BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Two Baltimore City school board members who promised transparency are now refusing to answer questions about a $21 million school contract they approved. A contract that included a fellow board member’s company.
Kwame Kenyatta-Bey and Ashley Esposito are up for reelection in a few weeks, but it seems they’re not living up to their campaign promise from four years ago.
In 2022, Bey and Esposito were candidates for the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Leading up to the election, Project Baltimore interviewed both eventual winners and asked about transparency.
“Transparency is the key,” said Bey at the time. “If we don’t have open communication, if we don’t look at the problem together, if we don’t look at the solutions together, we don’t move forward.”
Muhammad resigned as a member of the city school board after the FBI raided KEYS headquarters on Liberty Road in Baltimore (WBFF)
“I do agree that they should be more transparent,” Esposito stated in 2022, regarding City Schools. “They should lean into the uncomfort of doing interviews because there would be nothing to report on if they address the root cause of the issue.”
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Now, four years later, Esposito and Bey are running for reelection, and despite strongly supporting transparency as candidates in 2022, neither has interviewed with Project Baltimore regarding a conflict of interest concern that’s surfaced just weeks before the 2026 election.
On June 10, 2025, the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners voted 8-0 to approve a three-year vendor contract, worth an estimated total of $21 million, to provide mental health services to students. Eleven vendors were selected for the contract, including KEYS Development – where the resident agent, according to online state records, is Mujahid Muhammad.
In 2022, Kwame Kenyatta-Bey and Ashley Esposito were candidates for the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners (WBFF)
Last month, Muhammad resigned as a member of the city school board after the FBI raided KEYS headquarters on Liberty Road in Baltimore.
But in 2025, Muhammad was a sitting board member when Esposito and Bey voted to include KEYS in that $21 million vendor contract. In other words, Esposito and Bey voted to give taxpayer money to a company owned by their fellow board member.
“That becomes a significant conflict of interest,” said Anirban Basu, a former Baltimore City school board member who served from 2005 to 2011. “It’s very bad practice for the school system to be doing business with its own school board members.”
According to school board policy it is a conflict of interest for a school board member to, “Use their position” or “City Schools resources”, “for personal benefit.”
Project Baltimore emailed City Schools asking if the board members were “aware of Muhammad’s involvement with KEYS Development?” North Avenue did not directly answer the question.
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Project Baltimore then wrote Esposito and Bey directly, who are the Board’s only two elected members. The rest are appointed by the mayor. We asked, “Were you aware on June 10, 2025, of Muhammad’s involvement with KEYS Development when you voted to approve the $21 million contract?”
Neither replied to our emails. We wrote their election and school board email accounts.
Project Baltimore wrote Esposito and Bey directly asking, “Were you aware on June 10, 2025, of Muhammad’s involvement with KEYS Development when you voted to approve the $21 million contract?” (WBFF)
Remember, when Esposito and Bey were running for election in 2022, both said they support transparency.
“You need transparency,” said Kenyatta-Bey in 2022.
“Absolutely,” stated Esposito at the time.
Now, with the 2026 general election three weeks away, and a potential scandal developing on the school board, Bey and Esposito are not making themselves available.
City Schools told FOX45 News it canceled Muhammad’s contract after paying out $80,000 to KEYS in the first year.
Follow Project Baltimore’s Chris Papst on X and Facebook. Send news tips to cjpapst@sbgtv.com
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