Official’s Job May Be Conflict of Interest
By AMY JETER AND HARRY MINIUM
By Amy Jeter and Harry Minium
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK
City Councilwoman Daun S. Hester has been helping a company solicit a potentially multi million-dollar contract from the school division despite lukewarm interest from the superintendent.
Because council members appoint the School Board in Norfolk, if Community Education Partners pays Hester more than $10,000 in one year, then a contract between the company and the school division would violate Virginia’s conflict-of-interest law.
In that case, the School Board could not legally hire Community Education Partners, City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said.
Hester said Tuesday that she has worked for CEP for about five months. She would not say how much she is paid.
“I wasn’t aware it was a potential conflict,” she said. “I don’t think about stuff like that. Maybe I should. … I hope I haven’t messed up this opportunity for our children.” She said she plans to consult Pishko today.
CEP is a 12-year-old company based in Nashville, Tenn., that runs schools for disruptive and low-performing students in public school divisions, including Richmond. In material prepared for the School Board, the company says that in Richmond, student fights on campus dropped 78 percent in one year. Its program in Orange County, Fla., boosted the number of students promoted to the next grade.
However, in other cities, the company has drawn criticism for the amount of student violence and for teachers who lack training, and at least three school divisions have canceled or dropped their contracts, according to published reports.
T he Norfolk school division runs its own alternative education programs with help from Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs. CEP hopes to persuade school officials to privatize those services. A representative is scheduled to make a presentation to the School Board tonight .
In Norfolk, it costs an average of $3.5 million a year to run Madison Career Center/Alternative School and the Coronado School. The school division also pays a portion of the costs for the SECEP programs that operate out of two other campuses.
A school division committee has been studying several options over the past few months, and employees have traveled to Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Henrico County to study what they provide.
That committee is expected to present its recommendation – which doesn’t include hiring an outside company – to the School Board in January.
Superintendent Stephen C. Jones said he learned of CEP from another superintendent. He talked with a salesperson and another colleague but decided he wanted the division to continue providing alternative education . Hester and others persuaded him to visit a CEP school in Richmond with other Norfolk school officials.
“I wasn’t all that impressed with what I saw in Richmond,” Jones said. “I said this to Daun: ‘It really made me accelerate my efforts to see if we could put together a Norfolk program that would be equal to or better than theirs.’
“
Hester said she doesn’t like that idea. She worked for 22 years in the Norfolk school system, including as a director of an alternative school, and now runs her own education consulting company.
“Speaking as a former Norfolk Public Schools employee, we say we can do things – we can do things ourselves,” Hester said. “And my response has always been to Dr. Jones, ‘But we haven’t.’
“
O fficials made five trips to CEP schools in Richmond, Orlando and Atlanta – the most recent last Friday – and Hester was present for four of them, according to two school officials. Three School Board members each visited a school: Barry Bishop, Jim Driggers and Billy Cook. Hester said she has spoken with them but has not pressured anyone to hire CEP. “I have tried to provide them with a different option,” she said. “And if they keep their eyes open and pay attention to the data, they will realize it’s a good option for the children.”
Driggers said Hester’s status wouldn’t affect his vote.
“My sincere feelings are that Daun would not exercise any undue influence on us,” he said. “The fact that she’s involved in it leads me to believe they’re above-board.”
Kirk Schroder, a former president of the Virginia Board of Education who now works as a lawyer for CEP, said Tuesday that the company often hires consultants in school divisions they work with or want to work with.
“They’re obviously hiring people that are advising them on matters related to Norfolk and the dynamics in that community,” Schroder said.
He said consultants don’t get bonuses if the company ends up contracting with the school division. If CEP doesn’t get the deal, though, consultants’ services are often no longer needed, he said.
Hester said she also works for CEP in other cities, but she wouldn’t say which ones.
Jones said two other companies have expressed an interest in running alternative education programs in Norfolk. If the School Board opts to look at outside companies, he will encourage them to formally solicit proposals.
Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
improving alternative schools
Although Superintendent Stephen C. Jones says he is leery of outsourcing alternative schooling, Hester says the school division has had plenty of chances to improve in the past. the issue
If the company pays Hester more than $10,000 in one year, then a contract between the company and the school division would violate the state’s conflict-of-interest law. what happened
Norfolk Councilwoman Daun S. Hester, left, has been lobbying school officials on behalf of a company seeking a contract with the city’s schools to privatize its alternative education programs.
(c) 2007 Virginian – Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.