A former D.C. Public Schools instructional superintendent has been fined $15,000 after pleading guilty to accepting nearly $170,000 in undisclosed “consulting fees” from a vendor she favored in professional development contracts.
The D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, which enforces the city’s ethics rules as an independent agency, reduced the fine from a maximum of $125,000 after Mary Ann Stinson admitted to 25 violations of city rules governing outside employment.
An investigation concluded that Ms. Stinson earned $169,464.82 from Relay Graduate School of Education while steering teachers and staff to take its continuing education courses between 2018 and 2023.
“In consideration of Respondent’s acknowledgement and agreement, [the Office of Government Ethics] will seek no further remedy and will take no further action related to the above misconduct,” Norma Hutcheson, the board’s chair, said in a notice signed Thursday. “By agreeing to settle this matter via a negotiated disposition, Respondent will allow OGE to avoid expending significant time and resources to litigate this matter through a contested hearing, and to focus its finite resources on other investigations.”
The former superintendent has agreed to pay the city $5,000 by Nov. 3 through a certified check or money order. Beginning Dec. 3, she must make monthly electronic payments of $833 and continue until she settles the full amount by November 2026.
Ms. Stinson earned $195,219 from DCPS in 2023 and left the school system in June. She did not respond to a request for comment.
An online search found her listed as “MaryAnn Stinson,” an elementary school teacher at Lounsberry Hollow School in Vernon Township, New Jersey, about an hour’s drive from New York City.
Neither Relay Graduate School of Education nor Lounsberry Hollow School replied to an email seeking comment.
Marlon Ray, a former DCPS director of strategy and logistics at Boone Elementary School in Ward 8, demanded in a May 2020 whistleblower complaint that city leaders investigate “evidence of procurement fraud” in city contracts signed with Relay.
He dismissed the fine as a slap on the wrist.
“Stinson, driven by personal financial interests, negatively affected thousands of Black elementary students who cannot get a do-over,” Mr. Ray said in an email. “And DCPS condoned it.”
Mr. Ray lost his job in a 2021 downsizing and is suing the city for wrongful termination. He insists he was pushed out for implicating Ms. Stinson as a Relay “double agent” while she oversaw Boone as an instructional superintendent.
D.C. government watchdogs say the practice of city employees taking unreported second jobs has become widespread under Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration.
On March 10, the ethics board fined instructional superintendent Andria Caruthers $2,500 for “using government time or resources” to work as a Relay facilitator between 2022 and 2024.
Ms. Caruthers, who remains in her job, has not responded to a request for comment.
D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson, a former Democratic member of the city council who reviews local agencies, said bureaucrats receiving unreported income from outside employers is “consistently the most frequent issue” the ethics board handles.
Ms. Patterson’s office noted in an April alert that the District requires just 25% of its workforce to file annual financial disclosures. It called on the mayor to implement a “District-wide requirement that employees report their outside employment” to managers.
The mayor has not responded to the recommendation, which the ethics board also endorsed.
The office of Ms. Bowser, a third-term Democrat who took office in 2015, did not respond to emails seeking comment. Neither did members of the Democrat-led D.C. Council.
’Militaristic’ attitudes
Relay launched a formal partnership with DCPS in 2017 to offer training programs for charter school teachers and district administrators, prompting complaints from some parents that the private graduate school promoted “militaristic” attitudes toward low-income Black students.
According to the ethics board, Ms. Stinson started working for DCPS in 2010 and became an “independent contractor” for Relay in 2017 while serving as principal of Truesdell Elementary in Northwest.
She became an instructional superintendent in 2019. That put her in charge of principals and procurement requests at 12 schools, including several Ward 8 campuses such as Boone and Excel Academy.
The board charged Ms. Stinson with working for Relay during school hours and using her DCPS email address to conduct Relay business. It also charged her with recording a February 2023 trip to a Relay conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, as “sick leave,” and requiring DCPS employees to attend Relay leadership courses.
In one case, email records show that she pressured a principal to sign a $30,000 contract with Relay after its officials “suggested” that it happen.
When DCPS began requiring Ms. Stinson to submit financial disclosures of outside income in 2017, the board discovered that she had lied about what Relay paid her.
According to Relay records, the former superintendent received $59,824.95 in 2021 and $47,834.51 in 2022. But she reported to DCPS that she earned “between $1,001 and $15,000” as a consultant each year.
Ashley D. Cooks, director of the Office of Government Ethics, said Ms. Stinson violated several D.C. employment policies.
“Ms. Stinson was subject to the Code of Conduct, which includes rules that: prohibit engaging in financial conflicts of interest; require a full and complete disclosure of interests; prohibit the misuse of government property; and prohibit engaging in outside employment that conflicts with government service,” Ms. Cooks said in an email this month.
A DCPS spokesperson pointed to a recent policy change requiring school system and campus leaders to “affirm their compliance” with D.C. ethics rules governing outside employment.
DCPS declined Monday to comment on how it enforces that compliance.
“Use of government time or resources for employment outside of the district does not align with DCPS values and responsibilities to the students and school communities we serve,” a spokesperson said in an email earlier this month.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.