A communications department director for Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) has resigned after being arrested for human trafficking.
SUSD’s art director Victor Michael Bobbett — known within the SUSD community as Superintendent Scott Menzel’s “right-hand man” for increasing enrollment through district advertising — faces charges for attempting to smuggle illegal aliens into the country last month, per a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona.
The SUSD governing board narrowly accepted Bobbett’s resignation during their regular meeting on Tuesday.
Some board members, however, thought termination would be the more appropriate action.
Board member Amy Carney motioned to remove Bobbett’s resignation from the consent agenda on personnel action items.
“I know he has been arrested on a federal level, and we have not received enough information for us to accept a resignation and therefore I’m not comfortable voting on that,” said Carney.
Board member Matthew Pittinsky agreed.
“It’s difficult to make a decision on that when we don’t have the actual substance of the case, to know which is the better direction for the district absent the underlying case,” said Pittinsky.
The board’s outside counsel urged the board to accept Bobbett’s resignation immediately so the district could terminate their employment relationship with him.
“To do otherwise would require us to move forward with a proceeding to initiate a recommendation to terminate, it would be out in the future,” said counsel Jennifer MacLennan.
Carney and board member Carine Werner made a motion to go into executive session to discuss Bobbett’s resignation. The board agreed to hold that executive session at the end of their meeting. Their session didn’t last very long, and the majority of the board’s decision to accept the resignation didn’t either.
All board members except Carney and Werner voted to accept Bobbett’s resignation. Carney voted against the resignation, Werner abstained.
“There are some times that terminations apply, and in my opinion this would be one of them. Being that that’s not an option for us according to legal counsel, I would like to abstain,” said Werner.
According to the federal complaint, Bobbett admitted to law enforcement that his plans were to transport four illegal aliens in exchange for $12,000 ($3,000 per person). Bobbett said he got the idea to participate in human trafficking after seeing a Snapchat story of another individual showing off the cash they made from smuggling illegal aliens into the country.
An SUSD spokesperson said the district “immediately” placed Bobbett on administrative leave following his arrest.
Bobbett joined the district in February 2018. Last year, he was awarded for conducting outstanding school public relations programs by the National School Public Relations Association.
Since joining the district nearly eight years ago, Bobbett has been a staunch supporter of Superintendent Menzel amid his controversies since joining the SUSD community in 2020. In February 2023, Bobbett posted a graphic which stated: “I Stand With Superintendent Menzel.”
In 2022, Bobbett told another parent in a social media comment that a lawsuit against the former SUSD board president accused of compiling dossiers on parents and silencing public speech, Jann-Michael Greenburg, was merely a “political stunt.”
As with Menzel, Bobbett supports other Democratic candidates.
Bobbett advocated for the election of Democratic state representative candidate Eric Kurland in 2020. Kurland said those who side with President Donald Trump or align with the Make America Great Again movement were threats to SUSD.
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