Rep. Vernon Smith wants MGT gone from Gary

MGT to hold stakes in Gary schools until 2024

Contributed By:The 411 News

Day-to-day operations of the Gary Community School Corp. will remain under the control of its state appointed educational management organization -- MGT Consulting -- the Distressed Unit Appeal Board signaled at its meeting Tuesday.

The board's support of MGT's performance over the last 5 years came during a discussion of renewing the organization's contract scheduled to end June 30, 2022. Extending the contract for another 2 years, until 2024, the 5-member DUAB panel agreed will allow MGT to finish its work.

DUAB members said staying with the organization that has eliminated the district's $22 million dollar deficit and worked with Gary residents to approve a property tax increase for the school district that provided for teachers pay raises was better than bringing in a new management group.

MGT was credited for lengthening the school day by an hour to increase learning in a school district that had the shortest learning day.

DUAB Chairman Justin McAdam said by the time MGT's contract ends in 2024, the state legislature will have determined "who to turn the district over to."

Legislation put the district under state control in 2017. The school district's board of trustees was removed as the governing body by legislators a year later. During the 2022 session of the General Assembly, House Republicans proposed a bill structuring a new school board for the Gary public school system, but it failed to gain traction.

Keeping MGT will avoid disruptions when the transition takes place, McAdam said.

Although the district has a balanced budget, McAdam wants MGT to make more fiscal gains and improve on other operations in the next 2 years. He noted, "Gary schools have the lowest cash reserves of all districts. There are negative fund balances and audit issues that need to be dealt with. There are internal controls and financial operations issues, and special education operations issues." .

McAdam added an issue with people. "We don't want to see the people who are sitting here today at the table to be gone when the next transition takes place. That is disruptive in itself. It would be a huge loss of institutional knowledge and experience."

State Rep. Vernon Smith, of Gary, a DUAB non-voting member was the only one opposing the renewal. Smith told the board, "I want MGT gone. The people in Gary don't want MGT."

Smith said MGT failed to reach benchmarks for student academic achievement, community engagement, and communications that were set in 2020 when the organization's contract was first renewed for 2 years. MGT came on board in 2017 with a 3-year contract.

Smith applauded MGT for eliminating the deficit and he supported the referendum.

The board had heard earlier in the meeting from MGT their plan to focus more on student academic success during the next 2 years.

The board discussed holding its next meeting in Gary to inform residents of its actions and the next steps forward.

Before holding a meeting in Gary, Chairman McAdam said the board needs to hear more about how MGT expects to proceed over the next 2 years. "What does that look like? We need to prioritize what MGT should focus on."

Learning this, McAdam said, gives the board an opportunity to solicit feedback from the community. He said a survey and a series of questions on specific topics could be offered through the website. "That way we can present the feedback to MGT and invite their response to the community's questions on how they would propose to move forward."

After Tuesday's meeting, MGT's vice president Eric Parrish said in a statement, "Academic improvement is always the biggest challenge, and we would be overwhelmingly focused there, including by adding more academic experts to join the current team that has laid the groundwork for improvement."

Story Posted:04/29/2022