public bus, exited at the busy intersection of Mission and 36th Street, and was struck by a car.
While KGUN 9 reported in September on a seven-year-old girl who died September 11th after being hit while crossing Mission Road after exiting a bus, Trujillo’s emotional response underscored a fundamental failure: families weren’t aware that TUSD buses were available and could transport children safely door-to-door.
“I don’t believe that it’s appropriate for a five-year-old or a six-year-old little girl alone to be navigating city transportation,“ Trujillo stated with controlled outrage.
The district is now implementing policy changes requiring parents of K-5 students to come into school offices to sign off on transportation choices: either personal pickup or TUSD bus routing. “TUSD transportation now is universal,“ Trujillo emphasized, ensuring families know this option exists.
This tragedy illuminates how resource scarcity creates cascading failures. When districts can’t communicate effectively with families—often immigrant families navigating systems in a second language—children die. This isn’t administrative incompetence; it’s the predictable outcome of systematically starving public institutions.
The Tucson High Principal Problem: Two Years of “Interim” Leadership
When a listener asked why TUSD’s flagship high school has been operating with an interim principal for two years, Trujillo’s response was at once defensive and revealing.
“Tucson High is the flagship school for TUSD. It is a large high school. It’s complex. It’s got a lot of programs and it’s hard to find a really strong applicant,“ Trujillo explained.
With over 3,200 students, Tucson High requires “a seasoned principal with a temperament, the approach, the management style, the leadership style, the ability to cast a vision, the patience and the perseverance to really work that job and work it well.“
After two failed search cycles, Trujillo accepted responsibility: “Ultimately, I’m the responsible party and I accept full responsibility that, yeah, for the last two years we’ve had interims. But I would rather catch a little bit of fire for having interims for two years in a row and having those interims be fairly experienced high school leaders and being able to at least run the school and keep the trains running on time.“
Translation: Finding qualified administrators willing to take on one of Arizona’s most challenging principal positions at TUSD’s non-competitive salaries has proven impossible.
As Three Sonorans previously reported, the district appointed Jon Lansa as interim principal in June 2025—a controversial choice given his background as a board director for Faith Christian Church, which the Arizona Daily Star called a cult, and questions about his leadership capacity.
Trujillo hinted at bold steps coming, including a November 18th employee compensation package presentation to the board that would make high school principal salaries more attractive.
“I’m very confident that this year, we’re going to find that permanent leader that wants to make Tucson High a destination,“ he said with cautious optimism.
The Enrollment Crisis: Vouchers, Demographics, and Geographic Vulnerability
In the final segment, Trujillo confronted TUSD’s enrollment hemorrhaging head-on. The district lost 2.5% of its enrollment in a single year—part of a regional catastrophe that saw Amphitheater lose 5% and Sunnyside lose 3.9%.
“None of that is good, whether you’re losing 1%, 2.5%,“ Trujillo acknowledged, attributing the losses to multiple converging factors: generational demographic shifts with an aging population having fewer children, higher cost of living pushing K-12 families to cheaper areas like Marana and Rio Rico, and the voucher program creating what he called “a real cocktail, a real poison cocktail of enrollment disaster.“
But Trujillo also articulated hope, noting that TUSD—unlike landlocked districts—has room to expand its geographical footprint in the Southwest.
“That’s our zone. We own all that land. That’s our attendance boundary. There’s nobody out there yet. That’s where new homes are going up in the next three to five years. We have to have a strong presence out there before the charters and some of the other charter private schools start moving out there.“
This is the silver lining wrapped in barbed wire: TUSD can potentially grow by colonizing new subdivisions before charter schools do. It’s a race to claim territory in Arizona’s educational hunger games.
When Buckmaster noted the inevitable community backlash to school closures, Trujillo pointed to Amphitheater as the district that would “be breaking that ice“ for Southern Arizona.
“Once you name the schools like Catalina found out, you start dealing with some of the noise,“ he said, acknowledging the political minefield ahead.
AI and Operational Innovation: Finding Efficiency in Scarcity
In a brief exchange about artificial intelligence, Trujillo revealed that TUSD’s board is still “finding its way in terms of what they believe the direction should be from a governance perspective with regard to the presence of AI in the district.“
But personally, Trujillo sees AI as an inevitable disruptor comparable to the internet or smartphones. “You either find a way to leverage it to meet the organization’s mission or it will steamroll you,“ he said pragmatically.
He envisions AI automating operational tasks—regulating HVAC temperatures, streamlining enrollment processes, automating employment applications—while remaining cautious about instructional applications.
“We haven’t figured out what it looks like in instructional spaces yet, but definitely on the operational side of the house, I think we’re willing to be bolder with its implementation.“
This is actually a refreshingly honest and measured approach—recognizing AI’s potential for operational efficiency without pretending we’ve solved the thorny questions about its role in teaching and learning.
What Do You Think?
Dr. Trujillo’s Buckmaster Show appearance laid bare the impossible position public education occupies in Arizona: systematically defunded by a hostile state legislature, competing with voucher-subsidized private schools, and now asking overtaxed communities to bridge the gap between what schools need and what the state provides.
But here’s what gives me hope: Trujillo spoke with clarity about the stakes, without the bureaucratic double-speak that so often insulates administrators from accountability. He acknowledged failures, defended difficult decisions, and made the case for investment in terms any parent can understand—our teachers need competitive pay, our kids deserve counselors who can actually counsel them, and six-year-olds shouldn’t be navigating public transportation alone.
If you live in TUSD’s boundaries, voting YES on Proposition 414 is the most direct action you can take to support teachers, students, and the community institutions that bind us together. If the override fails, those budget cuts won’t be theoretical—they’ll show up as larger class sizes, eliminated programs, and the continued exodus of talented educators to districts that value them.
Support independent borderlands journalism. Subscribe to Three Sonorans to keep these conversations going and our coverage accountable to the community, not corporate interests.
Questions for community dialogue:
How can TUSD better communicate transportation options to immigrant families who may not know that district buses are available?
Should teacher compensation be tied to local property taxes through overrides, or is this just another way wealthy districts outcompete poorer ones?
What would genuine state-level funding equity for public education actually look like in Arizona, and how do we build the political power to achieve it?
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message below or via email (all messages kept confidential) at ThreeSonorans@gmail.com.
