NC officials criticize school leader’s emergency contract. But Istation gets limited OK.
State technology officials are criticizing how state Superintendent Mark Johnson handled a new testing contract, but they will allow North Carolina elementary schools to continue to use the new program for the next two months.
State Chief Information Officer Eric Boyette last week canceled the $928,570 emergency contract that Johnson had signed Jan. 7 for elementary schools to use the Istation program through March 31. Boyette says in a memo, dated Thursday, that Johnson had ample time to get the state Department of Information Technology’s permission before signing the contract but did not do so.
But with schools needing a program to test students under the Read To Achieve law, Boyette told the state Department of Public Instruction to issue a new emergency contract. DIT approved the new contract on Friday, which Graham Wilson, a DPI spokesman, noted is identical to the original emergency contract.
“Given the urgency of NCDPI’s statutory obligations to resolve this matter, I recommend that you initiate a new request for quotes to procure these services through the legal process to select a vendor that can best meet the needs of North Carolina students, families, teachers, and schools,” Boyette writes in his memo.
North Carolina elementary schools are operating with uncertainty under Read To Achieve while the legal fight over the contract continues.
Johnson and other state education leaders have been sparring legally for months over how to administer Read to Achieve to elementary school students. Since 2013, students have read out loud to their teachers, who used Amplify Education’s mClass program to assess their skills. But in June, Johnson awarded a three-year, $8.3 million Read To Achieve testing contract to Istation, which tests students on a computer program.
Legal challenges followed, with Amplify filing an appeal and DIT issuing a stay in August blocking the new contract while it reviewed the case. A decision could come by the end of February after DIT held a hearing the week of Jan. 13.
State elementary schools were left without a program to test students after a judge declined Jan. 7 to lift the stay. That evening, Johnson approved an emergency contract, citing how schools were planning to use Istation the following morning to test students.
DIT, DPI blame each other for emergency
DIT, which is responsible for reviewing state information technology contracts, questioned the emergency purchase and ordered Johnson to explain his reasoning.
In his response, Johnson blamed DIT’s “inaction” for creating the situation.
“This emergency was created when NCDIT blocked use of the one, statewide reading diagnostic tool a week before the start of the school year in August 2019,” Johnson wrote in a Jan. 14 memo. “The vendor graciously offered to do the work for free for the remainder of 2019, but that agreement expired. Extending the no-cost agreement was not an option NCDPI had.”
In his response, Boyette said DPI had “ample time” to contact DIT before or after the Istation agreement expired Dec. 31.
“Furthermore, at any time following that expiration or following the January 7, 2020, decision of the Superior Court, NCDPI staff could have contacted myself or staff of the N.C. Department of Information Technology seeking verbal approval to develop and executive the purchase as required by the Administrative Code,” Boyette wrote. “No attempt was made to contact me or my staff.”
Boyette, who is also DIT secretary, reports to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
Johnson is a Republican who is also running for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 10:49 AM.
