Putting aside some of its concerns and noting its limited options, the State Board of Education cleared the way Thursday for Adams 14 to work with a for-profit consulting company to turn around the troubled school district.
In a 6 to 1 vote, the State Board approved Florida-based MGT Consulting as the districtap external manager.
The State Board had ordered Adams 14 to hire an external manager to run much of the district for the next four years. The law compelled the state to take action after the district had received the state’s lowest ratings for student achievement for more than eight years in a row.
That order, the first of its kind in the state, allowed the local school board to select who to hire, but also set deadlines and consequences. Some of the deadlines have already been pushed back multiple times as the process has hit roadblocks.
For instance, the district solicited proposals then presented its neighbor, Mapleton Public Schools, as the preferred external manager. The State Board then asked both districts to work together to strengthen their proposal, but later declined to support the arrangement and said no school district should manage another.
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