Education staffer: NC superintendent's participation in reading contract process was odd

Susan Laney, a consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, testified that State Superintendent Mark Johnson attended one of the review committee's meetings on Jan. 8, 2019, and "[gave] us some insight into his vision and his ideas for the agency." She found his participation in the meeting odd but said it wasn't necessarily wrong because he had a supervisory role over the committee.

When asked if she thought Johnson was trying to influence the committee to vote for a certain vendor, Laney said she had "a clear understanding of his priorities." Pressed again about whether she felt Johnson was trying to influence the vote, she agreed.

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Johnson's decision to award the state testing contract to Istation last summer drew a challenge from Amplify, a rival testing vendor that previously held that contract since 2013. The administrative challenge has been tied up in the state IT department, and a quasi-judicial hearing has been ongoing this week. It's expected to last through Thursday.

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Despite the majority of previous committee members recommending Amplify, the state superintendent chose to award the contract to Istation, setting off a controversy.

The state superintendent has claimed the review process was tainted by former employees at his agency who had inappropriate discussions, including over text message, about the contract review process. Johnson said an anonymous person provided the text messages to DPI, but attorneys for Amplify alleged that someone at the agency was monitoring a former employee's texts using her old work laptop, which was still connected to her personal phone.

Jablonski said she then went to her supervisor at the time, who no longer works for DPI, to express her concerns about the comment. She said her supervisor said nothing could be done.

“At that point at the Department of Public Instruction, there just was … overall a fear of losing jobs,” Jablonski said.

Attorneys for Istation and DPI asked Jablonski why she didn't cancel the procurement or remove the superintendent's employee from the process, and Jablonski said she did not have the authority to do that.

Johnson has repeatedly said he believes Istation is the best product for North Carolina students, teachers and parents and blamed the controversy on "the establishment political system" that prefers more of the same instead of change.

Johnson's decision to choose Istation angered some educators who said the new program would result in increased screen time and reduced human interaction for students. More than 80 superintendents also shared concerns about the decision and asked for a one-year delay before using the new reading test, but their request was denied.