School Committee Approves Controversial Search Firm Contract in 5-2 Vote

The Cambridge School Committee retroactively approved a controversial $30,000 contract that has already been paid out to the search firm that led Cambridge Public Schools’ superintendent search process.

The firm, The Equity Process, will not receive a final payment outlined for the last phase of the search — superintendent training work — under a $40,000 contract that it was previously awarded without the knowledge of many School Committee members.

Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons and School Committee Vice Chair Caroline M.L. Hunter quietly initiated the $40,000 contract, made public after a records request by a parent, without informing other School Committee members. The discovery of the contract sparked further backlash around a search process that had already been heavily criticized for lacking transparency.

Cambridge initially paid The Equity Process $9,950 — just under the $10,000 threshold that would trigger a public bidding process — in May. Simmons and Hunter later initiated the approval of the second contract for $40,000 without notifying School Committee members, claiming that the scope of work for the firm had expanded beyond the initial agreement. But the additional contract, outlined into four phases, detailed work already covered in the original contract.

The $30,000 that Cambridge has already paid The Equity Process went toward work that the firm had agreed to perform under its original $9,950 contract with the city.

The School Committee delayed its formal vote on the contract after many questions surrounding its procurement went unanswered in a November meeting. Members were left wondering exactly how the contract was secured without School Committee approval and how much money The Equity Process had already been paid.

City Solicitor Megan B. Bayer attended Tuesday’s meeting to answer School Committee members’ questions regarding the contract’s procurement. She clarified that The Equity Process has already been paid for phases two and three of the additional contract — totalling $30,000 — but has not been paid for the final phase consisting of superintendent onboarding and training.

The second phase, costing Cambridge taxpayers $15,500, consisted of nothing that was not included in the initial, smaller contract. The only new work included in the third $14,500 phase included site visits and performance assessments. Cambridge paid The Equity Process on Oct. 16 and Oct. 21, just one day before a parent sent the contract in the listserv.

School Committee members voted 5-2 to retroactively approve the contract for the $30,000 already paid. Members Elizabeth C.P. Hudson and Richard Harding Jr. — two of the members most critical of the contract — voted against approval. The Equity Process will not receive the final $10,000 and will not complete the work outlined for this phase.

Bayer said that an “oversight” allowed the contract to be secured without a School Committee vote. She explained that she approves all city contracts and signed the second $40,000 contract. But said she did not check to confirm if the order showing the School Committee had approved the contract was actually attached after seeing that CPS Chief Financial Officer Ivy Washington had already signed it.

“I was relying on the fact that school department staff had also signed it, and so I did not pick up on that when I signed to approve as to form, and it otherwise was approved as the legal form,” Bayer said.

But Hudson and Harding were not entirely satisfied with that explanation, and said that the contract should never have been approved by city officials without a School Committee vote.

“The lawyers can’t miss this, right? The lawyers have to — that’s their job,” Harding said. “We’re looking for the legal expertise to look at it from that lens, to make sure that everything — the legality in the process — is adhered to.”

“Just want to be clear, I don’t think that that’s a small oversight,” Harding added. “This is not a stab at you, it’s just that I think this is at the most basic level what lawyers do, generally speaking.”

Bayer was still unable to answer many questions posed by the School Committee at Tuesday’s meeting, including whether or not any procurement laws were broken, when and by whom The Equity Process work was expanded, and what steps should be taken to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

To answer these questions, Bayer said that the city’s law department is currently conducting an internal investigation into how the contract was procured.

As part of the investigation, she said that the department is looking through documents and potentially having conversations with the city purchasing department, school department staff and “people involved in the process.”

Bayer said the timeline of the investigation is uncertain, adding that it will be finished after the new year.

—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.