Former Cherry Creek superintendent’s journey raises ethics questions

Christopher and Brenda Smith arrived within the historic Guatemalan metropolis of Antigua on the primary day of November.

The then-Cherry Creek Schools superintendent and his spouse, the district’s chief human assets officer, prolonged a piece journey and joined different company of a convention in visiting the centuries old-city in the course of the peak Halloween season. The tour to the town, which is understood for its Baroque structure, cobbled streets and surrounding volcanoes, was organized and paid for by the American School of Guatemala, which additionally footed the invoice for the Smiths’ complete journey to the convention in close by Guatemala City.

“We would be happy to go to Antigua,” Brenda Smith wrote in an e-mail to high school officers when requested if she and her husband consented to the journey. “It sounds like a beautiful place!”

But the worldwide faculty has a connection that ethics consultants say raises questions on it paying for the Smiths’ journey: The faculty is a shopper of Education Accelerated, whose executives, David Palumbo and Richard Boerner, ran the convention that week.

The businessmen already knew the Smiths properly. The couple had signed off on practically $3 million price of contracts a 12 months earlier, when Cherry Creek Schools employed Education Accelerated to assist the district create a instructor residency program.

The faculty paid not less than $2,149 for each Christopher and Brenda Smith to journey to Guatemala, together with for his or her airplane tickets and lodge rooms, in accordance with emails and different paperwork obtained by The Denver Post by way of a Colorado Open Records Act request.

The Smiths’ journey to Guatemala, which has not been reported earlier than, was considered one of not less than two paid worldwide journeys the couple accepted after Cherry Creek Schools started working with Education Accelerated three years in the past. Though they’d traveled on a number of work journeys involving Palumbo and Boerner, together with domestically, their journey to Guatemala and one other journey to Brazil are notable as a result of — not like the others — they have been paid for by worldwide faculties tied to Education Accelerated.

The journey and different connections between the Smiths and the corporate make clear how Colorado’s fourth-largest faculty district turned embroiled in a management scandal that former Cherry Creek workers say was enabled by the varsity board’s lax oversight of the superintendent.

The district, The Post discovered, units few restrictions on the presents the superintendent can settle for, permitting its prime official to obtain fee for journey, conferences, social occasions and different honoraria.

The Post reviewed a whole bunch of pages of emails, calendar objects, airplane tickets, lodge reservations, social media posts and different paperwork that make clear the Smiths’ journey and ties to Education Accelerated — together with to Palumbo, the corporate’s chairman, and Boerner, the chief innovation officer.

The relationship between the Smiths, Palumbo and Boerner seems to have gone past a enterprise connection, with emails suggesting private journey between the couple and the executives in the course of the months Cherry Creek Schools awarded contracts to Education Accelerated.

“It got to the point where it is the tail wagging the dog, because the superintendent didn’t have a lot of check and balance with the board,” stated Jennifer Churchfield, a former Cherry Creek faculty board member who has known as for extra oversight of the superintendent in latest months.

As the ties between Education Accelerated and Cherry Creek Schools grew, Palumbo additionally started looking for enterprise with a second metro-Denver faculty district, emails present. Aurora Public Schools finally employed the agency, together with TruFit Talent, one other firm run by Palumbo and Boerner.

In Cherry Creek, the acceptance of the paid journeys to Guatemala and Brazil by Christopher and Brenda Smith seem to have violated a state law that prohibits authorities workers from receiving a “gift of substantial value” that might affect their decision-making, ethics consultants advised The Post.

Ok-12 faculty districts, which obtain billions of {dollars} of taxpayer cash statewide, are largely left to manipulate themselves in the case of moral considerations, resembling presents, paid journey and different potential conflicts of curiosity.

Neither the Colorado Department of Education nor the state’s Independent Ethics Commission has the power to step in. Instead, the duty falls on native faculty boards, except the violation is extreme sufficient to contain legislation enforcement, consultants stated.

“The remedies there are political if (school boards) fail to do their due diligence in policing their own,” stated Don Mayer, a professor of the observe of enterprise ethics and authorized research on the University of Denver.

An legal professional for Christopher and Brenda Smith pushed again on assertions that the Smiths’ journey to Guatemala was an moral violation and denied that the paid journeys influenced the couple’s resolution to award Education Accelerated contracts.

“Absolutely not,” stated the legal professional, Tony Leffert.

He defended the Smiths’ interactions with Palumbo and Boerner, saying they have been reflective of how distributors and districts function within the training trade.

“This is how people do business,” Leffert stated. “That’s not a conflict of interest.”

The marriage of the highest Cherry Creek officers had attracted some discover inside the district. Christopher and Brenda Smith have been married earlier than both labored within the central workplace. Brenda Smith, who was first employed in 2019, started reporting to a deputy superintendent after the board employed her husband two years later, in accordance with a 2022 district memo.

Christopher Smith resigned in January, simply because the district was beginning to face public scrutiny of his management. Neither he nor the varsity board has publicly given a cause for his departure. In early February, Brenda Smith was positioned on paid administrative go away.

In the wake of the previous superintendent’s departure, the district employed an out of doors legislation agency, Caplan & Earnest, to analyze enterprise journey bills and vendor contracts authorised by Christopher and Brenda Smith.

The investigation report hasn’t been launched. But the agency discovered that “a preponderance of the evidence makes it more likely than not that Brenda Smith, and her husband former Superintendent Chris Smith, violated district policy in regard to their travel expenses and relationships with particular vendors,” in accordance with a supply briefed on the report who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of the doc hadn’t been made public.

The Board of Education and Interim Superintendent Jennifer Perry introduced Friday, as The Post was making ready to publish this story, that the district had terminated Brenda Smith’s employment due to the investigation’s findings.

“The board did not have access to Chris Smith’s calendar and we were not aware of any trips that were paid for by vendors with contracts with the district,” Cherry Creek board President Anne Egan stated in an announcement. “Additionally, the terms of Chris Smith’s contract required him to notify the board in writing of all travel. That did not occur.”

The faculty board additionally launched an investigation into whether or not Education Accelerated overbilled the district for month-to-month journey prices and different reimbursements. Cherry Creek has since terminated any excellent contracts with the corporate.

Palumbo, Boerner and Education Accelerated CEO Alicia Densford didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark by The Post in latest weeks, together with a listing of detailed questions.

International journey raises questions

The Smiths arrived in Guatemala City on a Monday in late October. They spent seven days within the nation, arriving two days earlier than the convention and leaving two days after, in accordance with airplane tickets and itineraries reviewed by The Post.

Brenda Smith’s schedule confirmed she anticipated to spend the second day of the journey assembly with directors of the American School of Guatemala, together with the finance and HR administrators. Christopher Smith was set to get a campus tour and different actions, paperwork confirmed.

The American School of Guatemala invited the Smiths to the nation for a seminar of kinds that Education Accelerated refers to as a “think tank.” The occasion targeted on apprenticeships, making ready college students for postsecondary training and workforce readiness, stated former board member Terry Bates.

“The hosting campus includes both a high school and a community college model, with pathways similar to those being developed in Cherry Creek,” Bates, who resigned April 24, stated in an May 12 e-mail. “The school specifically sought Cherry Creek’s guidance on building partnerships and advancing these types of programs.”

Cherry Creek Schools’ partnership with Education Accelerated developed the district’s Aspiring Educator Pathway, which provides individuals an alternate strategy to receive a lecturers license by having faculties practice members in their very own school rooms whereas the scholars earn a bachelor’s diploma from the Community College of Aurora.

The Guatemala occasion started on the third day of the Smiths’ journey to the nation and lasted three days, itineraries confirmed. The Smiths went to Antigua on the Saturday after the occasion.

If workers determine to remain any further days whereas on a piece journey, they need to pay for that further time themselves, stated Jane Feldman, an ethics marketing consultant who beforehand was government director of Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission. She can be chair of the Denver Board of Ethics.

“That’s a gift,” she stated. “It takes it out of ‘this is a conference that is relevant to your job’ and puts it in the boondoggle category.”

Documents don’t element what the couple did whereas they have been in Antigua, however they present the American School of Guatemala booked the educators a room on the five-star Casa Santo Domingo lodge. The room value $257 for the evening, in accordance with the reservation.

The Smiths traveled on a bus to Antigua with different company of the assume tank, however they didn’t keep in a single day, stated Leffert, their legal professional, including that the couple went again to Guatemala City. He didn’t know who paid for his or her lodging for his or her ultimate evening.

Leffert supplied an e-mail to The Post from the varsity, dated May 13, that confirmed the Smiths didn’t keep on the lodge in Antigua. (The faculty didn’t reply to the newspaper’s request for an interview.)

“They had a flight to catch out the next morning, so they did not stay there,” he stated.

The Guatemala journey was the second time in two years that the Smiths traveled internationally to attend a “think tank” occasion facilitated by Palumbo.

The Post reported in March that Christopher Smith traveled to Brazil in April 2024 for a assume tank placed on by Palumbo and paid for by Graded — the American School of São Paulo, which Boerner was superintendent of on the time.

Ahead of the Brazil journey, Boerner emailed Christopher Smith and advised him the varsity may pay for his journey bills, together with if he determined to increase his keep by way of the weekend to “enjoy São Paulo.”

Brenda Smith additionally attended the convention in Brazil, the Post discovered. The worldwide faculty paid for her journey, Leffert stated.

The Guatemala and Brazil journeys posed potential moral violations as a result of they concerned international journey and the acceptance of fee for that journey by a shopper of an organization that does enterprise with Cherry Creek Schools, ethics consultants stated.

“There seems to be a likely conflict of interest here; public officials have a duty to the public not to be influenced by any personal benefits a supplier might offer,” stated Mayer, the DU professor.

The assume tank occasions seem frequently within the Smiths’ and Cherry Creek Schools’ historical past with Palumbo, Boerner and Education Accelerated. The district hosted not less than one of many occasions, The Post discovered.

The assume tanks convey collectively educators, directors and different “thought leaders” to construct a group and take into account “what could be, what should be, and boldly, what will be,” Palumbo and Boerner wrote in a 2024 Medium post.

“The Think Tank concept acknowledges that education’s most complex challenges need thought space,” Palumbo and Boerner wrote. “As the world grows more complex and tomorrow’s careers are uncertain, relevance for schools means embracing characteristics such as adaptivity and agility and pushing themselves to be forward-thinking.”

In February 2025, Palumbo and Boerner organized such an event at an Association for the Advancement of International Education convention in Washington, D.C., which was additionally attended by Christopher and Brenda Smith.

Cherry Creek Schools paid not less than $2,992 for the couple to attend the convention, together with their lodge, meals and airfare, expenditures reviewed by The Post present.

Bates defended the Smiths’ journey, which he stated was not linked to any contract discussions with Education Accelerated. School board members, Bates stated, have been additionally conscious of the journey and district employees stayed in contact with the Smiths once they have been in Guatemala.

“It is also important to note that this type of travel is consistent with common practice among school district leaders, both within Cherry Creek and across the country,” Bates stated. “Ongoing engagement with innovative programs and global peers is an important part of maintaining relevance and effectiveness in a rapidly evolving educational landscape.”

Bates, who was elected in November, resigned final month throughout a gathering during which the board revealed he made racist remarks.

“Terry Bates and his wife, Kelly, who was on the board from 2017-2025, are suggesting they had information that other board members did not,” Egan, the varsity board president, stated in an announcement. “That raises questions about Mr. Bates’ sources and the timing of these comments.”

Other journey, connections with firm

By the time Christopher and Brenda Smith landed in Guatemala, they’d recognized Palumbo for roughly three years.

The pair met the businessman on a cruise within the fall of 2022 — a narrative each the Smiths and Palumbo advised Cherry Creek workers after Education Accelerated started working with the district, former employees members advised The Post.

“There was definitely a personal relationship there,” stated Jill Schneider, a former Cherry Creek Schools HR worker.

Months after the cruise, Cherry Creek Schools employed Education Accelerated to conduct a research on the feasibility of a instructor residency program. It was the primary of not less than 5 offers between the district and the corporate, which, if totally realized, would have paid Education Accelerated greater than $3 million by way of 2028.

After the district’s Aspiring Educator Pathway was launched, Christopher Smith extolled its promise.

“I do believe this is going to change the way we educate teachers to be teachers across the country,” he advised The Post for a narrative on this system in 2024.

On June 11 of that very same 12 months, Brenda Smith had signed the primary of two Education Accelerated contracts that obtained faculty board approval. The deal was for $368,000 and continued the work the district and firm started a 12 months earlier.

Two weeks later, Palumbo emailed Christopher and Brenda Smith and invited them to Pittsburgh to look at the Steelers play in his hometown in October of that 12 months, emails present. One of the Smiths’ sons performed soccer for the University of Denver, and the crew performed in Pittsburgh the evening after the Steelers challenged the Cowboys in that sport.

“We could do a two fer,” Palumbo wrote to the couple.

When requested in regards to the e-mail change, Leffert stated Palumbo by no means confirmed as much as the soccer sport.“They did business together and they were friendly,” he stated.

On a Thursday morning in October 2024, Boerner emailed Christopher and Brenda Smith and advised them a couple of new firm, TruFit Talent, that he was forming with mates as a “new ‘way’ to consider recruitment.” (Palumbo is chairman of the corporate, in accordance with TruFit’s web site.)

Boerner included a hyperlink to a podcast about TruFit in his e-mail, which was despatched 4 days after the Steelers sport in October 2024.

“It’s only 10 mins, so hopefully you can sneak a few mins to listen. Perhaps on the plane…LOL,” the now-CEO of TruFit Talent wrote. “Anyways, the company we are forming is called TruFit Talent. You guys are so well positioned to offer your thoughts and frankly as things get rolling I was hoping, Brenda, you might be willing to sit on our advisory board for our startup.”

Brenda Smith responded to Boerner a couple of hours later.

“Of course! I will listen to it today!” she stated. “We are developing our comprehensive learning plan which starts with recruitment so I’m sure I’ll learn more great information to incorporate into Creek! See you in two days!”

“Awesome, thanks Brenda!” Boerner emailed again. “See ya’ beachside soon :)”

Documents reviewed by The Post don’t present the place the Smiths traveled after the e-mail change with Boerner. Their calendars and Cherry Creek Schools’ journey information don’t present both journey with Boener that weekend or a piece journey.

Both Boerner and Leffert have denied that Brenda Smith served on TruFit’s advisory board.

Twelve days after Boerner and Brenda Smith’s e-mail change, Christopher Smith authorised Education Accelerated’s largest contract, a multiyear deal price $2.6 million.

Feldman, the ethics knowledgeable, stated Christopher and Brenda Smith ought to have disclosed their relationship with Palumbo and Boerner to the varsity board as a result of the connection may have altered the administrators’ resolution to rubber-stamp the contracts authorised in June and October of 2024.

“Frankly, they shouldn’t have been involved at all in awarding the contract,” she stated of the Smiths. “… If this was a no-bid contract, it’s inappropriate and it appears to be illegal.”

The contracts, in truth, didn’t bear a bidding course of, which might have made Education Accelerated compete in opposition to different corporations for the job. Cherry Creek Schools spokeswoman Abbe Smith stated the work was thought-about skilled companies, a class that doesn’t require a aggressive course of.

But she added: “Former Superintendent Smith administered the contract and it did not run through the typical procurement or legal review process.”

No-bid contracts want rigorous vetting so faculty districts know what they’re getting within the deal, stated Mayer, the DU professor.

The two contracts authorised by the board in 2024 have been a part of board conferences’ consent agendas, which administrators normally vote on on the suggestion of employees and with out dialogue.

Churchfield, the previous board member, stated the contracts for Education Accelerated, particularly the multiyear deal for $2.6 million, ought to by no means have been a part of the consent agenda. Instead, she stated, district employees ought to have singled out the proposal in order that administrators may focus on the contract.

“If the board didn’t necessarily catch that, it should have been Chris’s responsibility to highlight that and have a conversation,” Chruchfield stated. “… These types of things were massive lapses in how business should be conducted at Cherry Creek.”

Lawmaker: ‘I would be mortified’ as a taxpayer

The Smiths’ journey to Brazil occurred after Cherry Creek awarded smaller contracts to Education Accelerated. The Smiths authorised the 2 largest contracts, which have been price about $3 million mixed, after the journey, paperwork present.

Cherry Creek Schools’ work with the corporate was well-cemented by the point the Smiths traveled to Guatemala final 12 months. The district additionally awarded a $350,000 contract — which has since been terminated — to EA FLGA Campus Partners LLC in July 2025, three months earlier than the Guatemala journey.

That entity has some ties to Education Accelerated. FLGA is an actual property developer based mostly in Washington, D.C. The agency’s Executive Vice President Fred Greene III, is an working associate with Education Accelerated, in accordance with the corporate’s web site.

The district employed FLGA as a part of a plan to probably make worker housing a part of the instructor residency program, paperwork confirmed.

The firm’s work was within the early phases, taking a look at feasibility, land use issues and different planning, when the contract ended, Greene stated in an e-mail.

“As is common with initiatives of this nature, the work was iterative and exploratory and had not advanced to project authorization, final design or implementation,” he stated.

He added: “Neither I individually nor FLGA as an entity is a formal partner of Education Accelerated. We did however collaborate as it related to work at CCSD surrounding the exploration of a district workforce housing initiative.”

Ethics consultants stated the Smiths’ journey and the Education Accelerated contracts increase questions as a result of state legislation prohibits native authorities workers, together with these at Ok-12 districts, from accepting a present, which “would tend improperly to influence a reasonable person in his position to depart from the faithful and impartial discharge of public duties …”

Local officers are additionally “discouraged” from accepting a present after they’ve already rewarded an individual with an official motion, resembling a contract, in accordance with state legislation.

But there’s a niche between the statute and the power to implement the legislation in the case of Ok-12 districts. School techniques don’t fall underneath the purview of the state Independent Ethics Commission, which locations a $75 cap on the worth of presents that authorities officers may obtain, resembling paid journey.

The fee doesn’t oversee districts as a result of the state structure says jurisdiction applies solely to municipalities and counties, stated Dino Ioannides, the manager director of the fee.

State Rep. Tammy Story has tried repeatedly to cross laws that might place Ok-12 faculty districts underneath the ethics fee’s purview. Had she been profitable, residents may have filed a grievance with the fee in opposition to Cherry Creek Schools over the Smiths’ ties with Education Accelerated and the district’s contracts with the corporate, she stated.

“If I was a taxpayer in Cherry Creek, I would be mortified that public tax dollars were being used in this way,” Story stated. “That just seems like a significant conflict of interest.”

Oversight of the superintendent and workers falls to the native faculty board because the fee doesn’t have jurisdiction, ethics consultants stated.

Cherry Creek Schools has its personal policy, which is closely influenced by state legislation. Still, it permits the superintendent to simply accept fee for journey to conferences, for social capabilities and for speeches.

By comparability, Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, explicitly prohibits workers, together with Superintendent Alex Marrero, from accepting presents of worth from corporations and organizations that conduct enterprise with the district.

“It surprises me that a large district wouldn’t have pretty strict (policies),” Feldman stated.

A $15,000 a month retainer charge

In June 2024, Palumbo emailed a superintendent at a neighboring faculty district to let him know he was on the town.

He was persistently recruiting Aurora Public Schools’ enterprise, together with proposing a attainable $15,000 month-to-month retainer to turn into a marketing consultant to Superintendent Michael Giles, paperwork confirmed. Palumbo additionally requested Giles to fulfill in particular person when he was already on the town assembly with employees at Cherry Creek Schools — which might later reimburse the businessman for these journeys to the Denver metro, paperwork confirmed.

It’s unclear if Giles, who beforehand labored at Cherry Creek Schools, ever employed Palumbo on a month-to-month retainer. APS did signal a $300,000 memorandum of understanding with Education Accelerated final 12 months that led to August. The district additionally labored with TruFit Talent till January.

The firm helped APS with management improvement and in its hiring of the district’s chief info and know-how officer and its expertise acquisition coordinator, APS spokesman Corey Christiansen stated in an announcement.

“Education Accelerated and TruFit provided strong work and served as thoughtful partners as we transitioned new leaders into our school district,” Christiansen added.

As lately as April 7, Education Accelerated featured APS prominently on the corporate’s web site. But the corporate has since deleted all however one point out of the district. 

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