Murphy Elementary School District Board president resigning, superintendent retiring

The district superintendent and school board president have both departed the Murphy Elementary School District, leaving it momentarily leaderless as it faces a potential state takeover.

Richard Polanco, president of the Murphy school board, told The Arizona Republic Thursday that Superintendent Jose Diaz, a longtime Murphy educator, announced his retirement from the district Wednesday.

Polanco, who was elected in 2014, said he planned to resign from the school board Thursday.

"I wish the best for the Murphy community, and most importantly, for the students," Polanco said in a phone interview.

"Hopefully by me bowing out and the superintendent leaving, that will allow the state — which I know is going to happen — to take over receivership of the schools and they will make the deep cuts that need to be made.”

Diaz did not respond to requests for comment.

Murphy Elementary School District must significantly reduce a budget deficit of more than $2 million or risk state intervention. The district briefly considered — and the rejected amidst public outcry — cutting teacher pay to balance its budget. 

The financially-struggling district of 1,436 students was projected in January to overspend its 2017-18 operating budget by 28 percent.

In Arizona, school districts that overspend their budgets by 5 percent or more of their revenue control limit are eligible for state takeover.

RELATED: Phoenix school district weighs teacher pay cuts to solve $2M budget deficit

The window for avoiding state intervention appears to be narrow.

Diaz and Polanco had been discussing with the Arizona Department of Education and Maricopa County Education Service Agency how to reduce Murphy's over expenditures.

Marc Kuffner, executive director of finance for the county agency, told members of the State Board of Education Monday that the issue "would then fall to your shoulders" if Murphy and the county could not find a solution.

“We’re going to continue to meet with the district. We’re going to continue to see what we can do to keep them from over expending," Kuffner told the state education board. 

"But in the case that we cannot, it’s probably a month or month and a half away if the action resulting from working with the district stays the course.”

The school board tried to impose furloughs and cuts teachers' pay by 5 percent as a last-ditch effort to address its budget deficit.

FACT CHECK: Has Arizona really increased teacher salaries nearly 10 percent since 2015?

But teachers, parents and community members rained a torrent of frustration and anger on Diaz and the school board for proposing such steep and hastily-announced cuts on the district's teachers.

Hundreds of them either skipped work that day in protest, marched outside the district's office or participated in a lengthy and raucous public comment portion of the Feb. 12 board meeting in which several people called for Diaz and Polanco to resign.

Murphy's four schools — Alfred F. Garcia, William R. Sullivan, Jack L. Kuban and Arthur M. Hamilton schools — have bled student enrollment by the hundreds over the past decade.

The 39 percent enrollment decline of about 900 students since 2008 is among the main reasons school officials cited for the district's current financial turmoil.

Robert Donofrio, longtime former superintendent of Murphy schools, said Thursday the departures of Polanco and Diaz was "great news."

“To have Polanco and Diaz gone is a blessing and I believe now the district can move forward," Donofrio said. "Whether there is enough time to balance the budget, is not something that I think they can do.”

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