Claypool seeks $ 2.5 million more for CPS consultants
Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool now is asking to spend up to $ 28 million on consultants for the broke district, including his longtime associates who’ve seen their billings increase even as district spending on consultants dropped.
The $ 2.5 million increase Claypool will put before the Board of Education on Wednesday is needed “to continue key organizational process improvement, cost efficiency and governance strategies” performed by companies including three consulting firms with close ties to him and to the tight circle of aides he brought to CPS from other public agencies.
Sources told the Sun- Times that school board members had been asked to consider a larger addition of $ 8.5 million during closed- door briefings held earlier this month. Top Claypool aides Andrell Holloway, who oversees audits, and Ronald DeNard, head of finance, made those asks, according to briefing documents.
Crowe Horwath LLP, KPMG LLP and UCG Associates have seen their billings skyrocket from next to nothing since Claypool took the helm of CPS in 2015, in the wake of a contracting scandal that imprisoned the former CEO. The firms have performed such professional services as IT projects, the “financial transformation of Diverse Learning Initiatives” or changes to special education spending, and a variety of audits.
Holloway used to work at KPMG before Claypool hired him at the Chicago Transit Authority; DeNard considers UCG’s chief financial officer a friend and at least three Crowe Horwath consultants — who moved into offices at CPS — had worked with Claypool and donated to his political campaigns.
The proposal the school board will consider asks for up to $ 1 million more toward a comprehensive annual financial report CPS needs for bond sales that fall under DeNard’s purview, and up to $ 700,000 more to continue Holloway’s schools audits.
It also seeks $ 800,000 for “software architecture technical expertise” for the GoCPS universal enrollment website championed by chief education officer Janice Jackson.
The board has authorized some 43 companies to perform professional services work, and CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner wouldn’t say which will benefit from this latest extension.
She said Crowe Horwath has previously prepared the district’s comprehensive annual financial report in recent years with help from other firms. Invoices reviewed by the Sun- Times show that Crowe and KPMG have handled school audits. Some of their associates have been paid upwards of $ 300 an hour for work at CPS.
“Like nearly every other large organization, CPS relies on the expertise and effort of outside consultants to supplement existing staff, provide expert guidance, ensure that the district complies with financial requirements, and help drive organizational change to improve services and operate as efficiently as possible,” she said in an email.
This is the third time district officials asked to raise the spending ceiling on its professional services work that started as $ 14 million on Nov. 1, 2015, and was supposed to last until Oct. 31, 2018. An $ 11.5 million extension was approved a year ago, though Gail Ward abstained.
The Chicago Teachers Union renewed its calls for Claypool’s ouster.
“The CPS CEO is using the district as his personal patronage machine while the exposès pile up at the expense of our most vulnerable students — like those who rely on special education services,” staff coordinator Jackson Potter said. “We raised the alarm about Forrest Claypool when more than 98 percent of members voting in a CTU ‘ no confidence’ referendum registered their complete lack of faith in him. Had the mayor followed our lead, we would now have more resources for classrooms and special education services that are currently going into the deep pockets of Claypool’s cronies.”