Memphis candidate no longer in running for the ASD job

The lone Memphis candidate for the job of superintendent of the Tennessee Achievement School District is no longer in the running.

Keith Sanders did not pass his reference checks, Tennessee Department of Education spokeswoman Sara Gast said in an email.

Gast said Sanders was going to be a finalist for the job, and the department was in the middle of coordinating a full day of interviews with him and members of the ASD community.

“However, as our search firm conducted additional reference checks and searches, numerous concerns were raised, and earlier this week our search firm shared with him that they could not recommend to the department that he move forward,” Gast said.

A letter from the search firm, The K12 Search Group, outlined previously published allegations of cheating, ethics violations and financial mismanagement against the charter school in New Orleans that Sanders co-founded.

“I think it’s reasonable to believe that both Keith and his co-founder left amidst and because of these allegations,” the search firm’s president and founder, Mollie Mitchell, wrote. “However, no charges were ever filed.”

The school also received an “F” grade from the state, and one reference, according to the search firm, said, “It was maybe the worst school I’ve ever seen in any context anywhere. There was no learning happening.”

Sanders, who is the CEO of the Keith Sanders Group consulting firm and previous chief officer of school turnaround for the Delaware Department of Education, said the allegations of improper conduct are “flat-out lies.”

“We never cheated on a test,” Sanders said, and his co-founder handled the finances. Sanders was the school’s principal.

Sanders said the school was doing “extremely well” and “there were some people who just could not take it.”

He said he doesn’t deny the state gave the school a failing grade, but although achievement scores were low, the students had shown growth. He accused the state of holding him to a different standard than it holds its own schools, which are rewarded for growth even if overall achievement lags.

The letter to the state also notes concerns from those Sanders worked with in Delaware.

“I am told (and I think you’ve observed) that Keith is a persuasive speaker with a likeable style who connects well with the people doing the work on the ground,” Mitchell wrote. “However, references in Delaware reported that Keith was not effective in building systems to implement the work at a statewide level in his role.”

Sanders said his removal from the process is “all political.”

“(Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen) knows that I’m the best person for the job,” he said. “I know I’m the best person for the job.”

Sanders said McQueen gave him the chance to say he withdrew his nomination but he didn’t want that.

“I don’t want people to think I quit on kids in Memphis,” he said.

The state named Sanders as one of four candidates for the job earlier this month. McQueen was in Memphis on Wednesday with Stephen Osborn, one of the other candidates.

Osborn had a full slate of community meetings in Frayser.

McQueen said Osborn was a finalist, and at least one more would be named. But the list of possibilities could also grow, she said, as others have reached out about the job in the last several weeks.

The school district, which intervenes in struggling schools, operates mostly in Memphis, but has never had a leader from the city.

Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer. pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.