Paradise Valley Unified superintendent fired after allegedly lying on job application

PHOENIX – The Paradise Valley Unified School District Governing Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to terminate the contract of Superintendent Todd Cummings.

The firing comes after Cummings was placed on administrative leave in September 2025, just three months into his contract, over allegations that he lied about how he left his previous position in South Bend, Indiana.

During Tuesday night’s governing board meeting, Susan Segal, counsel for the district, explained that Cummings claimed he was retired and using accrued days to get to the end of his contract.

In fact, Segal said Cummings used the accrued time off to finish his contract after being placed on administrative leave and accepting a lump sum of $225,000 that fits into Indiana’s permitted school payout legislation.

Cummings was placed on administrative leave in Indiana following reports of students’ grades being tampered with and a refusal to close schools when roads were icy.

Segal added that Cummings’ performance was not up to standards during his tenure with the Paradise Valley Unified District, which serves an estimated 27,000 students at over 40 campuses in northeast Phoenix and Scottsdale. She also said the the district is hiring a lawyer to investigate.

Paradise Valley counsel says superintendent was incompetent

“In the three months that he was here, he initiated a practice and pattern of incompetence, of disrespect, disregard, rudeness, being just generally difficult to work with and being counterproductive to what the district’s mission was,” Segal said.

Cummings requested a delay on the governing board’s vote but was denied. He received his full salary during his time on administrative leave but will not receive any additional payments.Segal suggested the board move ahead with the termination regardless of a potential future lawsuit.

“Your policies demand … good conduct, standards in the district, standards in the community, standards that you expect … all of your staff to live up to. … How can you have those expectations when you have a leader that violates board policy, is unprofessional and is incompetent?” she said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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