Canutillo Independent School District's superintendent, Damon Murphy, has been suspended without pay.

The decision was made by CISD's board of trustees Thursday night after hearing from the districts internal auditor.

The auditor explained a part of an audit done on the district's transfer credit process, procedures and student cohort information.

KFOX14 first reported on the CISD board discussing the superintendent's contract Tuesday.

Murphy took the superintendent role at CISD in 2010 after serving as associate superintendent for the El Paso School District under Lorenzo Garcia and was to serve until 2014.

The district's board president said the decision came after the initial audit report raised some red flags leading trustees to lean toward firing Murphy upon further review.

The findings by the internal auditor revealed several discrepancies. One was a group of 10th-graders at Canutillo High School who were bumped to the 11th grade halfway through the year because they didn't speak English well.

This means those students never had to take the 10th-grade assessment test.

Murphy did not deny the claims, but did explain how this was possible.

"In a 10-period block, mid-year acceleration is more common than in seven-period block and I think everyone can see that's common sense because they earn credits quicker," he said.

The audit also showed some special needs students at Canutillo Middle School were transferred so they wouldn't be counted in the state and federal accountability measures.

There is no concrete evidence this took place under Murphy's directive, but it was enough for all but one board member to vote for suspending Murphy.

After receiving the decision, Murphy said a few words, "I continue to pledge to you my very best. I thank you for your time and consideration and I am sorry if I offended anyone," he said.

Some board members shook his hand and others hugged him as he left in tears.

Armando Rodriguez, CISD's board president, could not say when the decision would take effect but did say the audit was not finalized.

He said the board would have another meeting to review the audit once complete and make a final decision on firing Murphy, but he would not go into further details and said there was no set date for that meeting.

"Another issue we have is we know Dr. Murphy has the authority to appeal with the commissioner, which is an important part of the process, and we hope that at the end the commissioner sides with the Canutillo community," he said.

Rodriguez had a private meeting with Texas Education Agency's Commissioner Michael Williams, who was in El Paso to announce the appointment of a board of managers to oversee the El Paso Independent School District after a cheating scandal was revealed earlier this year.

Murphy has been named as one of the leaders involved in the EPISD cheating scandal where he was the associate superintendent at time but was never charged with any crime.

Rodriguez would not comment on what was discussed in his meeting with Williams or if the TEA would also be taking any action with CISD.

"It's unfortunate that the current system that is in place allows certain individuals to engage in conduct that manipulates the system without little or no accountability. You know Canutillo since the beginning has taken the appropriate steps we believe to act in the best interest as soon as we can to make sure we move our district forward," he said