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District staff proposes raising contract signature authority to $100,000 to speed school services
Summary
Saint Lucie Public Schools finance staff proposed raising the district's contract signature authority from $50,000 to $100,000 and increasing the quote threshold from $8,000 to $10,000 to reduce delays for student services; the board signaled support and asked for ongoing transparency and an itemized informational report after approvals.
Kim Albritton, a representative of the district's finance department, asked the board July 29 to raise the contract signature authority from $50,000 to $100,000 and to increase the district's quote threshold from $8,000 to $10,000, a change staff said would match federal quote thresholds and speed procurement for services such as special education and mental‑health contracts.
Albritton told the board the limit was last raised in February 2014 and that inflation and rapid district growth (she cited an increase of more than 15,000 FTE since 2014) have increased the number and urgency of contracts schools must execute. "We'd like to take it from 50,000 to 100,000," Albritton said. She said all contracts would remain subject to audit review and that the finance department recently received a financial audit with zero findings.
Superintendent Dr. Prince said he supported the proposed $100,000 limit as a continuation of the prior pattern of doubling the cap and emphasized that contracts above the threshold would still come to the board. Several board members urged additional transparency measures: one asked that signed contracts under the new limit be listed on a future informational agenda so members could review what the superintendent had executed.
No formal policy change was adopted at the work session. Dr. Prince said the recommendation would proceed through the district's policy review process and return to the board for ratification; he and staff said implementation would follow board approval.
