Arizona school district rescinds Nate Carman’s superintendent contract
Former Socorro Independent School District Superintendent Nate Carman will no longer take over as leader of an Arizona school district after the school board there rescinded the offer on Wednesday.
The board of the Higley Unified School District outside of Phoenix voted unanimously to rescind its employment agreement with Carman.
“During the superintendent hiring process that we recently went through, applicants were asked to provide true, correct, and complete applications, including disclosing ongoing reviews of possible misconduct. They were specifically asked to explain any current or past situations that might impact their application,” Higley USD Governing Board President Michelle Anderson said in a statement from the board before the vote.
“The candidates were notified that misrepresenting or omitting facts could result in rejection of or dismissal from employment. Dr. Carman failed to disclose material facts during the hiring process. The search firm we used also failed to bring these facts to our attention. Had Dr. Carman provided us with correct and complete information, we would have made a different decision. In our view, his actions constitute just cause to rescind the employment agreement,” Anderson said.
This comes more than a month after Carman was placed on administrative leave from Socorro ISD after an external forensics audit found he awarded contracts to a company he had previously done business with before joining the district, posing a conflict of interest.
Carman has denied wrongdoing.
Carman was selected to become superintendent of the Higley Unified School District in February and was set to start the new job in June.
Socorro ISD started searching for a permanent replacement for Carman on April 24 after trustees voted unanimously to hire the Texas Association of School Boards to help the district find a new superintendent. TASB is a nonprofit organization that provides assistance and training to Texas school boards.
The Socorro ISD board on April 8 appointed Deputy Superintendent James Vasquez as acting superintendent while the district works to find a permanent leader.
