Is an Onteora trustee in violation of the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) model code of ethics for owning a business that helps high-school students prepare for college? The trustee says no. District officials also say no.
NYSSBA declined to comment on the specifics of this issue, instead offering a series of hypothetical situations.
The query began last month when a former Onteora trustee who declined to be identified by name reached out to a reporter with a screengrab of a social-media post by Emily Mitchell-Marell, who was elected to the school board in May 2023. In a shorter public post on Facebook on September 8, Mitchell-Marell discussed her educational qualifications and shared a link to her academic consulting business, CollegeNext.
“I am officially certified by UCLA and for hire as an Independent Education Consultant (IEC), a.k.a. a private college counselor for high-school sophomores, juniors and seniors,” wrote Mitchell-Marell. She was looking for three to five students to work with for the fall.
The CollegeNext website (collegenext.co) cites its objective as “[getting] to know students to help them find the spaces and places where they will be comfortable and able to thrive through regular meetings, self-reflection and planning college tours. We can help with whatever you need in your journey applying to and getting into college. We are all about finding the right match for you by creating a balanced list of colleges — likely, target and reach — all of which you’d be happy to end up at.”
The former Onteora trustee believes this business is a violation of elements of NYSBBA’s code of ethics, which reads: “In their official capacity, school board members should not engage in any personal or commercial activity which presents a conflict of interest or an appearance of impropriety which would bring discredit upon the school district, its staff and/or its students; must publicly disclose the nature and extent of any personal interest in any proposed contract or agreement that comes before the board and recuse oneself from voting as appropriate; [and] must never use one’s position as a school board member to benefit either oneself, a family member or any other individual or entity in a manner inconsistent with the law or one’s sincere belief that one is acting in the best interest of the school district and all stakeholders.”
The former trustee said Mitchell-Marell should step down from the school board.
An ethical hypothetical
In an interview, NYSSBA deputy executive director and general counsel Jay Worona addressed the role of the model code of ethics approved by the organization’s board of directors in February 2018.
“Well, just so you know, our code of ethics, it doesn’t mean anything,” said Worona. “When we talk to our members, we want to tell them what we think constitutes the appropriate type of actions that board members should be involved in, so that they can well serve their public, so the institution of school board service can be revered hopefully and respected, right? But if a school board member doesn’t follow our code … it doesn’t mean anything.”
Worona discussed hypothetical situations which might or might not represent a breach of NYSSBA’s code of ethics, or even a legal conflict of interest.
“Let’s say that I’m a school board member and I am a bank president,” Worona said. “And there’s coming before the board a vote on which financial institution should be the official depository institutions for the district. And let’s assume as the bank president that every type of
business I bring in or I’m responsible for I get something in my remuneration or commission.”
In this scenario, the trustee has not disclosed their role as bank president or their to the district, or that they stand to personally profit from a contractual relationship between the two parties. “I have a financial interest in the vote that’s about to transpire,” Worona said. “So that constitutes a legal conflict of interest.”
The line in the sand
But a trustee who is a bank teller in the same scenario does not represent a conflict of interest. “At that point, my remuneration is not in any way, shape or form connected to this vote as to whether the bank does or does not secure this client,” Worona said. “So that’s not considered therefore a legal conflict of interest because I’m not going to be enriching myself.”
The trustee could opt to recuse themselves from that vote to assure there wasn’t an appearance of impropriety, but that’s up to them.
Ultimately, Worona said the line in the sand is: “Is there a direct pecuniary gain that this person is going to be making in their capacity as a school board member based upon their relationship with the district?”
The same rules apply for education-based businesses. Worona said that there would be a clear conflict of interest if a trustee owned a business that provides tutoring to schoolchildren and entered into a contract with the district to provide those services.
What if there were no contract between the two parties? Worona said that was not a problem. “Let’s say I teach piano lessons to kids,” he hypothesized. “And a lot of the kids, because it’s a small community, happen to go to the school district that I’m a school board member in, right? That’s not a conflict of interest unless the school district is somehow promoting and involving itself in the promotion of my piano-playing business.”
Just helping out
Worona extended the hypothetical scenario to include a family that’s just moved into a school district and asks a school principal for piano-teacher recommendations.
“If the principal were to say, Hey, this particular person is really well-respected. In fact, they went to Juilliard, and that person happened to be a school board member, I don’t think that’s necessarily problematic to send them that way,” Worona said. “Usually the best way, of course, is to give several names. But if that person’s name is on the list, I don’t see that as an issue at all. You’re just helping somebody out.”
It wasn’t a relationship with the district, per se, he maintained “It’s a small community, and you’re just sending somebody their way. And it’s not because they’re a school board member. It’s because they fulfill a particular function that could be helpful.”
NYSSBA was consulted
Onteora schools superintendent Victoria McLaren said that there hasn’t been an issue with Mitchell-Marell being both a school board trustee and owner of CollegeNext.
“The NYSSBA was consulted, and provided the opinion that there is no violation of the NYSSBA code of ethics,” McLaren said. “I have not encountered any agenda items that I felt Ms. Mitchell-Marell would need to abstain from voting on. I don’t recall this topic coming up previously.”
Mitchell-Marell declined to be interviewed for this story, but offered an email. “I’m glad my volunteer work for the school board was not found in conflict with my livelihood,” she wrote. “With my almost 20 years’ experience in higher education, I am helping students with college placement and look forward to building CollegeNext.”
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