Vernon Township board approves recommendations package after debate over retroactive IT assessment

At its Dec. 12 work session, the Vernon Township School District board of education voted to accept a package of recommendations presented by district staff that included the 2023–24 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR), a corrective-action plan in response to audit findings, approval of the preschool program plan and a professional-development purchase for the Tools of the Mind preschool curriculum.

The recommendations also included a retroactive statement of work with High Point Solutions Inc. for a systems assessment (Project ETSD 16596) in the amount of $21,805 and a before‑and‑after care agreement with the Vernon Police Athletic League covering Dec. 16, 2024, through June 30, 2025. Chair requested and received a motion to accept the full set of recommendations; the motion, moved by Mrs. Pellet and seconded by Mr. Krauss, carried on roll call.

Why it matters: the package bundles financial and program-level decisions that affect district operations and student services. The corrective-action plan responds to audit findings affecting the food-service program and fixed-asset reporting; the IT assessment grew out of a recent winter storm that knocked servers offline and exposed potential vulnerabilities in recovery procedures.

Officials’ discussion and concerns Administrator (staff) summarized the corrective-action items and audit findings, saying the food-service program has multi‑year operating expense concerns and rising student lunch debt and that a fixed-assets inventory needs updating. "We revamped the letter that goes out to everybody," the administrator said, describing collection and process changes underway for unpaid meal balances. The administrator also noted the fixed-assets recommendation will likely require obtaining quotes or issuing an RFP to hire a company to perform a full inventory.

Board members pressed for clarity about how food-service (Fund 60) dollars may be used and asked that committee reports and recommendations be circulated in advance so the full board can ask informed questions.

High Point Solutions and disaster recovery The board held an extended exchange about a retroactive High Point Solutions assessment. The administrator said the district sought emergency county approval after a winter storm forced systems offline and described the contract as a retroactive approval to assess and restore services: "We reached out to the county business administrator and asked for emergency approval to move forward. So this is a retroactive approval," the administrator said.

Several board members said the vendor's scope as written focused on server and infrastructure review but did not explicitly guarantee a disaster‑recovery or business‑continuity plan ready for immediate operational use. As one member put it, the assessment may identify that the district "need[s] a plan," but that alone does not provide an immediate recovery procedure. The chair asked staff to follow up: the board requested confirmation from technology staff about whether a separate disaster‑recovery or business‑continuity product should be added to the scope or contracted as a follow‑on deliverable.

Vote and next steps After discussion, the board conducted a roll-call vote on the recommendations package; the chair announced, "Motion carries." Staff said they would follow up with clarifying information about the High Point Solutions scope and with any recommended next steps, including whether additional procurement steps or a separate disaster‑recovery engagement will be required.

The board then closed public comment, invited staff to pursue scheduling and notices related to upcoming meetings, and moved to executive session. No further public actions were taken that night.