Update: BCPS Board of Education member Julie Henn reports on Facebook that: “The Board’s Building and Contracts committee voted unanimously to delay action on Contract JMI-604-18: Hardware, Software, and Services to Provide a One-to-One Device Program for Students and Staff until our next meeting on 3/20/18. Staff will still present to the Board on this contract this evening.”
March 5, 2018: The Baltimore County Board of Education is scheduled to vote Tuesday, March 6, on a new $140 million computer contract. But some members of the board, as well as local politicians, want to delay a vote on the new contract with Daly Computers.
They say it doesn’t make sense to commit to such a huge expenditure when there are so many questions about how BCPS awarded its contracts. The vote comes during the same week former superintendent Dallas Dance is scheduled to appear in court on charges he failed to disclose outside income that came from a firm that helps companies get contracts with school systems.
Additionally, some education advocates have said that BCPS’s plan to provide every student with a laptop will not yield benefits in line with the price tag.
In 2014, BCPS awarded a $205 million contract to Daly Computers in order to give all students laptops, which set out how the expenditures would be disbursed:
That means that BCPS should have spent $113 million through this school year. But according to the new contract proposal, it’s already spent $163 million ($50 million more than expected) and will spend $16 million more in the final months of this fiscal year, bringing the overage to $66 million.
BCPS board member Julie Henn, who is running for re-election this fall to represent the district that includes Towson, said she is concerned about the excess $66 million, and about “BCPS’ interactions and relationships with ed tech vendors and potential undue influence over purchasing.”
Julie Henn
“It is the Board’s responsibility to ensure that we are spending wisely — in the best interest of our students — not for the personal gain of those entrusted to lead our school system,” Henn said in an email.
A BCPS spokeswoman declined to comment on the contract or the expenditures, saying everything would be explained at the Tuesday meeting. The two-page contract proposal says:
“This contract will provide for approximately 133,000 student/teacher/staff devices, through a lease refresh program, in order to provide continued support of all BCPS instructional programs. In each of the next four years, devices will be leased for a four-year period, after which the vendor will be responsible for wiping hard drives and disposing of all devices at the end of the lease agreement. Administrators and teachers will receive new devices in the spring of 2018. Students in the elementary lighthouse schools and high school students will receive new devices in September 2018, while the remainder of student devices will roll out over the course of the next three years and remain in service for a four-year cycle.”
The new contract would replace the one signed in 2014.
Daly is a reseller of HP computers, and HP is a client of the Education Research & Development Institute (ERDI), which acts as a go-between to help its clients get contracts with school systems. Dance’s alleged failure to report income from ERDI was part of his indictment.
Interim Superintendent Verletta White also failed to disclose income from ERDI and said it was an “honest mistake.” She has not been charged with a crime.
There have been calls for an independent audit of BCPS, but it is not clear if or when that will happen.
Ann Miller
Board member Ann Miller said the new computer proposal “calls into question whether the new contract is needed due to the devices becoming obsolete, as the central office has purported, or whether they simply could not continue with the 2014 contract because they have recklessly overspent it. Additionally, the new contract also has a seven year term for devices which typically are phased out in four years. Are they using the long contract term in order to repeat the same pattern of overspending?”
She added that BCPS’ “central office has not even disclosed to the board which device they have selected.”
In an email to the full Board of Education, Councilman Wade Kach, whose district includes Timonium, urged members to reject the contract and put off any decision for at least a year. He cited not only the allegations of wrongdoing involving Dance, but also other needs that BCPS has.
Wade Kach
“As you are aware, BCPS struggles to keep facilities up to date. Many of our over 110,000 students attend spacious new schools. Some older schools, however, are overcrowded and require trailers as overflow classrooms. In some of the schools tap water runs brown. In addition, in budget documents, the district said it lacked the ‘dedicated resources’ for students with disabilities,” he wrote.
“It is never easy to establish spending priorities with limited resources. I believe we can reduce our financial commitment to STAT by revamping the program, while achieving our goal of improving academic performance.” Kach’s full email can be read here.
