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Jonathan Lansa, recently the senior director of federal programs and school improvement for TUSD, was tied to a 2015 Star investigation while principal at Amphitheater High School. The investigation looked into the school's relationship with Faith Christian Church, which multiple former members have described as a cult.

He was eventually cleared at Amphi, TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo says, but his new job leading a campus of over 3,000 students has raised eyebrows among former church members.

TUSD said late last week that Lansa was training out of town and would likely be too busy, even after his return, for an interview with the Star.

Lansa has been a Faith Christian director since 2010, according to an .

The church was the subject of multiple ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ investigations from 2015 to 2023, where more than 20 former Faith Christian members and staffers alleged it promotes spanking of infants as young as eight weeks old, requires women to remain quiet and obedient and exerts excessive control over the lives and finances of its members.

Church members actively recruit students on the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ campus, with a mission to "evangelize college students," says its .

Led by pastor Steve Hall, the church has urged parents to start spanking babies early to keep 'demons' at bay, which was recorded in a sermon and reported by the Star in 2023.

"The church very much acted the same way as what I would call a high functioning cult," said Andrew Winslow, a former church member. "To anyone who would come on a given Sunday, everything would seem like any other non-denominational evangelical Christian Church . . . Where everything took place was always in private."

Winslow became a member of the church in 1997 and was expelled from the organization in 2021 after requesting transparency on church finances. He had been in a Sunday men's covenant group with Lansa for about six years before getting married. Later on, he and his wife joined Lansa's married couples covenant group from 2016 to 2021.

Many of the topics of conversation in this group included child discipline, family finances and buying homes, which the church often tried to control, Winslow said.

"If a topic crossed the line into a hot topic button for the church, like child discipline or homeschooling of children, then you might get down into the deeper road of whether or not we were conforming to the right kind of standard," Winslow said.

He said child discipline was not usually a topic of conversation in his marriage covenant discussions, however recalled a conversation where Lansa implied that Winslow and his wife should spank their, at the time, 18-month-old daughter any time she would move off her blanket at home or "test" the couple.

Winslow said their daughter was picking up silverware at the kitchen table and dropping it on the floor during their conversation at Lansa's home, which was when Lansa shot him a look to discipline his daughter. It was Winslow's last time at Lansa's house.

"I had a roommate who was encouraged (by other church leaders) to spank his child as young as six months old for waking up in the middle of the night and not obeying his command to fall asleep," Winslow said. "That was about the same time we were getting red flags that said we had to go, but I can't say Jon ever gave us specific instructions like that."

Winslow said that while Faith Christian has concerning demands for parents who are more involved with the church, he doesn't believe Lansa would physically harm a student. He said his concerns more so rely on Lansa tying in his role at the church with his role as principal.

"I would expect that to be a weak area. That would be something that could be compromised later," Winslow said. "When he was principal of Amphi, there were allegations to this effect."

Lansa served as Amphitheater High School's principal for nine years before leaving in 2020 to work in his most recent role at TUSD. Faith Christian began renting the high school shortly before he became principal in 2011, according to a 2015 story, and ended its contract a few years later once complaints arose.

In 2015, Amphitheater Public Schools district reviewed its rental relationship with the local religious group after it received three complaints that church members would move school equipment and bend the district’s rental rules.

Former employees had said Lansa’s oversight of the rental agreement caused friction with their boss and made them feel there was nowhere to share concerns when the church’s activities caused problems for students, who were left to clean up and reorganize moved furniture.

Several employees also claimed Lansa displayed his faith on the job, holding prayer meetings on-site with other Faith Christian members who work at Amphi High.

The sessions took place in the morning while employees were on the clock, but before students arrived, the Star reported. "In all my years of teaching, I never dreaded going to work until I started working for Jon Lansa," Rolande Baker, a former special-education teacher at Amphi High, said in 2015.

She reportedly retired a year early in 2013 and told then-associate superintendent Patrick Nelson it was due to Lansa. "If Steve Hall said, 'we would love to rent space at TUSD because of how close it is to campus,' and now Jon's the principal, that would be an area where he might have some sort of compromise," former Faith Christian member Winslow said.

Winslow also questioned Lansa's belief in the public school system, as he said Faith Christian requires parents to homeschool all of their children.

"What he was taught at FCC was that public education is the systematic abdication of a parent's authority and handing your children over to the government for training," Winslow said. "It's awful, people get kicked out of the church for even asking if they could send their kids to a public school."

