Iowa City superintendent’s consulting questioned

IOWA CITY — Several board members for the Iowa City Community School District say the district should consider a policy requiring administrators to publicly disclose their outside consulting activities.

This is after schools Superintendent Stephen Murley was reported to have moonlighted for a private educational company connected to a kickback scandal in Chicago Public Schools.

In that scandal, Chicago schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting she rigged $23 million of contracts for the SUPES Academy and a related organization, Synesi Associates, with plans to get a 10 percent kickback, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Iowa City had hired Synesi in 2011 to do a $60,000 operations review. One year later, Murley started training Chicago schools principals for SUPES, according to the Sun-Times. He was one of many superintendents across the country who started consulting for the sister companies after their own districts awarded bids, the newspaper reported.

Murley told the Iowa City school board in an email this week he had no knowledge of SUPES activities beyond the teaching he did with administrators.

'I believe that the hundreds of superintendents from around the country who worked with the program feel disappointed and betrayed by the leaders of the Chicago Public Schools and the SUPES Academy who engaged in the illegal acts,' Murley wrote.

Murley, hired to lead the Iowa City school district in 2010, is allowed 10 days of discretionary leave each year for consulting or other professional activities 'mutually agreed upon by the superintendent and board president,' according to his employment contract signed July 30.

The school board president must approve any outside activities for which Murley is paid, the contract states.

'He provides me an update annually about what he's doing on his discretionary days,' board President Chris Lynch said Thursday. 'I know the days, the company and generally what he's doing.'

Murley does not report how much he's paid for outside activities, Lynch said. So far, the district has not made those records available to the public.

School board Member Chris Liebig said he expects the board to have a discussion soon about whether school administrators should disclose outside activities.

'I do think we probably need to talk about a policy on outside work, disclosure and prior conflicts,' Liebig said. Whether this disclosure would be exempted from Iowa's Open Records law as a personnel record needs more review, he added.

Board member Phil Hemingway said he will request the discussion be put on the Nov. 24 agenda.

'We've got a full-time job here in Iowa City, but we've got a full-time employee trying to solve problems elsewhere,' Hemingway said.

Murley's three-year contract provides a $205,500 salary, $26,715 in deferred compensation and a $7,150 vehicle allowance for the first year, with the amounts renegotiated each year. The contract also promises $6,000 more per year if Murley earns his doctoral degree.

'If he wants to get a $6,000 raise, all he has to do is get himself his Ph.D,' Hemingway said. 'The community is paying for his education.'

Board member LaTasha DeLoach said she wants to learn more about Murley's consulting work before deciding whether it's worthwhile to the district. 'I do think it's important we as a board know what's going on,' she said.

Allowing superintendents discretionary leave for consulting and other for-pay professional activities is common in Iowa, said Galen Howsare, deputy executive director for the Iowa Association of School Boards.

'It's good PR for the district you're working in,' said Howsare, who occasionally was paid for speaking engagements when he worked as associate superintendent for the West Des Moines school district.

'Typically you tell your supervisor,' he said. 'This is the first I've heard of anybody requiring this sort of (public) disclosure.'

The Chicago Public Schools scandal isn't the only case where school administrators were cozy with for-profit education companies.

The FBI is investigating emails between former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy and executives with Pearson a year before the Los Angeles district started a bidding process to give all children there iPads. Apple and Pearson were chosen as the vendors.

Superintendents generally have great discretion for school district spending.

In Iowa City, Murley may execute contracts or agreements under $25,000 without board approval. Splitting orders to avoid the limit is not allowed under the governance model used by the district.

Steve Murley Contract