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Trustees debate policy vendor choice and express concern over legal invoices for policy work
Summary
Board members questioned recurring legal billing tied to policy work and weighed continuing with ISBA versus NEOLA; trustees suggested consolidating meetings and involving administrators to speed policy updates and reduce costs.
Trustees spent a substantial portion of the meeting debating how to bring the district’s policy manual up to date and how to limit related costs. Several trustees said many district policies are outdated — some dating from 2009–2014 — and that the board moved to two policy meetings per month to catch up.
Trustees contrasted two vendors: the Indiana School Boards Association (ISBA), which several trustees described as less expensive and which provides state‑law‑aligned templates, and NEOLA, which trustees said historically required more custom drafting. “ISBA is cheaper than Neola,” a trustee said; another trustee recalled NEOLA’s services cost in the “twenties” of thousands of dollars when used previously.
Board members also flagged legal invoices tied to policy research and drafting. One trustee read an invoice showing “9 hours and 40 minutes” of policy‑related time billed at $1,888 in a single month and warned that, at that rate, annual policy‑meeting work could approach $20,000. Attorney Harris and legal staff explained that extra charges often reflect research and drafting time outside of the attorney’s regular retainer and that scheduling policy meetings on the same day as board meetings could shorten meeting time and reduce the total billed hours.
Trustees proposed operational fixes: hold one policy meeting a month instead of two, pair finance and policy committee schedules so committees meet on alternating weeks, include the relevant administrators (finance director, athletic director, food service manager) in policy meetings to speed technical decisions and consider executive sessions following board meetings. One trustee suggested changing the notice policy (commonly 48 hours) if the board reduces work sessions, to give staff more review time.
No procurement or policy‑adoption vote occurred at the meeting. Trustees directed staff to continue policy work, provide cost estimates and return with recommendations on meeting cadence and vendor options.
