INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River School District staff wanted the School Board to approve over $35 million in purchases from vendors over the next year, but the attempt was scuttled before the meeting started.
School Board members Shawn Frost and Charles Searcy have been the most verbal about the lack of transparency in how expenses are presented to the board.
Frost said he called Superintendent Dr. Mark Rendell before the Tuesday business meeting. Presenting a mere list of vendor expenses “was less than transparent,” he said, and he would not support “writing a blank check.”
One of the 52 items disturbed Frost in particular because it was especially vague for a big amount: “Regions Bank, purchase order authority requested for 2016/2017, $7 million, credit card payments, bid exempt.”
Assistant Superintendent Carter Morrison said the items will be brought back before the board.
Frost and Searcy were successful in postponing another contract, this one for athletic field management. The work used to be done in-house, but was outsourced to Express Reel Grinding, Director of Physical Plant John Earman said. The new contract is for about $113,000.
Before considering renewal, Frost and Searcy said they wanted to see how Earman calculated the claimed $100,000 in savings, how many in-house jobs were lost, and details on what the district and vendor pay for.
Searcy noted the School District loans equipment to the company and pays for sand and wondered if the contract cost is just for labor.
Searcy also examined the year-end fire safety reports for District buildings and found Vero Beach Elementary and Sebastian River High School inspections “scary.”
He asked Rendell to provide more detail on those inspections as well.
