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School chief's son is paid consultant
By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- In the last four years, the son of Hillsborough school superintendent Earl Lennard has received $10,676 in consulting fees on top of his regular salary from the school district. Now Jeremy Lennard, a $33,000-a-year media specialist at Riverview High, will earn more. He and three school district employees have formed a computer business called Alafia Logic Inc. as an outgrowth of their individual consulting work. The company already has been hired to put together an $1,800 software package for the South County Career Center. On Tuesday, the School Board will be asked to approve conflict-of-interest statements from Lennard and his three partners. The disclosure is something school officials say should have been made earlier to address any perception of impropriety. Employees file disclosures when there is a potential conflict of interest or a perception of one. "Should we document potential conflicts of interest?" School Board member Candy Olson asked. "We have done that. Should we have done it sooner? Probably." Jeremy Lennard, 28, said he did not file a conflict-of-interest statement earlier because he was never asked to by district officials. He said the recent statement was filed since the company he and his partners have formed was doing work for the district as a separate business entity. "We want to be on the up and up," the younger Lennard said. Lennard has been paid as a consultant for duties since 1999, including patching cables, maintaining and updating the district's Web site, developing Intranet software and installing memory upgrades. Olson said she doesn't think Lennard benefited because he is the son of the superintendent. He shouldn't be penalized either, since many district employees moonlight for the district, she said. "It can be a disadvantage to be related to a high-level administrator," Olson said. Superintendent Earl Lennard said he played no part in the hiring of his son as a consultant. "There's never been an intent to hide anything or keep anything from being disclosed," he said. Alafia Logic was incorporated in March to develop and market software and consultant services to businesses and government entities, "including, but not limited to, the school district," according to the conflict-of-interest statement. On documents submitted to the Department of State, Jeremy Lennard is listed as the company's registered agent. His partners are Dane Hamilton and Jerry Thompson, teachers at Riverview High, and Eric Peterson, a teacher at Jefferson High School. All four employees filed conflict-of-interest statements with deputy superintendent Jim Hamilton. All four school district employees have been paid as consultants. In addition to the South County Career Center job, Alafia Logic could benefit from a popular computer program Jeremy Lennard and his partners developed for Riverview High free of charge that is used to track student tardies. The partners claim they hold joint property rights to the program, along with the Hillsborough school system, should they decide to market it. Peterson said he's unsure if the company will do more work for the school district. "That's sort of an undecided point right now," he said. "We feel like Hillsborough County teachers and students would benefit tremendously from doing business with us." -- Melanie Ave can be reached at 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com .
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