In midst of controversy, Fresno Unified hires temporary PR help

The Fresno Unified School District hired two East Coast public relations specialists known for reshaping reputations — and who previously worked for the district as full-time employees — a week before Superintendent Michael Hanson held a news conference to address a controversial construction deal.

Fresno Unified is paying Jamilah Fraser and Shana Kemp each $100 an hour through Aug. 31 to assist the district’s 10-person communications department. Fraser’s and Kemp’s contracts are not to exceed $14,900, according to Fresno Unified spokeswoman Amy Idsvoog. Contracts larger than $15,000 require school board approval.

Their arrival comes in the midst of a pending lawsuit that alleges Fresno Unified misused the bidding process to favor Harris Construction when it was selected to build the nearly $37 million Rutherford B. Gaston Middle School. The school district is now pushing the case to the Supreme Court.

Hanson had been mostly silent about the issue until earlier this week, when he held a news conference about the lease-leaseback deal in question and announced a website overhaul that includes details about previous lease-leaseback deals and videos about how they are beneficial to the community.

Fraser and Kemp, who now oversee the communications department at Medgar Evers College in New York, underwent scrutiny when they first were hired by Fresno Unified in 2012 because of their ties to a Philadelphia superintendent who was embroiled in controversies involving no-bid contracts, racial violence in schools and disputes with teachers. Fraser and Kemp stepped down alongside Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman in 2011, after media reports said Fraser was in charge of deflecting attention from Ackerman’s ordeals with propaganda-type messages.

Fraser said her work in Philadelphia was damage control and denied allegations about propaganda, saying, “I don’t create stories that aren’t there.”

Fraser — who was named on a 40 Under Forty list last year by The Network Journal, a magazine for black professionals — said she specializes in “quelling crises and reshaping reputations.” She took credit for “rebranding” FEMA after it received criticism for its handling of Hurricane Katrina.

“I get great satisfaction in turning things around,” Fraser told the magazine.

In 2012, Hanson said Fraser and Kemp’s past in Philadelphia was irrelevant and hired Fraser as the district’s chief information officer and Kemp as a communications analyst. The two stayed in their jobs for about a year and a half.

Idsvoog said Fraser and Kemp’s current two-month contracts are to help plan the district’s annual convocation scheduled in August, in addition to “general communication services.” She said the extra help is needed since one position in the department is vacant and another employee is on vacation.

When asked about Fraser’s and Kemp’s purpose outside of convocation, Idsvoog said, “It just depends.”

“It could be little stuff, something as simple as writing a press release,” she said. “It’s just general things that pop up.”

This is not the first time Fresno Unified hired Fraser and Kemp as consultants since they left the district in 2013.

Last year, Fresno Unified trustees went back and forth at a board meeting about whether hiring the out-of-towners for short-term work was necessary. Then, the board voted 4-3 to approve contracts not to exceed $95,000 for Fraser and Kemp to do “written and video communications” and help plan the convocation.

The board members who voted against hiring the two said then that it was inefficient to hire people with full-time jobs across the country, and that the district’s communications department already has employees capable of doing the job.

“I understand they attempt to make their access wide, but I still have that concern,” Fresno Unified Trustee Christopher De La Cerda said in 2014 after voting against Fraser and Kemp’s hiring. “I believe we should be looking closer to home rather than across the country.” De La Cerda did not return calls Friday.

Fresno Unified Trustee Janet Ryan said Friday that she voted to approve last year’s contracts with Fraser and Kemp and she would’ve voted for it again, had it come before the board.

“They are excellent at their jobs,” Ryan said. “[The communications department] is overwhelmed.”

Fraser’s replacement, Micheline Golden, resigned in March after spending one year on the job. Two other chief information officers have resigned since Hanson became superintendent, including Erin Kennedy, who stayed for one year, and Peri Lynn Turnbull, who stayed for two years. Idsvoog is interim chief information officer.

Fraser did not return calls Friday.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 3:46 PM with the headline "In midst of controversy, Fresno Unified hires temporary PR help."