Superintendent Defends Vetting of Ex-Principal Following Discovery of “Fraudulent” Degree

ELi broke the news yesterday afternoon of East Lansing Public Schools Superintendent Dori Leyko’s stunning announcement that former high school principal Shannon Mayfield had provided the district “fraudulent” evidence of a doctorate degree. According to Leyko, Mayfield resigned his position shortly after being confronted about the alleged fraud.

Now, in the wake of sharp questions from citizens about whether Mayfield was properly vetted before he was hired as ELHS principal last year, Leyko has provided ELi more information about that process.

To be clear, Mayfield did not claim to have a doctorate degree when he applied for the ELPS job. 

He started the job as ELHS principal in July 2022 and, in December, told the district’s Human Resources (HR) department that he had recently completed a doctorate at Wayne State University. If it were true, this would entitle him to a bonus stipend of $4,000 under his contract.

ELi has obtained the application submitted by Mayfield for the ELPS job. The document shows that, when he applied to ELPS, he claimed to have been attending Wayne State University since September 2018 for a degree in “Ethical Leadership” and that he expected to obtain the degree in December 2023.

Upon hearing from Mayfield in December that he had just earned his doctorate, the district’s HR personnel undertook the process of verifying that degree. 

But upon contacting Wayne State, ELPS’ Chief Human Resources Officer Rulesha Glover-Payne found out on Feb. 24 “that Mr. Mayfield had not earned any degree from their university and had not been enrolled as a student there since 1999,” according to Leyko.

“Subsequently, on February 27, 2023,” Leyko said, “our HR department received a Wayne State University transcript for Mr. Mayfield showing four semesters of coursework in 2021 and 2022 with an earned degree in Organizational Leadership. The registrar at WSU has confirmed that the transcript is fraudulent.”

Confronted, “He refused to answer our questions and submitted his resignation Friday [March 10],” Leyko said.

Leyko says vetting was properly done at the time of hiring.

Asked to explain what happened during the hiring process, Leyko said Mayfield submitted transcripts for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Detroit Mercy.

“The undergrad and graduate transcripts from Detroit Mercy were not verified [by ELPS] with the institution [Detroit Mercy],” Leyko told ELi by email late Thursday night. 

She said that is because the district assumed the Michigan Online Educator Certification System (MOECS) had done that verification.

“The Michigan Department of Education (through MOECS) would be responsible for verifying transcripts when they award teacher and/or administrator certification,” Leyko said. “So, if MOECS has awarded these certifications, we should be able to assume they are valid. Mr. Mayfield has valid Michigan Administrator Certification through 2026.”  

Leyko said that, according to MOECS, “He was awarded School Administrator Certification by the Michigan Department of Education and was working for ELPS with valid credentials.”

At the time Mayfield applied for the ELPS job, the district did not check to see that he was, in fact, enrolled at Wayne State University, pursuing a doctorate, even though the claim was on his application to ELPS.

“It’s not unusual to not require transcripts for a degree in progress,” Leyko explained in her Thursday night email, “so we did not require these documents for a doctorate-in-progress upon hire.” 

“A background check was completed,” she said, “and reference checks were completed with individuals Mr. Mayfield listed as references, along with additional individuals we contacted who were not listed in his resume or application. He was hired with valid administrative credentials and verified with an electronic signature that all of the information on his application was accurate and truthful.”

We asked Leyko who performed the background check. She said it was done by an HR administrative assistant.

“Our background check,” Leyko says, “was a fingerprint-based background check completed by the Michigan State Police Department.”

As for who checked the personal references, Leyko said she did that herself.

“I spoke with some of the references he submitted and then also sought out some additional individuals from online research I did to find individuals who had worked with him in prior positions.”

“I feel confident with the process we used last spring to vet and hire the principal,” she concluded.

ELi is waiting for documentation.

On March 8, working off tips, ELi filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the district for “any documents showing evidence of fact-checking of Mr. Mayfield’s resume in conjunction with the search process for hiring the new principal that led to his hire.” 

We have not yet received those documents from the district. Under state law, the district has until March 28 to provide the materials we requested.

The reason we didn’t publish about this matter sooner than yesterday was that we didn’t have enough information to report before then.

Questions are being raised about a prior job application, too.

Citizens now looking into Mayfield’s past have turned up a document that appears to show that, when applying for a previous job, Mayfield claimed to be working on a doctorate at another school. (Three sources have sent ELi the same document.)

Some of those looking at this prior application have raised criticisms, saying the ELPS administration should have done this level of digging and checking before hiring him. 

In over eight years of reporting, ELi has never seen a governmental vetting of job candidates that included digging up applications for prior jobs and checking the claims on the prior applications against the current one.

Leyko is not planning to file criminal charges.

“At this time,” Leyko said, “I do not plan to press criminal charges. I’d prefer to move on and spend my time working on more impactful work that will improve the school experience for our students and families. I don’t want to spend additional time or resources on this.”

She notes that the district never awarded the $4,000 stipend for “the claimed doctorate degree.”

On Friday afternoon (March 17), the Lansing State Journal reported that Mayfield says that breaking up a fight and a heart attack led to his resignation. Find that reporting here.

Please note: When this article was originally published, it quoted Leyko saying the district did a background check using ICHAT, the Internet Criminal History Access Tool provided by the Michigan State Police. After publication, Leyko contacted us to say that, in fact, “Our background check was a fingerprint-based background check completed by the Michigan State Police Department.” The article has consequently been changed to reflect her correction about the process used.

This article is part of ELi’s ongoing Ask ELi to Investigate series, which has now been running for over eight years. Appreciate our public service?