The Colorado Board of Education on Friday denied a request by Adams County School District 14 to choose a new organization to oversee its operations after the district terminated its contract with MGT Consulting earlier this month.

Adams 14 School District accreditation restored, days after it was removed

State Board’s action was unanimous. Members indicated Adams 14 did not provide them with sufficient information, such as its forensic audit into MGT, to prove they had cause to terminate the contract.

“Part of the information needed to understand the situation has not been shared publicly or with us, which makes it difficult to come to a definition conclusion for who has ‘good cause’ and who is ‘at fault,’ said Education Commissioner Kathy Anthes in an email statement to The Denver Gazette late Friday. 

Instead, the state board opted to begin a process that’ll end with a hearing in April to determine the next steps for Adams 14, a district that has over 6,000 students. 

The process will include hearing from the public about the district’s future turnarounds and a report from the Independent State Review Panel on the status of student learning in Adams 14.

“Bottom line for me — as the commissioner — is that I want the students of Adams 14 to have the education and schooling they deserve,” Anthes said in a news release Friday afternoon. “And I’m not going to give up trying to get that for them. I don’t think the state board is either. But something different needs to be done.”

Joe Salazar, an attorney representing Adams 14, said he provided documents and information prior to Friday’s hearing.

“Leading up to today, I was filing a flurry of documents and pleadings,” Salazar said during an afternoon press conference in response to the state Board of Education’s decision. “We provided a long list of reasons that supported good cause.”

Salazar added the findings of the forensic audit has been withheld at the direction of the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office since its release could “comprise the integrity of the investigation.”

Ramona Lewis, the president of Adams 14 Board of Education, said the forensic audit found financial, instruction, ethical and legal issues regarding MGT’s oversight. However, Anthes said the state board was unaware of any investigation taking place, nor any reason documents should be withheld.

“We have been in touch with the DA’s office to confirm this,” she said.

In a statement, Andre Wright, the manager of Adams 14 for MGT, said, “The facts make clear that our turnaround effort was progressing until it hit a roadblock when the new superintendent started last summer. Dysfunction has reigned since then.”

“We are proud of the progress we made in Adams 14, and we echo the State Board in honoring the teachers and school and district staff members who are focused day in and day out on where we should all be focused — the students,”  Wright said.

“The State Board of Education said that Adams 14 should produce evidence to support its unsubstantiated claims, and Adams 14 again failed to do so.” Wright said. “Instead, Adams 14 administrators said they’d wanted to work with MGT all along, even though sworn affidavits show they engineered a report as a pretext to oust MGT before the new superintendent even officially started.  

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The company was appointed in 2018 by the state board to oversee Adams 14 after the district received poor accountability scores eight years in a row, according to the Colorado Department of Education.

During Friday’s press conference, Lewis said Adams 14 board acknowledges the challenges the district has had, but said they aren’t afraid to face them head-on and the district should have the choice of who their managing partner is.

“When it affects more than 6,000 students, hundreds of faculty and staff members, we have a duty to ensure that that partner acts in a strategic, responsible and thoughtful manner,” Lewis said. “We are more committed than ever to ensuring that we bring such support to this community.”

Adams 14 loses accreditation, State Board orders new negotiations

Tensions between the two parties began last fall when Adams 14 stopped working with MGT. This action resulted in the district becoming the first in Colorado to lose its accreditation.

Adams 14 accreditation was restored days later after the two parities agreed to resume working together. 

Officials from both sides on Friday acknowledged the challenges the district faces and the uncertainty surrounding its future, however, both sides have different paths to obtain an end goal.

“Our children can’t wait on a state board or government agency to determine our future,” said Lewis. “We must take ownership of it and we will use every tool at our disposal.”