The past employment record of a Chandler charter school teacher involved with a former student jailed for murder reveals disciplinary action by the Tempe Union High School District.
Tamara Hofmann’s personnel file shows the former Marcos de Niza teacher received a formal reprimand, a 10-day suspension without pay and job reassignment for an alleged inappropriate relationship with murder suspect Sixto Balbuena when he was her student.
The 20-year-old Balbuena is being held on a $100,000 bond on suspicion of stabbing one of Hofmann’s students at El Dorado High School in Chandler.
Chandler police allege that Friday morning, Balbuena drove to Hofmann’s house from California and called her cell phone. When she didn’t answer, he entered her unlocked house, grabbed a knife, found Hofmann and 18-year-old Samuel Valdivia, later fatally stabbing him.