Pittsburgh Schools Superintendent's Problems Date Back To Hiring

PITTSBURGH, PA - Who could have seen the controversies currently engulfing Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent Anthony Hamlet coming? Terry Kennedy.

Questions surrounding Hamlet’s background and integrity were raised shortly before his June 2016 hiring, questions that likely would have prompted most districts to select another superintendent candidate.

Hamlet’s responses to those questions prompted Kennedy, a veteran school director who made an unsuccessful board motion to rescind an offer to hire him, to say she believed Hamlet would have a difficult time leading the district.

Kennedy appears to have been prescient.

A series of recent reports have proven plenty embarrassing for Hamlet and the school directors who voted to hire him in 2016. Those reports revealed that Hamlet and five district administrators went to Cuba in April for two days. The trip was paid for by a district contractor and was not authorized in advance by school directors.

Hamlet also appears to have unilaterally awarded dozens of contracts for various services without seeking competitive bids.

These embarrassing revelations prompted the school board to authorize district solicitor Ira Weiss to review district policies relating to contracts, ethics and conflicts of interest. They also attracted the attention of Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has demanded the district provide details of travel by district officials and contracts that were awarded without bids being sought.

“I want to know if the reported travel was in line with district policies and state ethics rules,” DePasquale said. “More importantly, I want to know how this trip, and any others, benefited students in Pittsburgh classrooms.”

DePasquale said that while a case can be made for work-related travel that benefits the quality of classroom instruction, “I feel the questions around this situation warrant closer examination.”

No one has been able to examine Hamlet’s recent financial disclosure forms, because he has failed to file them for the past two years. Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb last week noted that the forms are required to be submitted under state law and he is in the process of filing a complaint against Hamlet with the state Ethics Commission.

Hamlet has offered no explanation for the Cuba trip, the contracts and his apparent disregard for the state Ethics Act. Perhaps that’s because his attempts to address the issues that nearly derailed his hiring three years ago didn’t go well.

Hamlet explained away easily enough the portion of his resume detailing his educational philosophy that virtually was a word-for-word copy of a Washington Post editorial. He said that part of his resume was taken from a speech that someone else wrote for him - although he later admitted that he never actually gave the speech.

More problematic were other discrepancies on his resume.

The former Florida educator claimed he raised two schools’ state grades from “F” to “C”; boosted one high school’s graduation rate by 13 percentage points; and had direct supervision of 20 schools in his final job with a school district.

Hamlet later admitted one of the schools whose state grades he reportedly raised did not have an “F.” But he insisted the other school grade went from F to “C,” information that differed from Florida state records.

Eyebrows were further raised when Hamlet presented new high school graduation figures that conflicted with the 13-percentage-point figure he claimed on his resume.

Most employers don’t hire job candidates whose resumes contain plagairism and glaring inaccuracies. But school directors had no problem bringing Hamlet on board and the move also was endorsed by the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.

No one is suggesting Hamlet did anything illegal. But judging by the scrutiny he now is under by city and state officials and his own school board, Kennedy’s doubts about the embattled superintendent’s ability to effectively lead the district appear to be increasingly prophetic.