Paterson board approves $19M for school repairs
PATERSON — The Board of Education on Tuesday night approved almost $19 million in spending for summer operations and preparations for the reopening of schools in September.
The work will cover repairs on school floors, doors, elevators, fences, kitchen equipment and ventilation systems. The district also will buy fire alarm monitors, audio visual equipment, computer software, paint and custodial supplies.
The school board approved 30 separate resolutions for the reopening work. But none of the resolutions provided details on which schools would be getting the improvements. Some of the resolutions said nothing more specific than that the district could purchase “general contracting services.”
The board resolutions gave Paterson’s district administrators authorization to use various regional purchasing cooperatives to buy the services and goods. The regional cooperatives conduct their own public bidding process and local governments that participate in the cooperative can buy goods and services at those prices.
In recent years, the school board had not voted on such a sweeping set of school reopening purchase resolutions.
School board vice president Kenneth Simmons said similar work had been done in prior years. But the purchases had been made through the regional purchasing cooperatives without the formality of a school board vote, which he said was not required under state law.
Simmons said the school board’s finance committee this year directed district administrators to begin getting resolutions for board approval, even for cooperative purchases.
“This is a way for us to be more transparent,” Simmons said.
School board president Manny Martinez said there wasn’t anything unusual in the package of 30 resolutions covering almost $19 million. “We’re just trying to get out in front of some things, so we don’t wait until September to get them done,” Martinez said.
None of the school board members asked any questions or made any comments as they voted Tuesday for the $19 million in purchases.