Conferences, consultants and Dr. Tawana Grover

Last year, the Cedar Rapids Community School District approved two separate contracts totaling $670,000 with Boston-based consulting firm District Management Group to analyze staffing procedures and implement a new model for the sake of a more “efficacious” workforce.

This past Spring, CRCSD cut over 200 staff positions, including about 77 teaching positions.

Despite those cuts, the district still is spending money on consultants. Some of those firms have ties to CRCSD Superintendent Dr. Tawana Grover.

  Buy Photo

There is no evidence that Grover is directly financially benefiting from CRCSD’s consultant expenditures. But in light of a multimillion dollar budget deficit and several other factors, they are deserving of examination.

CRCSD dilemma becomes a convention draw

At its upcoming annual summit for public school district leaders at a posh Times Square hotel in New York City, District Management Group will put on a seminar called “Reimagining Staffing to Build a Sustainable Future: How One District Used a $12 Million Budget Gap to Transform Its Approach to Staffing.”

That “one district,” of course, is Cedar Rapids. Attendees will learn how leaders used CRCSD’s big budget deficit “as a catalyst to completely overhaul its traditional staffing model, shifting from reactive cuts to proactive, strategic resource allocation.”

  Buy Photo

So DMGroup charged CRCSD big bucks for help with a problem. Then it’s charging other districts big bucks for an opportunity to boast about it. I’m not in a position to advise the Cedar Rapids school board, but … maybe they should ask for a discount.

A CRCSD spokesperson said they could not confirm whether district leaders are involved with the seminar, but did confirm that CRCSD leaders will attend the conference. DMGroup’s website indicates that six people from CRCSD are signed up: the superintendent and the district deputy, two top administrators and two board members.

Convention fees and meals for four CRCSD leaders — and lodging for the superintendent and one board member — will be comped via a provision in one of the contracts with DMGroup. Travel and other remaining expenses will presumably be paid by CRCSD.

Grover has crossed paths with DMGroup before

Grover’s LinkedIn profile lists District Management Group as an organization with which she has been affiliated since 2016, long before she was hired at CRCSD.

The self-identified link raises questions about preexisting ties between Grover the organization.

Responding to questions from The Gazette, Grover said she “first became aware of District Management Group” while she was employed at her previous district, Grand Island Public Schools (GIPS) in Nebraska.

Literature online, however, describes Grover as a member of the District Management Council, DMGroup’s professional development network for school district leaders, while she was still employed at Desoto Independent School District in Texas, where she worked prior to starting at GIPS.

“I have no personal affiliation with DMG and have never been an employee of the organization,” said Grover.

In the Fall 2023 issue of District Management Journal, DMGroup’s quarterly publication, Grover is recognized as a “Member on the Move” for her appointment as CRCSD superintendent. The CRCSD contract with DMGroup was approved less than six months after that issue was published.

Similar questions can be raised about preexisting professional ties between Grover and other groups with which CRCSD has contracted at significant expense.

‘Instructional Empowerment’ curriculum used by Grover elsewhere

Instructional Empowerment is the curriculum approved by CRCSD in early 2024, less than one year after Grover started with CRCSD. Now in its third year, the district has spent almost $5 million so far on the student-led academic teaming model created by Instructional Empowerment founder and CEO Michael D. Toth.

Previously, Toth’s model was implemented in three district schools in Grand Island while Grover was superintendent. GIPS was the first district in Nebraska to pilot the program.

Grover on several instances spoke favorably of adopting Instructional Empowerment during the Jan. 8, 2024 CRCSD board meeting and work session. She made no mention of her previous connection to Toth and his instructional model, for which she supplied commentary for a publication on the results seen at the Grand Island schools.

Consulting firms with previous ties to Dr. Tawana Grover hired by CRCSD

District Management Group

Equitable staffing analysis

Instructional Empowerment

Team-centered learning curriculum

Steele Dynamics

College & Career Pathways and Freshman Academies

Table Group Management

Executive leadership training

Grover told The Gazette, “I do not have a personal or financial affiliation with Instructional Empowerment or Michael Toth. My introduction to their work occurred in Grand Island, where the district’s progress during my tenure was later highlighted in one of their publications. I provided a brief acknowledgment reflecting the impact of that work. I have not received any compensation from the organization, nor have I attended any conferences with Instructional Empowerment in Cedar Rapids.”

