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Board discusses procurement controls, printing budgets and a $75,000 permissive levy
Summary
Board members and staff discussed tightening Amazon ordering and requisition coding, cleaning up credit-card oversight (most cards have $2,000 limits), addressing chronic overrun of $3,000 per-building printing allowances, and researching the permissive levy that currently yields $75,000 annually.
District staff and board members spent a substantial portion of the meeting on procurement controls, printing budgets and possible revenue options for technology.
The most immediate procurement concern was decentralized ordering. Staff described a system in which many people can place Amazon orders and approvals that previously routed to a single reviewer no longer do. "They had to approve it before it got ordered, but that has quit this fall, and I've not had anybody approve orders for me," an administrator said, describing how orders that used to go to a single reviewer now go directly through individual cards.
Credit-card oversight is concentrated with a few central staff: Deann and Gloria currently oversee cards, and the group said most card limits are $2,000 except for one card-holder (Diane) who holds a different limit. Staff recommended reducing who can order and tightening who may enter requisitions in iVisions so building budgets are not overspent.
Printing and copy costs drew particular attention. "Each of the buildings are given the same, $3,000 a year for printing purposes. And they're already over that," an administrator said, adding the district owns 85 printers; black-and-white pages are inexpensive (about a fraction of a cent per page) but color printing and toner costs contribute to overruns. The group discussed pulling monthly usage data and running a cost-savings initiative so savings could be reinvested in classroom technology.
Technology systems were also on the table. One speaker said the district pays roughly $30,000 a year for Tyler Technologies and that it has not been fully used; staff said they would work to better leverage Tyler and iVisions to produce accurate building balances and reduce manual reconciliation.
On revenue, staff said the permissive levy currently provides $75,000 a year and has been at that level for more than 20 years. Conference contacts and peer districts' experience were cited to suggest that passage odds improve when levy requests are narrowly targeted (for example, technology or safety measures with a specified purchase plan).
Staff said they will research levy timing, cost to place a measure on the ballot and whether a narrowly scoped tech or safety levy would be more viable than a broad permissive request. They also committed to pulling reports on printing and procurement usage and to present options for limiting ordering rights and centralizing coding in iVisions.
The meeting did not include any formal motions or votes on procurement rules or levies; staff will return with data and recommendations for board action.
