In his last job as a consultant he was caught on tape angrily confronting the investigator who launched the statewide review of suspicious test scores. This time, James Wilson, has been hired to help the Cobb County School District convince voters to support a sales tax referendum.
Though Wilson's job with Cobb has nothing to do with testing , his hiring is still controversial.
Some board members objected that he previously worked for Cobb and that his firm, Education Planners, was selected based on narrow credentials that few could match. In a 4-3 vote, the firm was awarded a $75,000 contract to produce a list of construction projects that might be placed before voters in a sales tax referendum next year.
Several years ago, Wilson was surreptitiously recorded when he met with Kathleen Mathers, then the director of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement. She had launched a statewide analysis of wrong-to-right answer changes on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
The analysis raised suspicions of cheating in Atlanta and also in Dougherty County, where Wilson was working as a consultant.
Local school superintendents "all feel like they're about to get their butts fired because of you," Wilson told her.
When pressed to explain, Wilson continued: "I'm not going to give you any threats. But let me tell you, I can get there."
Mathers asked if he was telling her not to "look under the hood of the car," and Wilson responded: "No, I'm saying we should have fixed the car before you looked under it."
The recording was made public in January after Channel 2 Action News obtained it using the Georgia Open Records Act.
At the time, Mathers said the recording was "one example of the resistance we faced." On Monday, she declined to characterize it further.
Now, as he did in January, Wilson said he wasn't trying to coerce Mathers. He characterized their discussion as a difference of opinion. It was several years ago, and the investigation was new and shrouded in mystery, he said.
"I just simply said I didn't think it was being handled correctly," Wilson said. "It gave the impression that every teacher in the state was guilty."
Wilson said he didn't realize he was being recorded and added: "I'm sure I came on too strong."
Cobb school leaders said the incident was irrelevant to the work Wilson will do for them. His firm will assemble a list of construction projects that the school board might then ask voters to approve in a five-year Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST.
"I don't think anybody here condones what occurred," said school system spokesman Jay Dillon. He said, though, that "it's not relevant to his SPLOST experience, which is extensive."
Wilson's experience includes time as a deputy superintendent for Cobb, where he also held the title of interim superintendent about a dozen years ago. He went on to run the Fulton school system before retiring in 2008 and becoming a consultant. His firm had the best, and lowest priced bid.
His insider status -- and the design of the bid competition -- is what bothered some board members, including Alison Bartlett. Bidding was limited only to firms that had done such work previously, she said.
"I felt like it limited our bidders," Bartlett said. "I thought it was an exclusionary requirement."
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