Christopher Peak Photo
The Board of Ed sets its goals.
School board members recommended paying consultants over $15,000 to facilitate their next Board of Education retreat — right before another consultant reported that the district is still facing an $8.89 million deficit this fiscal year.
The consultants’ messages were delivered to a Board of Education’s Finance & Operations Committee most recent meeting at Celentano School, where members accepted over $7.73 million in new grant funding, gave the thumbs-up to $298,000 in contract spending (including for the retreat facilitator), and put one $581,000 agreement on hold.
Facing a budget crunch, the two finance committee members present, Jamell Cotto and Darnell Goldson, put tough questions to almost every presenter about how contractors were picked and what results were expected — except when it came to the consultant for their own board.
They asked why Lincoln Bassett wanted to pay teachers stipends for after-school tutoring, rather than find college kids. They asked how many internships a new district-wide vocational training coordinator would create. And they tabled a half-million-dollar contract to develop magnet school marketing materials because they wanted to see enrollment numbers from the past three years.
But the board members didn’t ask any questions at the committee meeting, which was held last Monday evening, about Leverett Consulting, the New Jersey-based contractor who’d be paid $15,650 in general funds to facilitate their next retreat, scheduled for Nov. 17.
The item was listed on the agenda as “for information only.” Because the agreement is for less than $20,000, Superintendent Carol Birks can automatically enter the contract without the board’s approval.
Joe Rodriguez and Ed Joyner, at the July retreat.
In a memo to the Finance & Operations Committee, Birks called the expense was justified because the consultant’s fees seemed “reasonable and consistent with other contractors.”
The money will pay two consultants: Larry Leverett and Kaili Sanderson.
Leverett previously worked as a superintendent for 15 years in Greenwich and two New Jersey cities, and in 2014, he chaired the transition team for Hartford’s incoming superintendent, Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, Birks’s former boss.
Sanderson previously worked as the managing program director for the Teach for America’s New Jersey chapter, and she’s now a professor at American University.
The two consultants say they will need to put in a full week’s work to prepare for the Board of Ed’s one-day retreat. They charge $118.75 an hour.
Leverett submitted a budget that included a two-hour conference call to begin planning ($475), a day-and-a-half review to look over the district’s documents ($2,8250), another two-hour conference call to set the agenda ($475), a three-day session to hammer out the retreat ($5,700), a day-and-a-half review to edit the superintendent’s presentations ($2,850).
He also requested $1,400 for travel and lodging to cover the trip to New Haven.
At the retreat, the consultants said they plan to generate feedback for the superintendent on her recommended district goals, develop a strategy for ongoing monitoring of those goals, and finalize the board’s own goals for itself.
Leverett also offered additional follow-up support after the retreat for two on-site days with the superintendent, top central office administrators and school board leadership.
Darnell Goldson, Frank Redente and Jamell Cotto, at the July retreat.
In May and July, Leverett hosted two other board retreats. Over those days of candid discussion, the board smoothed over a strained relationship with the new superintendent who they’d been “undermining,” as one board member put it.
That happened most visibly when five school board members ripped into Birks for sending dismissal letters to 1,153 part-time employees, calling the move a “stumble” and ordering her to reverse the decision at a press conference where Birks was noticeably absent.
Emails later revealed that board members had also been giving Birks directions behind the scenes, overturning her decision to suspend a student from going to prom and telling her how to manage her time.
At the most recent retreat, the board members said that they wanted to reach a balanced budget with regular financial reporting, set academic goals with regular data reviews, streamline operations, build talent and engage families and other stakeholders.
The board hasn’t formally revisited those goals at any of its subsequent meetings, though they did hear presentations about the budget deficit and standardized-test scores.
Asked why the district needed a five-figure consultant for its retreat, Goldson said he thought it was an important “follow-up” from the board’s last retreat, “assisting us with developing board goals and district goals for the next year.” Still, he added, the price is “a little higher than expected.”
Goldson said he thinks that the contract might be pulled before the full board meeting on Tuesday because an illness at the consultancy means the work won’t be finished in time for a mid-November retreat.