An outside investigation has found that former superintendent and his wife — its recently fired HR director — “more likely than not” violated board policy in their dealings with a company called Education Accelerated and spent district money on personal travel.
The released by the district late Monday is the result of a law firm’s probe of former Superintendent Christopher Smith and Brenda Smith, the district’s outgoing chief human resources officer. It says the potential policy violations happened in their relationship with the company and in trips they took using district money.
The investigation’s findings provide new details related to the Smiths’ travel to conferences, which the outside attorneys found likely violated district policy. That’s because the couple charged Cherry Creek Schools for events they did not attend or only partially attended — and encouraged other employees to do the same, the report says.
“This is taxpayer money,” said Jane Feldman, an ethics consultant who previously was executive director of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. She is also chair of the . “You need to be careful and understand that you have an obligation to make sure taxpayer money is spent appropriately.”
An attorney for the Smiths could not be reached for comment Monday.
The district hired Caplan & Earnest to investigate business travel expenses and vendor contracts approved by the couple after Christopher Smith’s resignation earlier this year. Cherry Creek Schools doesn’t know yet how much the district spent on the third-party investigation, spokeswoman Ashley Verville said.
The investigation did not find evidence that “the Smiths had any conflicts of interest or accepted improper gifts.”
The Denver Post on Sunday reported on concerns raised by ethics experts about the Smiths' acceptance of at least two international trips paid for by international schools with ties to . Christopher and Brenda Smith accepted the trips before and after they approved nearly $3 million worth of contracts with Education Accelerated, which was hired by the district in 2023 to help create a teacher residency program, The Post found.
Emails reviewed by The Post also suggested personal travel between the Smiths and Education Accelerated executives.
The monthslong investigation for the district by the outside law firm, , found that the Smiths “had a close personal relationship with EA’s principal, David Palumbo, and further that the Smiths actively discouraged criticism of EA by district employees."
“… (W)e find that it is more likely than not that the Smiths violated board policy by engaging in favoritism toward EA and EA-related vendors and creating the appearance of impropriety,” the attorneys wrote.
The report cites that Brenda Smith approved the company’s travel expenses and she signed off on a contract with the company that exceeded her authority.
Cherry Creek Schools paid Education Accelerated more than $1.9 million between May 2023 and January, including more than $110,000 in approved travel expenses, according to the report.
According to the report, Christopher and Brenda Smith met Palumbo, the chairman of Education Accelerated, in October 2022 while in line at a bar on a cruise ship. Palumbo introduced himself to the couple, the report says, and attempted to get a free drink using the couple's drink package.
"Everyone we spoke to, with the exception of Brenda Smith, freely shared their negative impressions of Mr. Palumbo," the Caplan & Earnest attorneys wrote. "These employees used strong and similar phrases to describe Mr. Palumbo, including 'unimpressive,' 'snake oil salesman,' and 'all puffery.' Brenda Smith expressed a different opinion."
Report cites personal trips
Attorneys with Caplan & Earnest interviewed nine district employees and Brenda Smith in their investigation. Christopher Smith declined to be interviewed, according to the report. The district redacted the names of employees interviewed in the document.
The investigation found that the Smiths “more likely than not” violated district policy by charging expenses to the district for travel that was not related to business, specifically on trips to New York City, San Diego and Seattle.
“The Smiths failed to exercise consistent, close control over their travel expenses to ensure that all expenses were ‘appropriate and necessary travel costs in carrying out their authorized duties’ and ‘related to district business,’ ” the attorneys wrote.
Employees told investigators that during conferences, the Smiths encouraged them to leave the events that Cherry Creek Schools had paid for them to attend and go sightseeing.
During a conference in New York City last year, the couple and others left each day to explore the city, including visits to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and to Central Park, an employee told investigators. Cherry Creek Schools spent more than $3,000 to send Christopher Smith on the trip, according to the report.
On a trip to Seattle last year, an employee told attorneys, neither the employee nor the Smiths attended any of the conference sessions.
Cherry Creek Schools paid the Smiths’ parking fees at DIA and for their hotel room on the Seattle trip, which totaled $4,112.79, according to the report.
Two weeks after the Smiths returned from Seattle, they went to a conference in San Diego. The fees for the couple and an HR employee to attend that conference were $3,745 alone.
The three flew to San Diego on the Friday before the conference and were scheduled to return to Denver that Monday, the second day of the four-day conference. Instead, the Smiths and the other employee changed their flights -- a fee charged to the district -- and returned to Colorado the day the conference started. The total cost of this trip was nearly $7,000, the investigation found.
Feldman, the ethics expert, said government employees have an ethical obligation to attend conferences paid for by their employers.
"If they are encouraging people not to go and not attending ... to me, that is certainly unethical -- if not illegal," she said.
Attorneys found the Smiths changed their flights at least 21 times between September 2023 and November 2025, resulting in at least $3,076.93 in fees charged to the district. At least one flight change by Christopher Smith was made for personal travel, the report says.
District's growing travel budget
The Denver Post reported in February that the district spent $23,499.31 and $38,492.48, respectively, for Christopher Smith and Brenda Smith to travel to conferences during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years.
Brenda Smith's travel expenses, in particular, were notably high for someone in her position, The Post found.
Cherry Creek Schools has 51,844 students and a $840 million budget. The district is projected to have a $15.4 million deficit this year, in large part because of declining enrollment, and plans to cut 159 jobs.
Cherry Creek Schools' board policies don’t detail how much business travel is appropriate for employees, nor do they set a travel budget or say what expenses can be charged to the district. The district also does not provide guidance on how many days employees can travel for work, the report found.
Instead, Brenda Smith and another employee told attorneys the budget was based on each department and on travel expenses incurred the previous year.
There was a notable increase in travel in Cherry Creek's human resources department in recent years, from $202,225 two years ago to $246,295 in the 2024-25 school year, which exceeded the budget by more than $35,000, according to the report. One employee told attorneys the increase was due to more people working there.
By comparison, the superintendentap travel budget dropped during that same time period from just under $100,000 to $78,500. But the expenses also exceeded the budget by $12,408, the investigation found.
Christopher Smith’s contract encouraged the former superintendent to travel, but the investigation did not find evidence that he notified the school board in writing when he planned to take a trip.
“The consensus ... is that the Smiths expended district resources liberally on business travel, both in time and financial resources as compared to others in the district, previous occupants of the same position, and similarly-situated colleagues in other districts,” the attorneys wrote.
Interim Superintendent Jennifer Perry and the Board of Education announced Friday that the district had terminated Brenda Smith's employment because of the law firm's findings in the new report. The district will continue to pay her until the end of her contract, which expires in late June. She will not receive any additional benefits, according to the district.
Christopher Smith resigned as superintendent in January. He earned a base salary of $332,601.15.
Brenda Smith was hired in 2019 and received a $232,142.40 salary.
The Smiths were married before either worked for the district. Brenda Smith reported to the deputy superintendent after the school board hired her husband in 2021, according to a district memo.
Read the investigation report:
