New DPS contract sparks concerns detnews.com The Detroit News:
"A $40 million contract with a book publishing company has resurrected concerns over Detroit Public Schools making business deals with former employers of its administrators.
DPS contracted with Boston's Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for a Web-based teaching product called Learning Village, and for curriculum, training and books. Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the district's chief academic and accountability officer, used to work for Harcourt School Publishers.
The contract is the largest single deal ever for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the oldest publishers in the nation."
The agreement follows Bobb's hiring of Public Financial Management Inc., where he was a part-time consultant, under a $972,000, no-bid contract. (The Broad Foundation is paying $450,000 of that contract.) The Philadelphia company was contracted to work on DPS finances.
Byrd-Bennett wasn't available for comment, but DPS spokeswoman Jennifer Mrozowski said the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt contract was competitively bid and the publisher was chosen over the two others that gave the district proposals because it had the highest evaluation from a panel of senior academic staff. Byrd-Bennett was not on this panel, Mrozowski said.
"She was not a part of the bid process or the selection with this company or any of the others," Mrozowski said. "Because she has had relationships with so many (education companies), she deliberately does not participate in the process."
"A $40 million contract with a book publishing company has resurrected concerns over Detroit Public Schools making business deals with former employers of its administrators.
DPS contracted with Boston's Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for a Web-based teaching product called Learning Village, and for curriculum, training and books. Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the district's chief academic and accountability officer, used to work for Harcourt School Publishers.
The contract is the largest single deal ever for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the oldest publishers in the nation."
The agreement follows Bobb's hiring of Public Financial Management Inc., where he was a part-time consultant, under a $972,000, no-bid contract. (The Broad Foundation is paying $450,000 of that contract.) The Philadelphia company was contracted to work on DPS finances.
Byrd-Bennett wasn't available for comment, but DPS spokeswoman Jennifer Mrozowski said the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt contract was competitively bid and the publisher was chosen over the two others that gave the district proposals because it had the highest evaluation from a panel of senior academic staff. Byrd-Bennett was not on this panel, Mrozowski said.
"She was not a part of the bid process or the selection with this company or any of the others," Mrozowski said. "Because she has had relationships with so many (education companies), she deliberately does not participate in the process."