001please. Um, we have really just one uh policy on the agenda this evening as you can see that uh Kelly has pulled up on the screen. Thank you very much. Um, Kelly, could you just do me one favor and make sure that when the policies get opened um that we're at 125% viewing for everybody? Yes, I will. Thank you. I will be happy to turn this over to you, Kelly, um, and to to Mike as well for any input he may have on, uh, policies 3320 and 3323 that will replace our existing policy. Sure. So, thank you everyone. Um, as you can see from the agenda, um, we are going to move uh move away a little bit from the student series 5000 and into the 3000 series, which are our financing and budget policies.
002Um, and these are two policies that are important to get into place as we start the next fiscal year. Um, so currently we have this policy 3323. Um, and to update this one effectively, there is a new policy 3320 as well as a revision to 3323. Um, so what I'd like to do is turn it over to Mike as we go into um, the first policy which is purchasing procedures um, and have him do a brief overview for you guys on what the policy entails. Um and then we'll certainly open it up to any question. Thanks. Um so the first policy 3320 um in short is um business and non-instructional uh operations uh purchasing procedures. Um this is just outlining that the purchases uh the system for uh making purchases uh is going to be
003through uh Dr. aso and uh myself making sure that all of the um regulations that are in the other policies as well as uh any restrictions that grants uh any state or local um funding sources have uh as well as federal purchasing uh guidelines which largely don't apply to the general fund but are more so for um our grants funds. here in front of you. This first policy really outlines the authority of both the superintendent and the chief financial officer. Um and overviews the purchasing systems that are established that we have to buy proper products for the purposes intended which in our organization would be educational. Um that products have to be available uh when we need them that we buy the proper amount of a product uh and that we pay uh what is
004a fair or proper price. Um, and so this is kind of the um, overview or the shell for the follow-up financial policies that are to follow. So, I don't know if there's any particular question, but I think now would be a good time to ask. Um, go ahead, Terry. Uh, is the school system subject to uh the limits uh that city hall imposes on purchases over a certain amount that has to go through a committee or you just have approval uh you know without that step? Our our um purchasing and procurement doesn't go through the city. The city has their own um purchasing and procurement. They actually have a a special office uh run by Vulpi, I believe his name is. Ours is separate from that. Um but um our idea is to adhere to
005the the strictest of the guidance, whether that be city, state or federal and and that will be more specific to the next policy that we overview. Uh Teresa, the next outline some of the specific uh cost requirements. Okay. I was just curious. Thank you. Other questions from committee members. Um I do want to just point out the obvious here which is that this uh former policy which was passed in 1999 um is now splitting into two separate policies. Um and it definitely gets much more specific than the previous version that we have. So I think it provides uh some much stronger guidance uh to the financial the finance team and to the superintendent as far as you know what protocols are supposed to follow. Um any feedback from non-committee members? Okay, seeing none, I will
006ask for uh first uh recommendation to the full board for first read of uh policy 3323 um purchasing. Sorry, soliciting. Sorry, we're looking at 3320. My apologies. I apologize. 33. That's okay. No, she did do 23. I thought she said was 23. Nope, there's both. We started with 3320. We'll go to 3323 next. So this one that you just looked at is zero. Okay. All right. I'd make a motion to accept for first three 3320 as revised. I'll second that. Thank you, Terry. Thank you, Al. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. Motion so carries. All right. Thank you very much. And now we will move on to 3323 soliciting prices and bidding requirements. Um so this next policy uh talks a little bit about how we go about
007the bidding um process as well as uh the need for multiple quotes. Um and it does reference you will see here the previous policy um in its contents. Uh so I will turn over to Mike to go through the specific details. Um, so I I think the first thing to note is of importance is that first paragraph where we actually have the the dollar values listed. Um, 15,000 uh is the amount you're going to want to look at and 25,000. So I'm just going to um I'm just going to read it. All contracts for purchases of supplies, materials, equipment, and contractual services in the amount of 15,000 or more shall be based when possible on at least two competitive bids. So, anything 15,000 or more will require two bids. Anything over the next amount, next
