Editor's Note: A written statement provided by Scottsdale Unifid School District was added to this story at 7:45 a.m. Feb. 2. 

State Representatives Joseph Chaplik, R-Scottsdale, Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, and Senator John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, issued an open letter Feb. 1 to members of the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board condemning Superintendent Scott Menzel for offensive and hateful comments made in a 2019 interview. 

According to a press release, Menzel’s comments were unearthed last week by Fox News and have received national media attention. In their letter to the board, the Legislative District 3 representatives detailed that Menzel's comments in the interview were related to "white people being problematic."

The interview the LD3 representatives are taking issue with can be read here. A review of the interview shows a lengthy discussion, with very small portions of Menzel's quotes being used in the Fox News article. 

In a Feb. 1 written statement to the Independent, Scottsdale Unified School District spokeswoman Kristine Harrington says the interview is taken out of context, and points out Menzel was superintendent of Washtenaw ISD at the time. 

"Dr. Menzel's leadership in Scottsdale aligns with the values as adopted by the Governing Board.  The recent reports do not reflect the positions and beliefs of the superintendent.  The SUSD Governing Board was aware of the interview when considering Dr. Menzel for the superintendency in 2020 and approved him for hire on a 5-0 vote," Harrington said. 

"We put all our energy into providing the best opportunities for all students to succeed. State legislators would be wise to do the same and act now to override the Aggregate Expenditure Limit and support public education for all Arizonans," Harrington added. 

In the joint letter, Chaplik, Kavanagh and Kolodin write that district parents were shocked that Menzel or the governing board did not immediately release an apology or statement on the matter. 

"Superintendent Menzel was hired and trusted to foster a culture of mutual respect among students, parents, and teachers," the letter stated. "However, his racist words prove that he is incapable of doing that job."

Further down in the letter, the legislators expressed that they were joining with district parents to call for Menzel's  removal from the board for "breaking the trust of the parents, students and educators of Scottsdale Unified School District."

The letter called for Scottsdale Unified parents to rally and call the district to facilitate this removal. According to the letter, Menzel's resignation is the"only way" to resolve the controversy, otherwise, they are requesting that the governing board terminate his employment. 

"Scottsdale Unified School District has attracted a lot of controversy in the last year and parents are fed up with the distractions," the state officials wrote. 

They added that Menzel's "racist views" compromise his ability to lead but also impact the district's learning capability by bringing about this distracting controversy.

Following a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, the letter stated that those are the values that SUSD families want the city to live by.

"Menzel, however, chose to do the exact opposite and judge students, parents, and teachers by the color of their skin," they wrote. "This is unacceptable. And it is problematic that Menzel is still in this position leading a large school district."

A full copy of the letter released can be found here.