Baldrige Award, Bought and Paid For

As I mentioned in a previous post I was at the Central Office last Wednesday (7/15/09) to inspect I-SS records. In addition to the invoices from JSA, I have also asked to inspect any consulting contracts entered into by the system between 2002 and the present. Most of those were basic contracts such as for architectural designs and the like.

However, there was one very interesting contract. There was a contract with Brennan Worldwide in Winston-Salem, NC. In that contract, I-SS agreed to pay Brennan Worldwide a minimum of $36,000.00 to assist with the 2008 Baldrige Application Project. Kay Fulp, I-SS Chief Financial Officer, signed the contract on Oct. 11, 2007. The objective of the contract was stated as follows: provide consulting, facilitation and writing expertise to support the I-SS in development of a 2008 Baldrige application that optimizes the evidence and effectively moves the district toward their goal to achieve a site visit and a value added feedback report.

Note that I said a minimum of $36,000.00 was to be paid to Brennan Worldwide. The contract stated that the fee of $36,000.00 would be for 18 days of consulting services and that any additional days required would be at the rate of $2,000.00 per day. There were no invoices with the contract so there was no way of knowing how many, if any, additional days were required. I plan on asking for those invoices.

Wait, there’s more. On the Brennan Worldwide web site, under the section titled What our clients are saying about us, Dr. Holliday is quoted as saying "The Baldrige application can be a very daunting task. Our organization utilized the Fast Track approach to develop our application. Thanks to Maryann Brennan’s support and insightful feedback, I-SS scored at the top 6% of all Baldrige applications in 2007 and was the only education organization to receive a site visit." Therefore, not only was Brennan Worldwide hired to help with the 2008 Baldrige Award application, they were also hired to help with the 2007 application. For some reason I-SS did not make that contract available for inspection. I wonder how much was paid that year? I will ask for that information as well.

I-SS has hired all these Baldrige ‘experts’ to work in the Central Office and still they have to hire an outside consultant to prepare the application for this glorious Baldrige Award. Remember I-SS was judged to be the best of the eleven schools that applied for the reward.

Brenda Clark, Consultant or Employee or Both?

In a previous post I mentioned that I-SS had hired Brenda Clark as a consultant, through Jim Shipley and Associates, and that she was later hired as an I-SS administrator. It turns out that Brenda Clark was already employed as an I-SS administrator when they hired her as a consultant. According to the invoice from Jim Shipley and Associates, Brenda Clark was hired, at the rate of $1,000.00 a day, for a two-day JSA training session that occurred on August 14 and 15, 2007. However according to the I-SS organizational chart, that was updated on July 18, 2007, Brenda Clark is listed as I-SS Chief Quality Officer. So, while already paying her a very generous salary as an I-SS administrator, I-SS turns around and pays her a thousand dollars a day as a consultant. Who in his right mind would approve of this? Oh, that’s right, Dr. Holliday approved it.