008threshold amount, 25,000 will require three. Um there are uh in the next paragraph you'll see there are some exceptions for professional services. Professional services are uh any services performed by a profession, right? So any consultants, attorneys, accountants, um doctors to the extent that we we have those um and the other exception is if it is a sole source vendor. So if there is a vendor and they the the only vendor for a particular item uh which believe it or not does happen from time to time, uh that is also an exception. um in in that case uh and we had one recently. What we do is we ask the vendor to supply us uh with a soul source letter and that soul source letter is the vendor just saying that yes uh I am acknowledging
009that I am the only vendor and then in turn uh for audit purposes uh we or I would also prepare a sole source letter and that's the letter that the auditors are looking for is the letter from me saying yes we had an exception to our policy because it was a soul source vendor. Sure. An example I can give is sometimes we'll have a child um that requires a specific technological device um you know maybe as a communication device and there may be one uh vendor that makes that product. Um so if we know that there's only one vendor that produces that item, we are we are not going to go out to bid because there are not other vendors that we could get a competitive price from. Um so this acknowledges that there are
010instances and circumstances in which that occurs. Um but we have to show and prove that in fact only one company makes that exclusive item. And then uh you'll notice the very third uh the very next paragraph is she's talking about the uh third exception and that's if uh the the vendor is on the Connecticut v uh vendor list. It's already been vetted through uh through the state. Then it does not require competitive uh quotes. Uh and then of course all of that uh flows through as I said before the superintendent and and myself were our design. The vendor list uh who puts that out? The state of Connecticut? Uh what department? Do you want to describe that a little further? Um I I haven't looked at it in quite a quite a bit, but you
011can search for I I can share the link. Um, I have it on on my desk. No, no, it was just I was wondering, did it come from the board of ed? I mean, the state department of education department. Yeah. Yeah. I I'm not even sure if it's a department of education. I think it's state the purchase or statewide. It's the uh website. I was trying to find it or I was just curious. It's a it's a clunky site to navigate. Um, we could certainly share that out. You'll see what I mean by that. But basically it's it's kind of a marketplace where people compete, you know, compete for competitive bids and it's a way to assure statewide that uh the vendors have been approved, they've been vetted, um they have a reputation, but also
012that their prices by volume are um and and and service are competitive um and and are generally safe to use and have been vetted to some degree. Doesn't mean always mean that they're cheaper, ironically. It just means that they have been vetted. So, those are different things that we look for. Um, sometimes you can place a bid. I don't want to over complicate things, but um some you need someone can uh can fulfill it in two weeks, you need it before the end of the school year or by the start of the school year. Another vendor might not be able to do that. So, even though the price is different, um you you might uh you might choose a different vendor for for a specific reason. uh the Connecticut vendor list is uh anybody who's
013already been sort of put through the put through the paces of of those qualifications. The reason I asked because the library um through the uh the li state library they have uh vendor lists that are uh competitive. Uh and I was just wondering, you know, it's too bad the education department doesn't do something similar. Uh that's all that's that's where I was coming from. No, I I agree, Terry. It's it's a very clunky process. There are also consortiums that um yeah a part of um but that you still need to do a go through a bid process but it would be be wonderful down the line and maybe someday we can do this but where we co kind of already create our own internal list that these are the 10 vendors that Mike Weaver has
014vetted as you know our own internal and our our policy reflects that and that gets updated on an annual basis and approved um by the superintendent. Sounds good. Yeah, right now we're just trying to get to the July 1 and start fresh with some parameters in place for everybody for July 1. So, good job. Good job. Thank you. So, if we're continuing on um the next paragraph uh references the previous policy that you just looked at, basically saying we have to follow uh the bidding procedures including uh availability of items, are they the right quantity of items and so forth when securing um a product. Um here uh and I do think we should add as I'm looking at this again is when bidding procedures are used. We should add something here that says in
015excess of 25,000. These are larger bids like when we go out for our school lunch bid or special education transportation services um that we appropriately post them and that there's a secure bidding process for them. Um so this part is referencing um those larger contracts um that we have to have fair bidding practices for with due dates and timelines. Um and there are the availability of vendors to uh tell us um I want to be placed on on that list when you go out to bid for example school lunch specialed transportation um I want to be on that list to to be able to submit my competitive bid. Um may I ask a question here? Um you referenced the 25,000 u because that's a circumstance where we know we're likely to have to do that.
