School chief says outside job OK

Ash disclosed his part-time employment with Ribas Associates after posts on an online discussion forum pointed out that he was listed as a consultant on the firm’s website and questioned whether it created a conflict of interest. The Ribas website also lists the Lexington public schools as a client.

But Ash told the School Committee Tuesday that each time the school district has hired Ribas Associates during his tenure as superintendent, the decision was made without any input from him. He said he is not aware of any conflict of interest, and he added that his contract with Lexington allows him to conduct outside consulting.

“At no time did I ever receive any financial benefit due to Lexington’s contract with Ribas Associates,’’ Ash said. “At no time did I perform any work for Ribas Associates that related to the Lexington school system.’’

School Committee chairwoman Margaret Coppe said she first learned of Ash’s employment with the firm when questions were raised last week in a series of e-mails on a discussion forum.

“It probably should have been disclosed earlier, but he has disclosed it now,’’ Coppe said in an interview.

Coppe said that she consulted with Lexington’s town counsel about Ash’s consultant work and that she does not believe that he received any financial gain from Ribas Associates’s work for the school district.

“At this point, we have no further concerns,’’ Coppe said.

But Coppe said she did not know if the School Committee will pursue the matter further. She also said she does not know if Lexington will hire Ribas Associates again.

Ash’s salary this year as superintendent is approximately $208,000, according to a copy of his contract posted on a local public records website.

Ash said Lexington schools first hired Ribas Associates to provide training to administrators in 2001, more than four years before he was hired as superintendent, in July 2005.

Ash said he was hired as a part-time consultant by Ribas Associates in 2004, when he was superintendent of schools in Westwood. Since then, he said, he has earned about $10,000 a year consulting for Ribas. Ash said his compensation has not changed since he signed his first contract with the company.

He said that some of his consultant work has been done on weekends and that it never interfered with his duties as superintendent.

In 2007, Ash said, administrators in Lexington’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction told him they wanted to hire Ribas Associates to train new administrators. At that time, Ash said he disclosed to those administrators that he had a small consulting contract with Ribas. The decision to hire or not hire Ribas was theirs exclusively, Ash said.

The district hired Ribas that year for a period of four to six days and again in 2008 and 2009. Ash said that he provided no input on hiring Ribas and that the district does not have a current contract with the company.

The school district paid Ribas about $6,000 in 2008 and roughly the same amount in 2009, Ash said.

School Committee member Tom Diaz said that he was on the committee when Ash was hired and that there is a provision in Ash’s contract allowing him to work as a consultant outside the school district.

“In my view, [Ash has] not only done nothing illegal, but done nothing that deserved a smear campaign,’’ Diaz said during Tuesday’s meeting.