New Details on a Tulsa School Superintendent Finalist

One of the candidates to be Tulsa Public Schools next leader is being investigated by her current school board. <br/><br/>The move comes after a New Hampshire newspaper reported Wednesday, Doctor Julia

Thursday, June 8th 2006, 9:49 am

By: News On 6

One of the candidates to be Tulsa Public Schools next leader is being investigated by her current school board.

The move comes after a New Hampshire newspaper reported Wednesday, Doctor Julia Earl has taken seven trips, costing more than $9,000.

News on 6 education reporter Ashli Sims has done some digging to find out how Earl's travel compares to superintendents in the Tulsa area.

On her resume, Doctor Julia Earl describes herself as a "fiscally responsible and skilled financial manager." Now that phrase may come back to haunt her, as her current school board in Nashua, New Hampshire looks into seven trips she took at the public's expense. And the local newspaper reports she owes more than $150,000 in back federal and property taxes.

The Nashua Telegraph reports Earl on the job less than a year, was out of town for 40 of her first 179 calendar days on the job, including at least 20 when school was in session.

Earl told the News on 6 in a telephone interview, she was in constant contact with the district even when she was away. And she says the school board was aware of her travel, and raised no objections. Earl says all of her trips were education related. But the Telegraph reports four of the seven trips were to her home state of Texas, where she met informally with professional colleagues, not accredited education associations.

Tulsa School Board president Matt Livingood says attending professional development is part of the superintendent's job. "I would hope that the superintendent would engage with the board president or board officers in conversation about what is appropriate under the circumstances both in term of frequency and types of programs.â€

Tulsa's outgoing superintendent Doctor David Sawyer has traveled just once in the last two years, to a conference at Stanford University. That trip was privately funded. In Jenks, Superintendent Doctor Kirby Lehman traveled more frequently in the last year with five trips since July. But Jenks officials say four of those trips were related to the district's winning the national Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. The total bill to the taxpayers was about $2,000. Earl's trips cost Nashua taxpayers about $9,000.

The New Hampshire school district is facing a $4-million budget shortfall and 100 employees were recently laid off to cut costs.

The Tulsa School Board is working with a consulting firm that specializes in superintendent searches to screen candidates. The News on 6 talked to a member of that firm and he says some of this information about Doctor Earl would have come out anyway. He says they do a credit check, civil action check and a criminal background check on all of the finalists. And the board is set to receive that report on Monday.