BACK TO SCHOOL: Michigan Department of Education’s Certification Compliance Investigation of Bay City Academy’s “Superintendent” Brian Lynch

The Michigan Department of Education’s (MDE) investigation into the certification status of Brian Lynch, who became Superintendent of the Bay City Academy at the beginning of the 2016/2017 school year without the School Administrator Certification required by the state, was initiated after my August 9, 2021 email inquiry to the MDE seeking clarification.

My email sought clarification, stating that is was my understanding “that if a School Administrator does hold a valid certificate, and is employed more that six months without being enrolled in an approved program leading to the certification, the school (and the administrator) are not in compliance with Michigan law.”

My email noted that although Lynch had formally acted as the Bay City Academy’s Superintendent “continuously since the 2016/2017 school year” his Michigan Online Educator Certification record revealed only lapsed teaching certification.

The initial MDE response to my inquiry offered a status update on Brian Lynch, while clarifying the MDE School Administrator certification requirements:

“It appears that Bay City Academy no longer employed Mr. Lynch as of 4/30/2015. Additionally, the requirements by the Michigan Department of Education require that School Administrators to hold valid certification did not begin until September of 2018. Prior to that, school administrators were allowed to be “grandfathered” into their positions without needing to hold a certification. Mr. Lynch’s current position as the head of the Academy’s management company does not have a certification requirement.”

The next day, August 10, 2021, I sent a response to the MDE email.

Here is an excerpt:

“Regarding this statement from your response (“Mr. Lynch’s current position as the head of Academy’s management company does not have a certification requirement.”), while Brian Lynch is indeed head of the Bay City Academy’s management company (Mitten Educational Management) since 2015, he has also been paid separate compensation as the BCA’s Superintendent since the 2016/2017 school year.”

I included these 2016–2019 Lynch/Bay City Academy Superintendent compensation package reports to my response:

According to documents obtained from the MDE through a Freedom of Information Act request, my email exchange prompted swift action, opening an investigation into Lynch with this terse statement from an August 10, 20121 email from an MDE official to a department colleague:

“Please respond with:

We do not have a record of an administrator certificate for Brian Lynch. You are correct that the law and administrative rule requires superintendents to hold a valid certificate or permit.

And then open an investigation for this person.”

The colleague responded to the supervisor, in part, with this comment:

“But he isn’t their Superintendent, and in the attachments that Anita provided, it says “Mr. Lynch does not receive a salary from Bay City Academy. He is directly paid by Mitten Educational Management LLC.”

The supervisor’s response offered this statement about Michigan public school academy (PSA) employees:

“All PSA employees are paid by the mgmt. company. Just because he’s paying himself from his own management company doesn’t mean he isn’t paid to be supt.”

The colleague responded, in an email shown below.

(I have removed the names of the MDE officials, and their respective email addresses, to maintain confidentiality during the Lynch investigation.)

(“REP” refers to the MDE’s Registry of Educational Personnel, the comprehensive database used to produce school personnel reports for the U. S. Department of Education and the state of Michigan.)

But the MDE Administrator Certification investigation may not be the only one Brian Lynch faces.

According to the Bay City Academy’s current Lake Superior State University charter contract (aka “Contract To Charter A Public School Academy And Related Documents”), Lynch’s ongoing double-dipping money grabbing antics are expressly prohibited, and could result in revocation of the Academy’s charter contract.

Ah, I smell another investigation.

And I bet the Michigan Treasury department would love to know how Mr. Double-Dipper scooped a pile of cash he was contractually barred from snatching during the Bay City Academy’s (and I quote the MDE’s June 2021 “Deficit District Report”) six-year span of “rapidly deteriorating financial circumstances”.

I guess my work here is not done!

More on this next week.