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Okaloosa school board reviews $1.6M tag-on contract as district cites shortage of speech and therapy staff
Summary
The Okaloosa County School Board discussed a proposed $1.6 million tag-on contract for specialized therapy services and heard district staff describe local shortages of speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists that drive use of contractors.
The Okaloosa County School Board on Thursday reviewed a proposed tag-on contract valued at $1,600,000 for specialized therapy services and heard district staff say persistent local shortages of speech-language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists (OTs) and physical therapists (PTs) require hiring contract providers.
"How many contract employees does this $1,600,000 give us? Does anybody know?" a board member asked during discussion of agenda item 7.16, RFP 241,904, which was presented as a tag-on contract by Vince Windham, program director for purchasing.
"Good morning. So we have a deficit of available, speech and language pathologists, OTs, PTs, in our area. . . . So we do work with some of these contract companies . . . they do all the same things that the employees of the district do, but we just don't have enough people…
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