016Um but the previous um policy mentions the amounts over 15,000 requiring or aiming to to use uh at least two bids. Um so I and I just want to sort of ask some clarifying language at the front at the front of this policy here where where it says um when possible at on at least two competitive grants. So are the exceptions for that the ones that are listed right below and those are the only situations in which you would not uh it would not be possible to get the the two bids in. Is that correct? Yes. Um I I made reference before there are times where um either state, local or federal or or even uh on a grant level might have uh a different number stipulated. So for example, federal purchasing uh the limit
017is set to 10,000 um for any I believe they call it a micro purchase. So in that case, if something were to flow through to our uh grant coordinator and they were to notice that it was on a federal uh federally funded grant, then that 10,000 would be would be subject. Okay. Um, thank you for clarifying, Kelly and Mike. I just because I I just was looking at it here and I thought I saw, but it might have been in another policy that we were reviewing in preparation for this. Is there um an exception for an emergency by with superintendent like an emergency authorization where we have a I don't know a break of some sort of a water mane break. I don't know what it is. We need to bring ServeP Pro in here
018immediately or or something along those lines. We don't have time to go out and get bids and stuff. Is there language on this one? I thought I read it in another one, but I don't. I forgot about it. In in this policy, there's not, but in other policies, it does defer to the superintendent and in those types of situations, emergency situations. I think it it doesn't hurt to also include it in here if we wanted to. Okay. Maybe just a line for e like emergencies or something. So going going back to the area uh Kelly that you were talking about inserting. Sorry I see you're typing there. I'm just putting something in here. We can massage the language, but just for talking points. Um, back to the area that you were mentioning here where when
019bidding procedures are used in excess of $25,000, um, can you help me just uh process why $25,000 is the marker versus 15? I I think that was uh the 25,000 was just where it says note. It references the Connecticut General Statute uh 7-148. I think that and they're talking about the sealed bidding. Okay. Yeah. So that's the bidding procedure we're talking about. Okay. Yeah. And um Kelly referenced the transportation. We also just went through this with the school launch process. It was a sealed bid. So So these bidding procedures and again if we want to say um like sealed b billing, I'm sorry, bidding procedures. We could, but this is really meant for those larger contracts that go into place for a longer duration. This is not talking about the textbooks that we're purchasing that
020are, you know, 10,000, 15,000 or even 25,000. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate uh the explanation. Well, thinking of textbooks, what do you do with your old textbooks? So, I'll let you. Yeah, we're we're doing some house cleaning now. So, it depends on the on the book, Terry. For a while, we used to be able to sell them back. There was a company that would buy them back and and they wouldn't give you much, but it was, you know, was it was we we did due diligence on it just to we always made made sure that we checked the ISBN numbers to make sure that there was no value left. Um, so once there's no those those companies have recently disappeared uh with the surge of digital textbooks, right? So now um now what
021we do is as textbooks become obsolete and there are no we make sure that there's no uh value to the book at all then we just make a recording of if we have a hundred uh US history books from 1972 and here's the title and ISBN. We just jot that down and that they're discarded. We write discard on them and then we we usually we ask a hundred people if they want them take them home. home. We send them home with kids, but um they usually will get discarded if no one else wants them. But go ahead. We have a recycle company. They'll just give you um I believe for scrap value if you want me to pass that along. You're right. These these companies are disappearing. Yeah. And we have a hard time uh
022because the friends of the library uh get the monies that we so I don't know how much it is but they do pick it up. They do they're out of Massachusetts. Y I could send you the the name and maybe that could help you. I definitely I would I would welcome that. We're always looking for for Yeah. Yeah. take care of it. The other thing if I could just add and um Mike just uh reminded me this will come up as you continue to go through your um series 3000. There is a reference to discarding of materials such as textbooks in a later policy. Um so we can certainly revise it. Um we'll take the information now for sure but we can certainly add um additional language if we feel needed at that time. Are
