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The much maligned search for Montgomery County’s next school superintendent has gotten even messier over the past week.
Members of the Montgomery Public Schools Board of Education received an email last week with information about Zickeyous Byrd, one of two finalists for the superintendent position, and his links to a virtual school scam that resulted in several Alabama educators receiving prison sentences and left Conecuh County Schools – where Byrd was then serving as superintendent – forced to repay hundreds of thousands in fraudulently obtained funds.
The email was a shock to board members, who said they were previously unaware of Byrd’s ties to the scam, and has raised more questions about the thoroughness of the search process. That process has already drawn sharp criticism from a wide range of Montgomery officials, including the mayor, county commission chairman and chamber of commerce president – individuals who rarely align on any topic.
“I will have to say that I was very surprised that this information was not presented to the board prior to this time,” said MPS board member Cassandra Brown. “The first I heard of it was when this email came to all of us, and even then we were left to seek out the information for ourselves. This is not a small thing. I would have preferred that Dr. Byrd present this information to us and be up front about it so at least I could say he was honest about it. It’s very disappointing.”
For his part, Byrd told APR that he and Conecuh County Schools were victims of the scheme cooked up by then-Athens superintendent Trey Holladay and a former football coach from Marengo County.
“We were misled by a company that fraudulently and inappropriately obtained funds from the State of Alabama,” Byrd said in a statement. “As soon as I became aware of the situation, I took immediate action and worked directly with the Alabama Department of Education to ensure that all funds allocated to Conecuh County Schools based on the enrollment of students who were improperly registered, were fully returned.”
However, the situation was a bit more complex, as laid out by a federal indictment, and Byrd refused to answer repeated questions about the specifics of his involvement and the involvement of those on his staff at CCS.
To be certain, the FBI and federal prosecutors believed that Byrd, and possibly other unnamed CCS officials, was heavily involved in the scheme, because an 80-page indictment unsealed in Feb. 2021, specifically mentions “the Conecuh County superintendent” and also cites “CCS officials” as actively participating in some aspects of the scheme.
The fraud, in a nutshell, involved public schools officials in Athens, Limestone and Conecuh working with two private companies to obtain the personal data for hundreds of private school students. That data was then used to fraudulently claim that those students were enrolled in the virtual schools of those public school districts, resulting in more than $7 million in improper payments flowing to Athens, Limestone and Conecuh.
Six different educators, including the superintendents in Athens and Limestone, were convicted or pleaded guilty in the scheme. Byrd was not among those indicted or convicted.
A source close to the investigation told APR in 2021 that there were no indictments from Conecuh County because officials there did not personally profit from the scheme. The district did illegally profit, however, and was forced to repay more than $800,000 in improperly received state funds.
Additionally, the federal indictment, which outlined what law enforcement believed occurred, specifically noted that “CCS officials” accompanied David Webb Tutt, a former football coach and owner of Tutt Educational Services, to three separate private schools as they attempted to obtain the data for private school students, who CCS would then fraudulently claim were enrolled in the district’s Genesis Innovative (virtual) School.
“In or about May of 2018, Tutt went to CCS offices in Evergreen and offered to recruit private schools to enroll their students in Genesis Innovative School for the 2018-2019 school year,” the federal indictment reads. “CCS officials agreed to allow Tutt to recruit private schools. In or about June of 2018, Tutt and a CCS official went to the campus of Abbeville Christian Academy and attempted to persuade Abbeville Christian Academy officials to provide student information that could be used to fraudulently enroll Abbeville Christian Academy students in Genesis Innovative School for the 2018-2019 school year.”
The indictment states that Tutt and “a CCS official” also went to Meadowview Christian and Jackson Academy seeking the same information.
Asked multiple times who from CCS went with Tutt, Byrd refused to answer, saying only that it wasn’t him. He also declined to provide additional details about any disciplinary action taken against CCS employees as a result of the federal investigation.
“At no point did I ever visit any of the schools involved,” Byrd said. “This was an unfortunate and troubling situation, and the individuals responsible were ultimately held accountable and prosecuted. Since that time, I have continued to serve as a superintendent in Alabama with a commitment to addressing the needs of students, families, and communities across this state.”
For Brown, the unanswered questions about the virtual school scam are problematic because she and other board members – multiple board members told APR that they found out about the virtual school issues only late last week – have no opportunity now to speak with Byrd about the situation. Additionally, the search process has eliminated multiple other candidates for the job and the board is now concerned that other information could have been missed.
“This is a pretty big thing to miss,” Brown said. “It puts us in a very bad spot.”
The board is set to name a superintendent at its April 8 meeting.