Online information indicates that Grover was, however, a co-presenter with Toth for a seminar on team-centered instruction at a 2019 conference in Kansas City. She also contributed an endorsement for Toth’s 2019 book, “The Power of Student Teams.”

CRCSD’s three contracts with Instructional Empowerment total $4,746,697.39. The first contract includes 80 copies of Toth’s book.

Another consultant, another conference

As this column stated last week, Grover implemented a Career Pathways program at Grand Island Public Schools prior to coming to Cedar Rapids. GIPS had contracted with Steele Dynamics and its CEO, Dr. Jay Steele, the same consultant who presented a career readiness program proposal that would later become CRCSD’s College & Career Pathways and Freshman Academies programs.

CRCSD slowed the launch of both programs after strong pushback from parents.

Regarding her affiliation with Dr. Steele and Steele Dynamics, Grover told The Gazette that another GIPS administrator had already been engaged with the National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC), of which Steele is president, when she and Steele were introduced in Grand Island.

“I have no ongoing affiliation with him beyond those professional interactions,” she said.

At the same time, Grover also confirmed that she was a keynote speaker at the Steele-led NCAC’s annual conference in November 2024, for which she received a $1,000 dollar honorarium that she says she donated back to the district.

  Buy Photo

Grover told The Gazette that when she represents CRCSD at conferences, the costs are typically covered by the district “as part of my professional learning budget.” She did not specify if her attendance at the 2024 NCAC conference was in any other capacity beyond that of a keynote speaker.

Consulting expenditure totals: Who knows?

Grover also told The Gazette that during her final year in Grand Island, GIPS hired a firm called Table Group Consulting for “team development” training. Believing it impactful, she sought to establish similar training for the executive leadership team at CRCSD.

CRCSD approved its first contract with Table Group Consulting on May 8, 2023, just over one month after Grover was installed as superintendent. The contract for the 2023-2024 school year lists a quarterly consulting fee of $35,000 — “discounted” from $39,000 — plus materials fees ranging between $75 and $200 per person and travel expenses “at reasonable cost.”

The contract does not, however, list a total dollar amount. Nor does the second contract, which was approved in September 2024 for an additional school year with a quarterly consulting fee of $39,000 — now “discounted” from $54,000 due to CRCSD being a “legacy client.”

If you’ve made it this far, you might have noticed that Table Group Consulting’s standard quarterly fee jumped over 38% in one year. At least CRCSD is getting a discount somewhere.

The Gazette’s request for records from CRCSD for this article included transactions with Table Group Consulting for services approved under the 2023 contract, as well as transactions with Wixted & Company, a West Des Moines PR firm which the district engaged for its strategic communication plan.

CRCSD provided The Gazette with a copy of the 2023 Table Group Consulting agreement but did not provide any information on transactions.

As for Wixted & Company, CRCSD told The Gazette “[t]here is no agreement with Wixted & Company, they are on an hour by hour base.” The district did not provide any records of transactions for hourly billed services or any others.

Ironically, Wixted & Company’s consultations revealed that CRCSD “faces significant communication and trust challenges that threaten to undermine their educational mission.”

No kidding.

What do District Management Group, Instructional Empowerment, Steele Dynamics and Table Group Consulting all have in common? They’ve received hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars from the Cedar Rapids Community School District, and they all did prior business with institutions affiliated with Superintendent Dr. Tawana Grover.

The Gazette has found no direct financial ties between Grover and any of these organizations.

Nevertheless, the associations invite suspicion from CRCSD stakeholders that these consulting firms were hired based on factors other than the best interests of the CRCSD and its students.

If the new CRCSD board wants to act in those interests, it should start by consulting directly with families and staff about the problems with their executive leadership — and their own excesses.

The board won’t have to pay a dime for that feedback. It will just have to be willing to hear it.

Comments: 319-398-8266; althea.cole@thegazette.com