Higley names Sherry Richards superintendent after dumping previous choice
May 9—The Higley Unified School District Governing Board has removed the word "interim" from Sherry Richards title and named her superintendent for the 2024-25 school year after rescinding its contract with Dr. Nate Carman.
The board unanimously hired Carman in February, who was expected to begin work July 1, but the board in a 4-0 decision on May 8 rescinded his contract it signed last month.
Carman was one of 30 job candidates vetted by head-hunting firm Ray & Associates. He was one of two finalists vying to replace Dawn Foley, who submitted her resignation last year.
His three-year contract with HUSD would have paid him an annual base salary of $210,000. Carman also was one of three finalists for the superintendent job last year with the Peoria Unified School District.
But news that he was put on paid leave in March by the second largest school district in Texas raised concerns with board members.
A forensic audit by the Socorro Independent School District found that Carman potentially manipulated contract awards by directing work to ADM Group, an architectural firm headquartered in Tempe with an office in Austin, Texas.
Richards was named interim superintendent last June after Dr. Dawn Foley abruptly resigned only a few months after she had been named the district's next superintendent.
Richards has been with Higley Unified since 2011, when she became a principal. She was named in 2017 executive director of elementary education for the district, a position she held until 2021, when she was named associate superintendent.
She holds a bachelor's degree in education from Texas Christian University and a master's in education from West Texas A&M University and earned her superintendent's certificate in 2022 from Northern Arizona University.
The board's choice of Carman as the next superintendent began unraveling in late March.
Travis Casner, a certified fraud examiner, said that a public records request to Carman's previous employer, San Bonito Consolidated Independent School District uncovered "a potential conflict of interest related to an employee or vendor."
"There were about a hundred or so from within this five month period but one of the observations from our review is that Dr. Carman assisted ADM group with business development activities," Casner said.
He pointed out that in January or February of 2022 Carman via email asked ADM representatives to "review his portfolio submission for his candidacy for the superintendent position at Sorcarro ISD." Carman got the job in February 2022.
Within a week of Carman assuming his new role, the Socorro board authorized going out to bid for architectural consultant services for 16 auxiliary gyms, according to Casner.
Casner said that Carman in February, after he was hired, emailed ADM and discussed that the work on the district's facilities analysis of the gyms may come sooner rather than later.
In April of that year before the request for proposal went out, the scoring criteria was revised, Casner said.
He said that the 20 points for past experience with the district "was removed and reallocated" at Carman's request.
In an interview with the forensic auditor, Carman said he was directed in his actions by members of the board's Executive Committee.
Carman said that the members "did not want the district to select firms that had been previously selected as part of the bond program for architectural services and for him to implement changing the scoring criteria such that the 20% of the points that are awarded to firms who have worked with the district in the past by removing those points that would give the firms who have not worked with the district previously an opportunity to win that work," Casner said.
Casner told the board at the March meeting that he was unsuccessful in trying to reach the two Executive Committee members who supposedly directed Carman on the selection process because they are no longer trustees.
"When we tried to interview them we were unable to connect with them," he said.
The board also at the time changed a policy to allow the superintendent to chair the Administrative Review Committee and help evaluate the proposals.
Six days later when the committee met to discuss the 10 bid proposals for the gyms, Carmen informed them that the board's Executive Committee members did not want to pick any firms that had worked with the district under the 2017 bond program, according to Casner.
During the administrative review, it was determined that eight had previously worked with the district as part of the bond program and two, including ADM Group had not, Casner said, adding that ADM received the highest score.
"Dr. Carmen was one of the four individuals that evaluated the proposals for the 10 firms and also signed the conflict of interest acknowledgement," Casner said.
Trustees in May awarded ADM Group the contract for an amount not to exceed $100,000.
Six months later ADM won a $49,479 contract from the district with no other quotes.
"We determined that that no other quotes were obtained, which for the price amount and based on the purchasing policy that would have required other quotes especially in this situation the quote was not from a purchasing cooperative," Casner said. Our recommendation was that the board reviews this information with legal counsel regarding any next steps."
Carman reportedly was hired by the El Paseo school district in 2022 with a three-year contract starting at $335,000.
According to HUSD's contract with Ray & Associates, if the district becomes dissatisfied with the new superintendent within two years from the date of hiring, and if either party dissolves that relationship either by resignation or termination, the firm will conduct a new superintendent search for free. The only expense to the district would be for travel, candidate interview costs and advertising expenses.
If you go
What: Higley Unified School Board meeting
When: 5 p.m., Wednesday, May 8
Where: 2935 S. Recker Road, Gilbert