023there any additional questions regarding this policy 3323? I have one more question. Sorry, this is not my committee. Just I'm thinking of I'm just thinking of it now. Mike, does this apply to school activity accounts? I keep I get that question that people know that we were uh working on this and they I've actually heard both yes and no. My my position on it was um was no that this refers to um only monies that were either a coming in through a grant or appropriated through the city. Okay. We we'll just have to be clear about that because I you know which which one this applies to. I don't know if we need to outline it here or just that's more of a me communication which I can certainly handle. So there's no policies for
024uh clubs. there is we we have um we do have a rather policy and procedure manual for student activity accounts uh in light of the um recent me um share share those definitely I thought that um we had copies of those distributed to us at one point when this conversation came forward mostly I seem to remember Edam I did that early on. Yeah. Um, so any other questions on this policy? Any questions from committee members or non-committee members about this policy? No, just a comment. I think it's very self-explanatory that we we need to, you know, push it on so we can have it in place. Yeah. The only the only other thought that I had if if it made it as we added more things under the exceptions, if it makes it easier to
025read, we could list them. There are four different exceptions. I could put a like colon and just one, two, three, four if that makes it easier. I think that's a good idea, Kelly. Yeah, anything for to make it easy. I'll clean up the actual formatting, but it would look like this. Yeah, that's better. I think we can get rid of some of the additionally when we do the numbers. Does that look okay to everyone? Are there any questions about any of the other highlighted additions that we made just during our discussion? see any um in that case I'll call for a motion uh to recommend for first read to the full board for policy number 3323 business sorry soliciting prices and bidding requirements. Thank you Terry. Is there a second please? Is there a second
026on this motion, please? Second. Thank you, Anita. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any abstensions? No. Any nays. All right. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Um before we wrap up, I just want to acknowledge that um this policy that we just reviewed, which is specific to our financial practices, uh was done to make it a little bit easier as we head into the next fiscal year. Um it is my hope that as we get into September, we are obviously in the middle of the 5000 series right now. Uh, but I would like to bring forward some of the other financial policies in this 3000 series so that we can continue to make sure we're doing our work on this end um and keeping all of those policies as
027updated and precise as possible. That's also going to ensure that we carry forward good practices um and you know keep on on a good path as far as our audits and our financial reporting is concerned. So, um, just bringing that forward to you folks now since hopefully in the fall you'll all be joining uh joining us for future meetings. Any questions or concerns? I would just like to thank Kelly uh Mike uh Superintendent and you for pulling this meeting together because Kelly and I had talked about it and we're trying to get this through uh before we go on vacation at the end of June. So, I really thank you, Kelly, for working uh with the schedule. We know that we have a a tight schedule until the end of this month. So, thank you
028again. Yeah. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate your appreciate everybody's participation. Yep. So that we can get both reads in before the end of the the year. Thank you. Just to give a little foreshadowing, there's about 20 policies that need to be updated um within the 3000 series that we need to review and update and a few for consideration. So, um, probably three to four meetings, um, depending on, you know, how detailed each individual policy goes, um, in the fall, we should be able to work our way through the 3000 series. Okay. Thank you very much, Kelly. Sure. Any questions or comments from committee members or anyone else on the meeting? All right. Well, thank you all for your time this evening. I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn, please. Thank you, Terry. May I have a
029second on that motion? Second. Thank you, Michelle. All those in favor, please signify by saying, "I I." We are ajourned. Thank