New DPS contract sparks concerns

District administrator used to work at book publishing company that won schools deal

Marisa Schultz / 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."

Byrd-Bennett was the former superintendent in residency for Harcourt School Publishers starting in March 2006. The company did not provide details on her salary or term of service, but Mrozowski said her role was to work with school superintendents and principals on professional development and training.

Steve Conn, a DPS teacher and union activist, was outraged the district would spend $40 million with Byrd-Bennett's former company for high-tech products he believes are "questionable" in boosting student achievement. Meanwhile, teachers are being laid off, some children don't have textbooks and Bobb is asking for $45 million in teachers union concessions, Conn said.

"It's just so deplorable and outrageous and wrong," he said.

The contract is signed by Bobb and runs from Aug. 31, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2010.

Josef Blumenfeld, vice president of corporate communications at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, said the company is proud to win the contract and implement a teaching model that will help schoolchildren. The publisher is investing in a 13-person project management office in Detroit to help launch the products.

"We are full-blown committed to making this work and benefit the students in Detroit," Blumenfeld said.

The Learning Village program will drive student achievement by measuring how well students are learning, he said. The program creates exercises to address the gaps and provides teachers with strategies for improving instruction.

mschultz@detnews.com (313) 222-2310