NC superintendent responds after state IT chief threatens to cancel his 'emergency' Istation contract

State Superintendent Mark Johnson sent a six-page letter to the state's IT chief Tuesday defending his decision to sign a late-night "emergency" contract worth $928,570 to keep a controversial reading program in schools.

State information technology leaders sent a memo to Johnson last Friday disputing that his payment to Istation, a K-3 reading test vendor, constituted an "emergency." They warned that state IT chief Eric Boyette may cancel the contract and asked Johnson to provide answers to five questions about the purchase.

In his response, Johnson blamed DIT for putting him in the position to need to sign the contract and said if he hadn't done so, tens of thousands of children would not have been tested in their reading skills the very next day.

"North Carolina's public schools are required to have one statewide reading diagnostic tool in place throughout the entire school year," Johnson wrote.

Johnson's 2019 decision to award the state testing contract to Istation drew a challenge from Amplify, a rival testing vendor who previously held that contract. The administrative challenge has been tied up in the state IT department, and a quasi-judicial hearing has been ongoing this week.

Johnson said he had authority to sign the emergency contract under rules that allow him to make purchases without the usual required pre-approvals in cases of "pressing need" or "emergency" outside of normal business hours. He argued students that use Istation would otherwise not have had access to it during one of three test periods required by state law.

Johnson notified the Department of Information Technology of the purchase after the fact.

Meanwhile, the State Board of Education is considering changes to how it approves contracts after finding out Johnson signed the emergency contract without the board's knowledge.

Last week, the state board's chairman sent a letter to Johnson to note the board's "concern" that Johnson did not give advance notice of the emergency contract. The chairman also asked Johnson to answer seven specific questions about the contract as soon as possible, but no later than Jan. 17, and to make a presentation at the board's next meeting in early February.