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Committee clarifies procurement flow and asks for solicitor review of contracts
Summary
The policy committee reviewed procurement procedures, clarified the role of the purchasing agent and business manager in requisition flow, recommended adding local‑business consideration language where permissible under federal rules, and reaffirmed that contracts should be reviewed by the school solicitor before signature.
The Keystone Central School District policy committee reviewed procurement and contract procedures and asked staff to make several clarifying edits.
Members confirmed that the purchasing agent (Julie) will receive requisitions as part of the district’s submission flow and that final approvals funnel to the business manager. The committee agreed current language reflects operational practice — requisitions are submitted to the purchasing agent for processing, and approvals are handled through the business office rather than the purchasing agent exercising final signature authority.
On contracts, board members stressed the importance of solicitor review. The committee agreed to explicitly require school solicitor review of contracts prior to board president signature, noting the solicitor review can prevent costly errors. Members also acknowledged there is an hourly charge for solicitor work and asked that the board be made aware when extra legal fees are anticipated for complex contracts.
Committee discussed evaluation criteria for competitive proposals (cost, qualifications, experience, availability) and agreed that competitive‑proposal evaluations should be prepared by the business manager and federal programs coordinator and then reviewed by the superintendent and business manager. The school solicitor will be consulted as needed for contract drafting and review but will not be included in routine evaluation scoring.
On local preferences, staff noted federal procurement rules require outreach to minority, women, and veteran‑owned businesses for federally funded procurements; the committee agreed the policy can include “other considerations” language to show local businesses are considered, but it cannot give local vendors an unlawful preference for federally funded purchases.
Staff will return a redlined draft that adds the solicitor‑review box for contracts, clarifies submission vs. approval roles, and inserts an “other considerations” line that notes local businesses are to be included in outreach lists where consistent with federal rules.
