Proposal to Give Superintendent Smith Increased Authority Over District Contracts
At a time when the district is strapped for funds, there’s a proposal to give the superintendent increased authority over district contracts.
Under the old rules, the board had to approve contracts that exceeded $25,000 but under the new rules the board would only have to approve contracts over $150,000. That’s quite a jump.
The new rules also give Smith authority to ”designate in writing any District employee or employees to exercise all or a portion of the superintendent’s powers and duties”.
On the surface the contracting changes may not seem to be concerning but central office departments have budgeted over $25 million for non-instructional personal/professional services in the upcoming year. How much of the contracting is truly necessary and how much of that should be diverted to the classroom?
You can read the full document here.
2 comments
Good eye on this, Carrie. I was amazed that the school board would vote away power. Kind of like the banks where $10,000 triggers a report, but $9,999 doesn’t. Will there now be a lot of $124,999 contracts? One of the best ways a citizen representative can monitor a public agency is by having a say “before” the money is spent.
It looks like the Board wants to give Carole Smith (or possibly Zeke?) a gigantic blank check? Why would they do that??? I think I smell something extremely nasty coming down the pike.
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