NEWS

DOJ to vet all three MCSB candidates

Bonnie Bolden

bbolden@thenewsstar.com

Monroe City Schools Superintendent Brent Vidrine said the U.S. Department of Justice asked for information to vet all three of the candidates proposed for two positions required by a consent decree the district entered in December.

Vidrine said DOJ representatives requested the information early in the week. One candidate, Educational Planning Group, already had been inspected.

At Dec. 15 and Jan. 7 meetings, the Educational Planning Group was hired by the school board to fill both the independent court monitor position and act as experts to revise the medical magnet program offered at Carroll High School.

Educational Planning Group was hired at the Dec. 15 board meeting with a 4-2 vote. Jennifer Haneline, Vickie Dayton and Bill Willson said they had not been notified that the board would be hiring someone at at at that meeting. Board Vice President Brenda Shelling proposed taking all four agenda items pertaining to the consent decree as one action and added the Educational Planning Group while making the motion. Haneline left the meeting before the vote and later said the way the motion was constructed made it seem like she would have to approve hiring the Educational Planning Group or vote against desegregation, which she supports.

Board President Rodney McFarland later said the board would revote after concerns about fairness were expressed.

Educational Planning Group is owned by William McElroy, owner of the M3A Architecture firm that is developing the new Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, the Barkdull Faulk Elementary project and the Wossman High School field house. That information was not stated to the entire board at the Dec. 15 meeting. At the Jan. 7 meeting, Dwayne Ludley, a member of the public who addressed the board, said McElroy had given a $250 campaign contribution to McFarland during his 2014 school board campaign.

At the Jan. 7 meeting, two additional proposals were presented to the board.

A group of University of Louisiana at Monroe faculty members submitted a plan to fill both positions. Leonard Clark, director of the graduate school, would have acted as the independent court monitor, and Jessica Dolecheck, coordinator of the school of health professions, would have been the lead expert to revise the Carroll High School Medical Magnet program.

New Orleans-based WYRevolution also submitted a proposal for the consent decree positions and addressed the board via phone. The four-person team is minority-owned, and members have experience dealing with consent decrees and school recruiting efforts.

Nycole Campbell-Lewis, one of three members of the Educational Planning Group, said the organization does not have experience working on a consent decree but has decades of combined experience in the medical and education fields. She said the group has existed for 20 years. According to documents filed at the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office, Educational Planning Group LLC was formed Feb. 3, 2011, dissolved Dec. 8, 2015 and reinstated Dec. 14, 2015.

Shelling again made the motion to hire the Educational Planning Group as the independent court monitor after members of the public and Superintendent Brent Vidrine had requested that the board hire the ULM group. Shelling's motion passed 4-3 with a split along racial lines.

The decision to hire Educational Planning Group was met with public outcry, and the ULM contingent left the meeting.

Shelling later made separate motions to hire Educational Planning Group to fill the position jointly with the ULM contingent after the ULM group had left the meeting. Both motions passed, though some board members questioned whether ULM would be amenable to the arrangement.

On Jan. 8, ULM announced that it would not be entering the partnership.

On Monday, Eric Pani, vice president of academic affairs at ULM, said his group left the meeting after the first vote because they thought their business had been concluded, not as a statement on the board's actions.

"Given the information that came out at the meeting concerning the selected company, we did not feel comfortable proceeding in collaboration with them," Pani said. "Nothing against the three ladies who are the contractors, but we cannot expose the university to a potentially negative situation and enough information was presented about the company that I had concerns.

"We have a long history of working with education faculty from Jackson State University and have had successful projects in the past with them. However, the consent decree is very important to Monroe City schools, and we do not feel comfortable being involved without being the lead group under these circumstances."

He said they appreciated the support given to the university's group, and they will "continue to seek opportunities to collaborate with the schools in the area so that our entire educational system improves. Should conditions change with respect to this situation, we will re-evaluate our position."

Carrick Inabnett, vice president of economic development for CenturyLink, spoke at the Jan. 7 meeting and urged the board to take the time to thoroughly look at candidates' credentials and choose the best fit for the district based on qualifications and experience.

On Jan. 8, Inabnett said he'd contacted the Department of Justice about the process used to hire the Educational Planning Group after hearing concerns in the community about the corporation's independence and the consultants' qualifications. He said he asked the DOJ to carefully vet the group that will be hired.

On Monday, he said further information revealed that the DOJ met with the Educational Planning Group on Jan. 5. He reiterated his concerns to the DOJ. He said he sent a letter late Monday stating his concerns.

On Friday, Clark said no one at the university has heard from the DOJ regarding the consent decree positions.

Follow the story: