Erwin wins District Spelling Bee! Not really, but she did "sign off on" it.

"Despite some concerns about her résumé and her track record, Barbara Erwin got a unanimous vote from the Kentucky Board of Education yesterday to become the state's new education commissioner."

But as the board was in closed session a fresh concern surfaced.

When asked by the Herald-Leader to explain a second resume indescretion, Erwin said her résumé is not in error. She said that... in 2006, she had to "sign off on" her district's participation at the conference. Her résumé says that she made presentations on "school improvement, AP, superintendent search process."

Signed off on?!

By this reconning...Erwin probably has a few band awards and football championships under her belt as well. Didn't she win the district Spelling Bee one year?

State Board of Education chair Keith Travis said the board had done "due diligence" in reviewing all questions about Erwin's resume and background.

But that is still unconfirmed.

Travis said he preferred not to discuss details of the board's four hour conversation with Erwin.

I feel certain that's true.

Travis said Erwin will receive a four-year contract with a base salary of $220,000 a year, and she will start work July 16.

Some readers of Kentucky School News and Commentary had speculated, in advance, that this date is significant because, when she announced her retirement in the fall, Erwin may have miscalculated the number of days she needs to remain in Illinois before she becomes vested in their retirement system. While I must doubt this unconfirmed report, I was warned in advance by one source close to District 303 leadership that she would surely ask the Kentucky Board of Education for a start date later than July 1. My source suggested Erwin might proffer some excuse to the Ky board for why she couldn't start by July 1...some family thing perhaps...but that's pure unadulterated specualtion and readers shouldn't believe it! However, the Ky board of education (that reportedly wanted the new commissioner to start on July 1) knows whatever she said during yesterday's closed session, and if she was forthcoming with the board, that's good enough for me.

Meanwhile in WestChiTown...

There is a fuss in the Daily Herald over Erwin's 2005 contract amendment that apparently relates to an "85 sick days" issue that would go toward her retirement calculations. "Grampywatches" wrote on the Daily Herald website yesterday that her contract "...allowed for a credit of 85 sick days at the beginning of each school year until July 1, 2008" but there's some question about the year the contract specifies that credit to begin.

The problem is that “There is no record of any legal vote by the board on amendment two of the superintendent’s contract,” outgoing District 303 school board President Bobbie Raehl said, “And yet three people including the superintendent, the board secretary, and a past board president all signed the amendment without authorization from the board to do so.”

This issue might appear too vague and distant to even think about if it weren't for a 16 January 2004 piece in the Arizona Republic. The author, reviewed Erwin's history and argued she had "no concept of a 28-year commitment to a community and its students." As Erwin noted in the American Association of School Administrators' newsletter, "I can't live long enough to vest in every state." How's that for commitment to your community? the Arizona Republic asks.

Travis told the Herald-Leader that either side can get out of the contract with 90 days notice, but the board would have to show cause to discontinue the contract.

Let's think about the due diligence question for a minute:

I think Bob Sexton, executive director for the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, got it right when he told the Herald-Leader, "Clearly the search firm has let the board down... They put (the board) in a very bad spot. There will be people that are negative and positive (about candidates). But it's the search firm's job to sort that out and find out the truth."

The real problems began with a Courier-Journal reader posting a concern over Erwin's resume claims on the C-J website. I set about the business of verifying Erwin's claims...and thought I had...only to find (thanks to info from Richard Innes of the Bluegrass Policy blog) myself in error. The claim could not be verified and I wrote a retraction.

Erwin explained the error telling C-J, "There must have been a typo from two different sets of resumes...I have had several people type my resume, and that has to be what the issue is."

Without going into the issue of who these typists might have been, and on whose time they were working - there is another problem. The Resume looks like this:

AASA 1999 National Superintendent of the Year Nominee
TASA 1998 Texas Superintendent of the Year
TASB 1997 Texas Superintendent of the Year
(emphasis added)

Now let's think about how one makes a typo. If I substitute an 8 for a 7 - that's a typo. But in this case, we'd have to believe that a whole line of text was a typo...that's 42 keystrokes by my count! Some typo - even for the lowest level school clerk.

Now she claims credit for things she has only signed off on.

At some point, a reasonable person has to suspect a pattern of behavior.

What are the chances we can verify other items from her resume? (It's a little late to assume Ray & Associates has already confirmed these items.)

Here's one:

B.S... In retrospect, maybe this should have been our first clue, but I digress...

"B. S. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 1972, Special Education"
OK, but how does that square with this...
"Teacher, Lafayette School Corporation, Lafayette, IN, Enrollment 8,000, 1971-73"

Just how did that work? She starts teaching in 1971, but didn't receive her degree from IU until 1972? I suppose she might have taught (particularly in special ed) with an emergency certificate of some kind. But if she did, how did she complete her degree at IU? Was she in two places at once? Somebody ought to ask. Please tell me she didn't count her student teaching!

What are the chances that one will check out? I give it 50-50, at best.

How about this one?:

"AASA Executive Board Member 1991-2001"
That's the same year (1991) she was a rookie superintendent in Tipton, Indiana. If she made the AASA executive board in her first year as a superintendent, that's quite impressive!

What are the chances that tid bit will confirm? I say 90-10 against.

And, if she was on the AASA Executive Board, wouldn't that have been during her 1999 consideration for AASA's Superintendent of the Year, which has been confirmed by AASA.

The good news... I hear Ray & Associates hasn't been paid yet.
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Photo by Trevor Frey