The Dehesa School District is facing a lawsuit from its former principal, who claims she was targeted and fired after bringing attention to issues within the district.
Natoshia Bartley — Dehesa School’s fourth principal to be fired in the past five years — said things started deteriorating within two days of being hired as vice principal in 2024.
In her lawsuit against the district, she claims the sitting principal at the time, Elizabeth Carzoli, was forced to resign. Bartley claims the school board president told her, “The plan all along was to have you be the Principal, we hired you to do the job knowing we would fire Elizabeth.”
The board approved Bartley’s promotion to principal in September 2024.
“Obviously, that threw a red flag for me,” Bartley said. “However, my mind went immediately to the school.”
Her attorney, John Gomez, stood beside her at a press conference outside the school.
“She walked into an environment riddled with violation of California law,” Gomez said. “No safety plans, no CPR-certified coaches on the athletic fields, students going unaccounted for on-school busses, medications administered to children without documentation, a school with no English language development instruction and attendance records that a state audit later confirmed were fabricated, potentially costing taxpayers nearly $1 million.”
Her lawsuit claims she also found rat droppings inside the school.
“She did not look the other way,” Gomez added. “She did not protect her job by staying silent. She reported every one of those violations to her supervisors, to the San Diego County Office of Education, and, ultimately, to a third-party investigator. And so what happened to her as a result? She was belittled, undermined, isolated. Her authority was stripped away.”
The board fired Bartley in June 2025.
Bailey McCarty graduated last year. She sat through four principals being hired and quickly fired.
“I didn’t like seeing that one year there was a principal, then next year, gone,” McCarty said. “And then there was another one. I felt like with Bartley, at first I was like, ‘Oh, she’s just going to be gone next year.’ That’s just how it usually is.”
McCarty said Bartley’s ability to settle harsh conflict between students gave her hope this time would be different.
Superintendent Bradley Johnson declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The Dehesa School District told NBC 7 they are rejecting all the claims made in the former principal’s lawsuit. The case will likely be headed for trial.