A big contract went to a San Jose private school run by the mayor’s wife. Was it competitive?

Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School's president and CEO is Silvia Scandar Mahan, the wife of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan

A city contract worth nearly $1 million was awarded to a San Jose private high school run by the mayor’s wife, with officials assuring it went through the routine competitive bidding process, though other leaders at other schools say they weren’t aware of the opportunity.

The deal raised eyebrows at the June 20 City Council meeting after Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School nabbed the contract. City officials, meanwhile, insisted they performed the proper outreach to numerous schools in the city so that everyone had a fair shot.

The private school, they contended, was the only one that applied for the funding for work-study programs at City Hall for high school students.

But officials at two area public school districts now say they were never made aware of the opportunity, raising questions about how Cristo Rey San Jose, whose president and CEO is Silvia Scandar Mahan — Mayor Matt Mahan’s wife — secure the program’s five-year contract worth $862,500.

Just four years ago, the same high school was first awarded the multi-year contract and two local superintendents said they weren’t contacted by the city about it. Sam Liccardo, who was mayor at the time and is Mahan’s political ally, established the school with his wife Jessica Garcia-Kohl in 2012.

Superintendents at both Fremont Union High School District and Campbell Union High School District both told the Bay Area News Group that they couldn’t find any communications from the city about the work-study contract.

“I do not have a record of being notified of the program,” Robert Bravo, superintendent of Campbell Union High School District, wrote in an emailed response. Graham Clark, superintendent of Fremont Union High School District, had a similar answer: “(W)e didn’t receive any notification about this particular RFP,” referring to the city’s “request for proposal” that it posts publicly whenever it sends out a contract for bid.

The two districts oversee a total of seven high schools in San Jose.

The contract — which was taken off the June 20 consent calendar to be discussed by councilmembers — was approved in a 7-3 vote, opposed by Councilmembers Domingo Candelas, Sergio Jimenez and Peter Ortiz. The mayor recused himself from the vote.

In a statement, the mayor said the city has worked with his wife’s private school “to create work study opportunities for low-income students for many years, long before I joined the Council.”

He added: “I recused myself from voting on the contract extension given that my wife is employed by the school. This is standard practice for any Councilmember to avoid conflicts of interest.”

Kelli Parmley, assistant director of Human Resources and whose department oversaw outreach efforts, said her team made both phone calls and wrote emails to individual schools. She said her understanding was that the school districts didn’t need to be contacted. Fremont Union High School District’s Superintendent Clark said that the district typically would be the one responding to an offered contract.

“We put it out there pretty broadly,” Parmley said. “And if someone now says we have to go out to superintendents, we’ll do that. But we really did our due diligence.”

According to the city’s bidding website, a total of six organizations took an interest in the contract and downloaded the application. Four weren’t schools — and the fifth was the San Jose Conservation Corps and Charter School. A representative at the latter said they decided not to apply after determining that its school couldn’t logistically host the program.

City documents show that the mayor’s wife notified the city of her conflict of interest in the application, along with Rosalynn Hughey, San Jose’s interim housing director, who and also sits on Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School’s board.

In 2019, when Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School was first awarded the multi-year contract, superintendents from East Side Union High School District and San Jose Unified School District both told San Jose Spotlight that they weren’t notified about the contract.

According to the news outlet, the revelations sparked an investigation by an independent watchdog, The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which argued that public dollars shouldn’t be going to a private religious school. At the time, the city promised to do better outreach when the contract came back up for bid.