Questions raised over superintendent's consulting work

Iowa City Community School District Superintendent Stephen Murley worked for an educational training company at the center of a Chicago corruption scandal, raising questions locally about the district's contracts with affiliates of the firm.

Murley said Tuesday he has been disappointed to learn about the corruption allegations against Wilmette, Ill.-based SUPES Academy, for whom he worked as an instructor since 2012.

Last month the former chief executive of the Chicago public school system, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for steering $23 million in contracts to SUPES Academy, her former employer.

"Needless to say, I'm extremely disillusioned with the outcome there," Murley said. "My role was as a teacher, so I really didn't have any connection or knowledge of things that were going on above my pay grade, if you will, in that organization. To find that out through the news like everyone else was extremely disillusioning."

SUPES Academy and an associated business, Evanston, Ill.-based Synesi Associates, were charged along with Byrd-Bennett in a federal indictment in October, as were the respective owners of the companies, Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas.

Murley, who has his own consulting business called SFM Consulting LLC that's registered as a corporation with the state, said he began work in November 2012 as an instructor for SUPES Academy, a now defunct company that provided professional development to school administrators, to train Chicago Public Schools leaders.

In the wake of the scandal, the academy was acquired by another company, Atlantic Research Partners, which has rebranded the program the National Superintendents Academy. Murley is currently listed on the National Superintendents Academy's website as one of eight faculty members for 2015-16.

"I did my due diligence before I agreed to do any additional work with them," Murley said of the new organization under Atlantic Research.

The Iowa City Community School Board hired Synesi Associates to conduct an audit of its finances and operations in fall 2011, a year before Murley said he began working for SUPES. The $59,995 Synesi contract was approved by the board after the district received two proposals, according to meeting minutes.

The district also hired PROACT, another company affiliated with SUPES' ownership, to recruit candidates for its vacant director of equity and staffing position filled by Kingsley Botchway last November. The school board in early 2015 approved an $8,000 district check to PROACT.

Murley's name surfaced in recent days in a report by the Better Government Association and Catalyst Chicago, an independent education magazine, which highlighted the fact that dozens of superintendents and other high-ranking schools officials from districts across the country had moonlighted for SUPES.

Murley was named in the report as one of several officials who had both worked as a paid consultant for the company and whose districts had awarded contracts to either SUPES or Synesi.

School board member Tom Yates has been following the Chicago schools scandal and said the fact that the companies involved "were up to their hips in shady stuff" should cause districts around the country to ask whether they had ties to the parties involved.

Yates, who was selected to his first term this fall, is uncertain whether the board will take up the matter, though he said he could foresee a discussion of conflict of interest clauses in contracts. He also has broader questions about the extent of Murley's outside consulting work.

"I would put it in a question like this: Does a superintendent of a district this size not have enough to do?" Yates said. "And do we not pay him a comparable salary to other superintendents? That would be my question."

School board member Phil Hemingway also said he has concerns about the superintendent and other full-time district employees potentially focusing on consulting rather than their work in the district. He said he wants to remove language from the superintendent's contract that allows him to conduct outside consulting work.

"We've got enough issues here to keep someone who is interested active and engaged," he said.

Murley's contract with ICCSD states that while the superintendent shall devote his "full time and due diligence" to the district, he may serve as a consultant, lecture, engage in writing or speaking activities, or other activities so long as they don't impede his duties as superintendent.

Murley's contract also grants him up to 10 paid personal leave days for personal business, consulting, professional activities, community events or other activities "that will contribute to the betterment of the district." The contract requires the school board president to sign off on the paid personal leave days.

The school board president must also approve any employment, consulting service or other activities involving pay on the part of the superintendent, according to the contract.

Current president Chris Lynch said Murley keeps him and vice president Brian Kirschling informed about consulting work, but he said the superintendent is not required to disclose this information publicly. He said Murley's consulting work typically involves instruction and professional development among superintendents.

"Based on what I've seen, it's been pretty complementary work … pretty applicable to his current job," Lynch said.

Lynch said news circulating about the Chicago schools scandal and Synesi and SUPES raises concerns, but he doesn't think the board needs to take any immediate action.

"We'll adjust our relationships based on what's going on," he said.

Murley said he also performs outside work with the American Association of School Administrators, a professional organization for superintendents, where he guides administrators in their first years of leading a district. Murley said much of the work he does outside the district occurs on weekends and doesn't affect his duties in Iowa City.

"I try be very strategic about anything that might pull me away from the office and the work I do here," Murley said. "... I'm an educator at heart. I started as a teacher and love teaching. I've worked with students of all ages — children and adults. And although I love the challenges and opportunities that school administration presents, I really love teaching. And when I find opportunities to teach, when they work out, I get a lot out of it. It's an opportunity to give back to aspiring and sitting administrators."

Mary Murphy, a district parent who blogs about Iowa City schools, said when top officials work for and give business to a company or related companies, the situation presents an "appearance of impropriety." She said the thinks it was wrong for the district to use PROACT for its equity director search.

Murphy said she wants the school board to adopt policies regulating central office administrators' outside employment and conflicts of interest to increase transparency in the district's dealings with vendors.

Murphy said she also has concerns about the superintendent's contract allowing him to consult during discretionary leave.

“I think our district is busy enough that we need a full-time superintendent," she said.

Murley said he had an internal conversation with the district's administrative team and board officers this spring regarding the district working with companies that have ties with people in the Iowa City organization. He said the district will be "diligent and careful making those selections" in the future.

He said the contracts with Synesi and PROACT were the only ICCSD agreements in place with businesses affiliated with SUPES.

"In hindsight … that's something we'll ensure we're not doing — if there's someone inside our organization doing any work," Murley said. "So many of the education companies today have multiple arms of their organizations. They're going through the same consolidations you see in about any industry out there, and it's important for us to make sure we're paying attention to the those consolidations."

Reach Josh O'Leary at joleary@press-citizen.com or 887-5415, and follow him on Twitter at @JD_OLeary.