is recommending that its Board of Education further tighten policies on contracts and travel spending amid an investigation into , the firm at the heart of the districtap recent leadership turmoil.
The proposed changes — primarily focused on limiting the type of expenses Cherry Creek Schools will reimburse to vendors — come as administrators continue to press Education Accelerated for itemized receipts for tens of thousands of dollars in expenses that the district believes may have been overbilled or double-billed by the company.
Education Accelerated has submitted documentation, including receipts and copies of calendars to show travel and work on Cherry Creek Schools’ teacher residency program, but district officials don’t believe the company’s response has been adequate, according to emails obtained by The Denver Post via the Colorado Open Records Act.
“The district is more than disappointed that Education Accelerated (EA) still has not produced any receipts to substantiate the significant amount of expense reimbursements submitted to CCSD over the last couple of years,” Cherry Creek general counsel Sonja McKenzie wrote in an April 6 email to the company’s attorney.
An attorney for Education Accelerated disputed McKenzie’s claims, saying that the company is providing documentation that substantiates the scrutinized spending.
“This has been a challenging project to work through with you as the district is now, several years after the fact, trying to implement new record-keeping requirements that are direct (sic) contrary to those that our client was previously directed to follow,” replied attorney Dean Frieders in an April 7 email.
District leadership investigation
District officials are investigating the ties between Education Accelerated and former Superintendent Christopher Smith and his wife, Brenda Smith, the district’s chief human resources officer — including whether the couple was influenced by paid international travel when awarding the firm nearly $3 million in contracts.
Cherry Creek Schools hired Education Accelerated in 2023 to help create the districtap teacher residency program and the Smiths each signed off on the company’s largest contracts.
The districtap investigation is also looking into travel expenses by Education Accelerated, including whether the company overbilled Cherry Creek as much as $57,520.97 by routinely going over the $5,000 limit set in its contracts for travel expenses.
Christopher Smith resigned in January and Cherry Creek leaders placed Brenda Smith on administrative leave days later.
Cherry Creek staff will present the proposed policy changes to the school board during a public meeting Monday night. The board is not expected to vote on the additions during that meeting.
If approved, the changes would prohibit companies contracting with Cherry Creek Schools from receiving reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses, such as travel or meals, unless explicitly authorized in a written contract, according to the .
The proposal would also prohibit the district from reimbursing companies for alcohol purchases, entertainment and personal expenses, travel upgrades, tolls and parking. District administrators will need to get approval in writing from a direct supervisor before traveling for work, according to the proposal.
A strained relationship
Emails and letters showed that the relationship between Cherry Creek administrators and Education Accelerated is strained. The company has pushed back on Cherry Creek Schools’ efforts to terminate contracts with Education Accelerated in February, and the firm’s attorney has accused the district of not paying a recent invoice.
The company — which declined an interview request but responded to questions via email — did not answer The Denver Post’s question regarding how much money Cherry Creek Schools owes on the invoice.
Education Accelerated CEO Alicia Densford said in an email that the company and district are still working “to determine next steps” with the company’s contracts.
“We continue to negotiate for resolution in the best interest of taxpayers,” Cherry Creek Schools spokeswoman Ashley Verville said in a statement.
Cherry Creek is still seeking receipts for expenses billed after July 2024, when Education Accelerated stopped providing itemized invoices, McKenzie, the district's attorney, wrote in her April 6 email.
The district also wants more documentation for meals reimbursed between March 2024 and July 2024 as these expenses -- which total just under $15,000 — were also charged separately to one of the districtap credit cards, according to McKenzie’s email.
Cherry Creek is concerned that Education Accelerated may have billed the district for alcohol purchases made by the company, Verville said. Cherry Creek Schools has a policy that prohibits employees from using district money to purchase alcohol, but the proposed changes, if approved by the school board, will go a step further to make clear that vendors cannot seek reimbursements for alcohol, either.
Densford did not answer directly when asked whether Education Accelerated employees sought reimbursements from the district for alcohol purchases.
"We submitted expenses for approval as instructed by the district and pursuant to the district's procedures," she said.
Dispute over need for receipts
Education Accelerated did not retain receipts after October 2024 because the company’s work was done on "a lump-sum basis" under a contract approved by the school board, Frieders wrote in his email to McKenzie.
In an earlier email, the attorney told Cherry Creek administrators that it was Brenda Smith who told Education Accelerated that the company no longer needed to submit itemized receipts.
“Brenda Smith advised our client that there was not a need to submit/retain individual receipts in March 2024; at that time, she gave examples of other vendors who were similarly not required to submit individual receipts,” Frieders wrote in a March 27 letter. “Thereafter, our client followed that directive and the invoices were processed and approved by the district.”
Tony Leffert, an attorney for Brenda Smith, denied Frieders’ claim that she told the company the district didn't need receipts.
“Thatap not true,” he said.
Brenda Smith told Education Accelerated staff to include travel costs in the overall contract amount because she didn’t want to be involved in reviewing their expenses, Leffert said.
Cherry Creek Schools also looked into whether certain expenses by Education Accelerated took place out-of-state, such as with a rental car in Virginia Beach and an Airbnb rental in San Francisco.
Densford told the district that expenses that showed out-of-state spending appeared that way because those vendors are based in those cities, according to a Feb. 19 email. For example, she said, the Airbnb was in Aurora, but the company is based in San Francisco.