State Sen. Jim Brochin, who is running for County Executive, told The Baltimore Sun the vote should be delayed. Board member Kathleen Causey, as reported by the STAT-us blog, sent an email to board members and local politicians saying “I think this is rushing a major fiscal decision with no opportunity for all Board members to evaluate the many parameters of a complicated procurement that impacts the entire system. While I agree that developmentally appropriate, equitable, financially-sustainable and effective implementation of technology is beneficial for teaching and learning, I am not convinced that hurtling rapidly down a path set by the former resigned Superintendent is in the best interest of our students, teachers, staff and communities.”
News also broke over the weekend that a high-level BCPS official had been taking bribes. BCPS has said he was not involved in selecting the computer vendors.
-Kris Henry,
The Towson Flyer
Thank everyone, “The Power of the Press”.
Computers and laptops do not nurture students. This is a blatant attempt to carry on now indicted Dr. Dallas Dance’s failed initiatives.
This is a direct affront to every taxpayer in Baltimore County.
This article is extremely misleading. There are false allegations regarding ERDI. They do NOT exist to help clients achieve contracts with school
Districts. ERDI is purely about research and development, and has been since 1985.
From the New York Times: Another way tech companies reach superintendents is to pay private businesses that set up conferences or small-group meetings with them. Superintendents nationwide have attended these events.
One prominent provider is the Education Research and Development Institute, or ERDI, which regularly gathers superintendents and other school leaders for conferences where they can network with companies that sell to schools.
ERDI offered several service levels this year, according to a membership rate card obtained by The Times. A $13,000 fee for Bronze membership entitles a company to one confidential meeting, where executives can meet with five school leaders to discuss products and school needs. Diamond members could pay $66,000 for six such meetings. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/technology/silicon-valley-baltimore-schools.html
How Joseph Wise and David Sundstrom became owners of ERDI. The Christiana Wilmington DE school system fired first time Superintendent Joseph Wise for questionable spending and huge deficits in 2006, only three years after he graduated from Broad Superintendents Academy. Wise was fired for his spending habits again in 2007 from his Duval County (Fla.) Schools Chief of Staff position along with Superintendent, David Sundstrom. Then they created Atlantic Research Partners that same year. Wise first encountered SUPES owner Gary Solomon in the late 2000s while he and Sundstrom worked for Edison Schools, a national operator of private schools that used SUPES’ PROACT Search to help with hiring. In June 2015, Atlantic acquired parts of SUPES Academy. SUPES was part of a multimillion-dollar kickback scandal that sent the former owners and Chicago School CEO to prison. Wise had worked for SUPES before co-founding Atlantic. SUPES was renamed National Superintendent Academy. Sundstrom left in March 2017 to co-own ERDI. Wise joined Sundstrom shortly after. They are both governing Board Members of ERDI.
http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/2011/03/joseph-wise-broad-superintendents.html
These are lies. ERDI did not acquire parts of SUPES. Consider of source of this “blog” cited before buying into this misleading and false information.
ERDI: Paying School Admin to Review Ed Products that Those Admin Could Then Purchase… (?) – deutsch29
https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/erdi-paying-school-admin-to-review-ed-products-that-those-admin-could-then-purchase/
“Both Atlantic and ERDI have ties to two men – David Sundstrom and Joseph Wise.
Sundstrom and Wise were both founders of Atlantic. Sundstrom left in March to co-own ERDI. Wise was said to join shortly after. Both are now listed as ERDI governing board members on ERDI’s website. …
Sundstrom, Wise and Atlantic have been part of past controversies in education. In June 2015, Atlantic acquired parts of a company called The SUPES Academy, a training program for principals and superintendents. SUPES was part of a multimillion-dollar kickback scandal that sent former owners Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas and former Chicago Public Schools CEO and SUPES consultant Barbara Byrd-Bennett to prison for seven years, 18 months and four years, respectively.
Sundstrom said Atlantic acquired parts of SUPES in an agreement stipulating that it wasn’t involved in any criminal misdoings. About six months later, Sundstrom said he and Wise rescinded the deal after the kickback scandal was revealed. Sundstrom said he was the victim of a misrepresentation.
In 2007, Sundstrom and Wise were asked to leave their positions as chief of staff and superintendent, respectively, at Duval County (Fla.) schools. Sundstrom explained that he and Wise were in positions of transformation for an academically challenged school district.”