Ex-school official pleads no contest in scheme to steer $900,000 contract to friends, family

The former small-business development manager for the Philadelphia schools pleaded no contest to perjury Wednesday involving charges that she steered a $900,000 contract to businesses owned by her friends or family.

Priscilla Wright, 52, of East Germantown, entered the plea before Common Pleas Court Judge Robert P. Coleman in a deal in which the District Attorney's Office dismissed a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest count.

Coleman immediately sentenced Wright to the agreed-on sentence of two years' reporting probation.

Defense attorney Brian J. McMonagle said neither he nor Wright wished to comment on the plea and sentence.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew Wellbrock said the plea did not require restitution to the School District. Wellbrock said Wright would forfeit her district pension because of her plea to the felony perjury charge.

Wright worked for the district for more than 13 years. She resigned in January 2015, four months before she was charged as a result of a county grand jury probe, as the $62,169-a-year manager of the small-business office in the district's capital projects department.

At issue was an investigation into the awarding of a contract to Murphy's Transporting Services and its subcontractors.

Wright was called to testify before the grand jury and denied taking any action involving the contract. That testimony was contradicted by other witnesses and emails she sent using her School District account.

According to the charges filed by the District Attorney's Office, in March 2013 the School District began closing 23 schools and issued a request for bids from vendors to move school property from closed buildings to other sites.

Wright used her job to ensure Murphy's Transporting and several subcontractors, all owned by her friends or her relatives, won the bid.