Pastor Hall's 'Principle Method for Building a Christian Generation," sent by Winslow, details three jurisdictions of external government that include family, church and civil government. In the document, education falls under family.

"When lines between the jurisdictions are blurred, or when authority within jurisdiction is abdicated, great disorder results," it says.

"Strangely, the following chapter actually discusses the problem of stating a belief in one thing and doing another as a matter of double-mindedness," Winslow said. "So why would any FCC member who believes in this philosophy willingly support public education?"

Nick Puente, who was raised in the church until he left in 2005, said the church has always functioned like this. He said he was homeschooled by his mother all throughout his school years and later became a church staff member in 2002.

"There's a lot of it that I am grateful for. I got a really good education from my mother and got one-on-one attention, but I think it was when there were even suggestions of going to school, it was very much a 'how dare you' (situation)," Puente said. "It was an unwritten, unspoken rule, but if you went against that suggestion, there would be consequences. There would be public shaming and humiliation."

Puente said he left the church right around the same time he and his wife had their daughter, because he didn't believe in Faith Christian's methods of raising children.

"Even though I was raised in it, I knew I did not want my daughter in that. I didn't want the pressure to essentially abuse her," Puente said. "A large high school needs someone who knows what they're doing, and I know I would never trust anyone in FCC to have any say in the lives of children.

Four other former members of Faith Christian, who requested anonymity in fear of retaliation from church members or no longer wanting any association with the church, also shared concerns with Lansa causing problems for students by bringing church practices in during school hours and questioned his belief in the public school system.

TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said a candidate from New Mexico was originally set to take a permanent principal position at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High, but due to family issues, that person dropped out. TUSD then had to search for another interim principal for the second year in a row.

"It's only had turnover because we've struggled to find the right fit for its permanent leader," Trujillo said.

Trujillo said that when Lansa was first hired by TUSD as senior director of federal programs and school improvement in 2020, the complaints at Amphi High were something they looked into.

"We researched these allegations diligently, they were already in the public space," he said. "Amphitheater at that time, five years ago and even today, maintains that its internal investigations did not find that Jon was engaging in any of these alleged activities and exonerated him in terms of these accusations."

TUSD officials did not receive an official copy of the investigative report, but were provided verbal confirmation that the allegations were unfounded, said Karla Escamilla, a district spokeswoman.

Then-Amphi attorney Todd Jaeger, who is now Amphitheater Public School's superintendent, did not disclose the results of the probe in the Star's 2015 investigation, citing attorney-client privilege.

When the Star recently reached out for investigation results and information again this month, Jaeger wrote in an email, "We no longer have any such records — if they ever existed at all. The 3-year retention period for records pertaining to investigations occurring (if such an investigation did indeed occur) passed long ago, requiring destruction of the records under ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ law."

Trujillo said he does not have any worries about Lansa's role as a director at Faith Christian Church, nor Lansa bringing Faith Christian activities into the school.

"We looked at Faith Christian, and as of this date, that organization has never been arraigned in federal, state or district court. It's never been brought up on charges," he said. "The opinions, attitudes and beliefs about the organization online are troubling, but we believe that people are entitled to formal due process, and one of the dangers of the internet is that pretty much anybody can write anything."

Trujillo said the governing board has a policy that establishes TUSD as a politically neutral organization. He said the district does not permit any employees to engage in religious theology-based instruction or promote their own personal religious beliefs on a school campus.

"We have never had an incident here where any of our principals or district leaders have been accused of proselytizing or using their positions or district facilities to promote specific religious beliefs," he said. "We have every confidence that Jon understands that."

He said one of the primary reasons the district hired Lansa to lead the school was because of the achievements he accomplished while at Amphitheater High School. Within a three-year period, Lansa raised Amphi from a D rating to a B rating.

"That was one of the higher performing schools in one of the more challenging areas socio-economically in Amphitheater School District," he said. "He is a principal very comfortable in his experience working at a district flagship school."

Lansa was not available for an interview before publication due to being away for a conference and a busy schedule upon return.

"I am deeply honored to be appointed Interim Principal at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High Magnet School, and I thank the Superintendent and the Board for their trust and approval. I am eager to begin this important work for our students, staff, and the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ community," Lansa wrote in a statement.

The Star emailed Lansa questions on if he stood by Faith Christian's alleged practices. He did not respond.

Lansa's salary was about $100,900 in the 2019-20 school year, his last year as principal at Amphitheater High School. He is set to make about $114,000 in his interim position at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High for the 2025-2026 school year.