CISD evaluates Superintendent Damon Murphy

Cauntillo ISD board members spent the night evaluating the performance of Superintendent Damon Murphy. Before working at CISD, Murphy was an assistant superintendent at El Paso ISD, a position that has linked him to the recent scandal involving district-wide fraud.

ABC-7 learned board members are taking his EPISD past into consideration. Every superintendent has to go through an annual evaluation by the board, and unless the superintendent has done something wrong, it’s a pretty standard process.

But Murphy might have done something illegal. His ties to the El Paso ISD scandal are still being investigated, but that’s still caused enough suspicion to potentially blemish his resume.

No white elephant was in the room at Caunutillo ISD’s board meeting.

There was no one in the room at all — no one to point out the obvious — that CISD Superintendent Damon Murphy allegedly had a hand in the El Paso ISD scandal. EPISD alleges when Murphy was their assistant-superintendent and close confidant of Dr.. Lorenzo Garcia, he directed faculty to unfairly force certain ninth-graders to repeat the year, all for the sake of meeting federal standards.

“The school board is aware of the allegation that have been raised, and they said those allegations are serious and they’re acting in the best interest of the school district at this moment,” said CISD spokesman Gustavo Reveles.

At his annual evaluation, the possibility of Murphy being charged with a crime might have came up in executive session, but neither Murphy nor board members were going to talk about it.

“That’s the school board’s prerogative,” Reveles said.

The board wasn’t going to talk about Murphy’s evaluation, so I asked a Canutillo parent to give him a grade.

“As a person, as someone I know and I like — I would probably give him a B. As a superintendent, a C-,” said John Joyner.

Last year, Murphy had a role in raising Canutillo’s property taxes to one of the highest in the county. But resident John Joyner isn’t bitter about it. Joyner says the area needs to invest in the making its schools more attractive, and one of the ways to do that, that is to point out that there is a white elephant in room and get rid of it.

“I don’t know what the outcome will be of the El Paso ISD investigation, but if it is proven that he was involved in things he shouldn’t have been involved in, then I think he needs to be removed,” Joyner said.

Murphy, who makes about $170,000 per year, has asked that he not get a raise this time around, so as to not take away from CISD projects. We’ve asked for an interview with Murphy, but the board said he isn’t commenting.