He’s back. Mike Miles, former superintendent of Harrison School District 2 and a 2004 Colorado U.S. Senate candidate, returned to Colorado Springs over the summer after abruptly resigning in June from his job as superintendent of Dallas Independent School District in Texas.

And despite rumors circulating in education circles, in an interview with The Gazette this week Miles said he’s not backing any candidates for Colorado Springs School District 11 board seats in the Nov. 3 election.

“I have no interest in getting involved in any school board races,” he said. “People tend to make up stuff.”

Miles also said he has not applied for the Colorado state education commissioner job, another rumor.

Miles, a self-defined education reformer, said he’s focusing on rebuilding the education consulting business he had before he went to Dallas. The company, newly renamed Third Future, helps educators “build effective schools” by coaching leaders, aligning systems, improving instruction and raising achievement, according to its website.

He closed his former firm, Focal Point, because his contract in Dallas wouldn’t allow him to continue consulting.

The new company is working to produce a leadership conference for school principals in January at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Miles said.

“We’re trying to support principals, coach principals, look at new competencies. It’s all positive and a team effort.”

Among his company’s team members are his sister, Shirley Miles, and educators he has worked with in Dallas and Colorado Springs.

Miles said he left the Dallas job after nearly three years of a five-year contract to return to Colorado Springs and be with his family.

His wife and one son, now a high school freshman, moved to Dallas for one year but returned to Colorado Springs after protesters calling for his removal as superintendent picketed near his house.

Reports from the Dallas Morning News said Miles resigned days after telling board members he wanted changes to his contract, including that the board would not look for a new superintendent during his tenure.

“It wasn’t a bad thing,” Miles said of his sudden resignation. “My family has been here two years without me, and it’s time I came back.”

Miles worked for six years at Harrison D-2 before taking over in Dallas; he was a controversial leader in both districts because of his top-down, no-nonsense management style and techniques he used to turn around failing schools. In D-2, he led the implementation of a pay-for-performance system for teachers and a policy to hold back failing third graders.

A teacher who worked in Harrison from 2004 to 2008 said she left the district because Miles’ treatment of teachers was “unfair.”

“That’s putting it politely. Each year he served as superintendent, there was at least 50 percent turnover of staff,” the teacher said, asking to remain unnamed because she works in another area school district. “He was so unfair and so unreasonable, and he destroyed the union.”

Several Harrison union association members sued Miles, including former union president Donna Shipley, for rights’ violations under his policies and won settlements.

In Dallas, Miles increased teacher observations, instigated a rigorous teacher pay-for-performance and principal evaluation system, gave high salaries to his top administrative team and expanded school choice.

“I’m just a simple guy trying to make a difference,” Miles said, adding that he’s “very proud” of his accomplishments in Dallas, such as high achievement growth and improved kindergarten readiness as a result of an early childhood development program.

Miles said he’s been a public servant throughout his adult life, as an Army officer, a U.S. diplomat and a public school educator.

“I’m hoping to serve in public education in some capacity here,” he said.

But he denied another rumor, that he is gunning for the superintendent’s job in District 11, which has been filled by Nicholas Gledich since he was appointed in 2009. Gledich has no plans to leave, said D-11 spokeswoman Devra Ashby.

“There are no positions open of superintendents I know of that I would be interested in,” Miles said.