I’ll try to stay reasonably serious this week, but some things are just too ridiculous to pass up. On Friday, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced that it had selected the NYC Leadership Academy to provide principal training and development services. The press release proclaimed that the Leadership Academy was “chosen from among multiple bidders in a competitive procurement process.” The DOE is negotiating a five-year contract for a total of $50 million, beginning Tuesday, July 1.
Long-time followers of New York City public schooling are aware that the NYC Leadership Academy was created by the DOE in 2003, and Chancellor Joel Klein serves as a Director of the organization. (At least according to the organization’s IRS filings – its website doesn’t list him as a director.) The Leadership Academy website describes the Leadership Academy as “the centerpiece of the NYC Department of Education’s transformational strategy,” a phrase that also appears in DOE press releases, and the staff have e-mail addresses provided to employees of the DOE. The April press release announcing this extraordinary competitive procurement spent more time crowing about the Leadership Academy’s accomplishments than describing the request for proposals.
So: The DOE had a competitive bidding process to award a contract to an organization that Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein had created and publicly supported over the past five years. Remarkably, the report of the award indicated that there were three other bidders. I can only imagine who would seriously think they had a shot at this.
Probably the same people who think they have a shot at this. In related news, skoolboy, who has been happily married for many years, is announcing a competitive procurement for spousal services. The successful bidder will have experience attending to the needs of a partner like skoolboy. Prior joint ownership of property with skoolboy and collaborative experience raising a family a plus. The date of the bidder’s conference will be announced later.