The Cherry Creek Schools Board of Education has one mission right now — get to the bottom of a growing scandal that includes the former superintendent, his wife, who was the head of human resources, and an outside education consulting firm that had $3 million in contracts.
The district must not let Superintendent Christopher Smith slink off into an early retirement without thoroughly investigating what transpired.
The attorney representing Christopher Smith and his wife, Brenda Smith, has told The Denver Post that the two did nothing wrong and that the contracts with Education Accelerated were public and approved by the school board. Education Accelerated has said it is working with the district to answer questions.
Shortly after Colorado reporters began reporting on a “toxic culture” in Cherry Creek Public Schools, Christopher Smith resigned. Cherry Creek Public Schools then put Brenda Smith on administrative leave.
Following the personnel actions, The Post’s Jessica Seaman continued to dig into the story. Here’s a summary of what we know from a series of public documents and interviews shared in The Post’s news reporting.
Travel the Smiths have taken, together and separately, has come under scrutiny. The district suspended all administrator travel pending further investigation. Seaman reported that Christopher Smith, who had a base salary of $332,061, spent $23,500 on travel over the course of two fiscal years. Brenda Smith, who has a base salary of $232,142, spent $38,492.
Combined, that is almost enough travel in two years to cover the salary of a classroom assistant, and it is too much travel for people whose primary job is to run a local school district. We do not need school officials to be jet-setters and international glad-handers, no matter how important they think these education conferences are. But putting aside those jarring numbers, the story continued to deepen.
Seaman next reported that district officials were questioning whether some of the Smiths’ travel had ties to Education Accelerated before the company was awarded millions of dollars in contracts with the district. Some of the contracts were approved by the school board, but others were signed by one or both Smiths and approved for amounts less than the threshold required for formal approval.
Seaman reported on a trip to Brazil taken by Christopher Smith and public documents that indicate a school leader tied to Education Accelerated offered to pay for Smith’s travel expenses to a conference in São Paulo in 2024.
In addition to the ongoing investigation into the Smiths’ travel, Education Accelerated charged Cherry Creek Public Schools for tens of thousands of dollars of travel expenses over the course of a few years and the public documents from the district indicate Cherry Creek Schools could have been overbilled by almost $60,000.
The district has canceled all contracts with Education Accelerated. The company says it is working to answer questions about the travel, something made difficult because it has not retained receipts or records.
Coloradans cannot tolerate misspending in our public schools. Every dollar that doesn’t reach a classroom is a dollar stolen from children reliant on the system for their education. If this can happen at Cherry Creek Schools — one of the top school districts in the state with a professional-level school board that should have the time and money to scrutinize contracts — imagine what could transpire in less well-funded and less well-organized districts.
The next few fiscal years could be difficult for public education, and as state and local budgets face cuts, now is a good time for district officials to scrutinize outside consulting firms and eliminate any waste, fraud and abuse.
Cherry Creek’s school board is implementing important reforms, and we hope other school districts take note and follow suit.
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Updated April 16, 2026 at 9:14 a.m. Due to an editor’s error, the original version of this editorial misstated who offered to pay for Christopher Smith’s travel to Brazil. A superintendent who has ties to Education Accelerated emailed Smith and offered to pay for the trip.
