Superintendent's wife worked nearly 6 months as district consultant

Monday was not the first day that Darlene Moss, the Beaufort County School District's new director of innovation, worked for the district.

For nearly six months during last school year, Moss worked as a consultant for the school district that is headed by her husband, Jeff Moss. As superintendent, Jeff Moss also determined that his wife's contract work was not a conflict of interest.

Darlene Moss was paid $6,383 for her work from Dec. 10, 2014, to May 30, 2015, training teachers and producing career- and technology-education workbooks, according to district spokesman Jim Foster. Her one-woman firm, Coast of the Carolinas Consulting LLC, was awarded the job over eight other applicants.

The district's nepotism rule does not forbid Darlene Moss -- or any other family member of a district employee -- from doing contract work for the district. It reads that "the matter shall be reported to the Superintendent immediately to determine if a conflict of interest exists."

Foster said that policy was followed. After Karen Gilbert, director of the district's career and technology education program chose Darlene Moss for the contract work, Superintendent Jeff Moss was notified. He did not see a conflict of interest so his wife was granted the contract job, Foster added.

In an abundance of caution, Jeff Moss notified the school board that his wife had received the contract, Foster said. Jeff Moss did not oversee his wife. Gilbert did.

Over the course of nearly six months, Darlene Moss worked with local career- and technology-education teachers and administrators to produce a new work-based learning handbook and provided training to those teachers, all to aid the district in creating more effective student internships.

"We determined that the district's student handbook was outdated, and also that student, teacher, and employer forms and processes needed more clarity to ensure effective promotion, enrollment, monitoring and compliance in providing quality internships," Foster said. "(Darlene) Moss was interviewed and determined to be the most qualified and capable candidate. Her resume and work history were outstanding and showed ample evidence of her experience and expertise with CATE programs."

Jeff Moss has been a vocal advocate of the district's career and technology education since he was hired in 2013, and has overseen plans to expand offerings and build two facilities for the programs. One is under construction at May River High School in Bluffton and the other is an addition to Battery Creek High School, that is also under construction.

Her consulting work did not require any approval from the school board, though school board chairman Bill Evans said he had no problem with it because the district followed procedures for seeking requests for proposals.

"She was selected based on the merits of her proposal," Evans said.

Evans, Jeff Moss and several other district officials and board members say the same of her recent hire as the new director of innovation that pays $90,000.

But the decision has raised the hackles of others.

Two school board members and a host of residents have said the circumstances of the hiring were inappropriate, pointing to several actions by the district: Jeff Moss revised the nepotism rule to eliminate language that could have excluded his wife as a candidate, and did not tell board members about the change.

On Tuesday, a local businessman filed a complaint against Moss, Evans and the school board with the S.C. Ethics Commission. In his complaint, Skip Hoagland alleged that the hiring of Darlene Moss was nepotism and that her connection to her husband afforded her both an unfair advantage in the application process and will provide a permanent advantage in her career with the district, according to documents provided to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.

Hoagland wrote, "This issue represents an egregious and obvious conflict of interest and as such, undermines the public trust."

Commission director Herb Hayden said he cannot confirm when the commission receives a complaint. It can comment once a complaint is dismissed, scheduled for a hearing or is under investigation.

Nepotism

The Beaufort County School District's nepotism rule addresses family members who work as consultants for the district:

"When an immediate family member of the Executive Leadership ... is offered employment with a current contracted service or construction vendor associated with the (school district) and/or a company that has submitted a bid offer package to the district, the matter shall be reported to the Superintendent immediately to determine if a conflict of interest exists."

To read the district's complete list of ethics rules, http://bit.ly/1iTgYOm.

Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

Projects team editor Gina Smith contributed to this story.

Related content:

• Most Beaufort school board members decline comment on hiring of superintendent's wife, September 16, 2015
• Hiring doesn't come up at school meeting, but 2 board members, resident see issues, September 15, 2015

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Superintendent's wife worked nearly 6 months as district consultant."