Incoming Higley Unified superintendent placed on leave at current Texas job

The incoming superintendent of a southeast Valley school district has been placed on paid administrative leave from his current superintendent job in Texas following an audit report.

Nate Carman was selected as Higley Unified School District's next superintendent in February from among 30 candidates, seven months after the district's former leader resigned. Carman is set to join Higley Unified in July.

On Monday, Carman was placed on paid administrative leave from his role as superintendent of Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, following the presentation of an audit report that identified a "potential conflict of interest" related to his role in selecting a district vendor.

Carman denies any wrongdoing.

The external auditor, Weaver & Tidwell LLC, found about 100 email communications between September 2021 and February 2022 between Carman, who was at the time the superintendent of San Benito Consolidated Independent School District in the southern tip of Texas, and the client relations director for ADM Group, an Arizona-based architecture and interior design firm that specializes in schools and also has an Austin, Texas, office.

During that time, Carman assisted ADM Group with business development activities, including providing information about conferences to attend and guidelines for interacting with board members, connecting the client relations director with other superintendents in the region and "planning an itinerary for the representative to visit south Texas," auditor Travis Casner told the Socorro district board on Monday.

Casner said the client relations director attended a conference as Carman's guest at least once during that period. In early 2022, Carman asked the ADM Group director to review his portfolio submission for the Socorro superintendent position.

In February 2022, after Carman was selected as superintendent of the Socorro district, he emailed the ADM Group director to discuss the possibility of providing a facilities analysis of gymnasiums and to say that "work may be in store sooner rather than later," Casner said.

Within a week of Carman starting as superintendent of the Socorro district, the district's board authorized the solicitation process for architectural consultant services for 16 auxiliary gyms, Casner said. In April, Carman and several board members attended the National School Boards Association conference and attended an event hosted by the ADM Group.

Before the request for quotes for architectural consultant services was sent out, the scoring criteria were changed to remove points automatically granted to vendors who previously worked with the district. Carman made that decision, telling Casner that it was a way to implement a request from members of the district board's executive committee not to choose firms previously selected under the district's 2017 bond program.

Casner said he could not contact the two board members Carman said made that request. They are no longer on the board.

Before the proposal window ended, the board approved a policy that was revised to include the superintendent as the chair of the administrative committee tasked with evaluating proposals. Members of the administrative committee told the auditor that Carman informed them of the board executive committee members' desire not to select any of the firms that worked with the district under its 2017 bond program.

In late April 2022, the administrative review committee finalized its evaluation of the 10 proposals submitted. Eight of the candidates had previously worked with the district as part of the bond program, and ADM Group received the highest score from the committee. Casner said Carman signed a form declaring he had no conflict of interest and was one of the four people who evaluated the proposals.

In May, the Socorro district awarded ADM Group a $100,000 contract for architectural consulting services. The contract was approved by district administration alone, based on a policy that stated contracts under $100,000 don't need to be approved by the board.

After a more than hour-long closed-door session on Monday, the board voted 6-0 to place Carman on paid administrative leave. One member abstained from the vote.

In a statement provided to The Arizona Republic, Carman said that board policy was followed to authorize the solicitation process in March. He's confident there were no violations, he said.

"Any mention of 'conflict of interest' is without merit," he wrote. "State law and board policy defines 'conflict of interest,' and simply using the term as conclusory without the proper context is simply irresponsible."

Carman also said that unlike an official investigation conducted by the Texas Education Agency, the branch of state government that oversees public education, the audit was conducted by a third-party company selected by the Socorro district board to work under its direction.

Higley Unified School District spokesperson Jessica Bautista said the district and its governing board were aware of the Socorro district's recent events.

When Carman was selected as Higley's new superintendent, board President Michelle Anderson noted Carman's decades of experience in education and leadership and said she was confident that he would "continue the great work of prioritizing students and providing limitless opportunities for learners in our district," according to a news release.

In addition to serving as superintendent of the Socorro and San Benito districts, Carman has also been superintendent of Teague Independent School District, which serves a rural area about halfway between Dallas and Houston.

Reach the reporter at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Incoming Higley superintendent placed on leave at current Texas job