SAN BENITO — The new school board is cutting into San Benito school district Superintendent Nate Carman’s power.
Earlier this week, board members voted 4-3 to slash Carman’s purchasing cap from $50,000 to $25,000 per order.
Now, the school board will approve purchase orders over $25,000.
During the newly elected board’s first meeting, President Ramiro Moreno said the board’s majority took the action to expand its “oversight” over the district’s finances.
“We feel that we need more oversight on the budget and financial matters,” Moreno told Carmen, whom a previous board hired in 2017. “We want transparency as we mentioned to our constituents when we ran for these positions. We want transparency both financially and fiscally.”
During the 30-minute discussion, Carman said most of the area’s 6-A school districts including Harlingen, Brownsville, Los Fresnos and Donna cap their superintendent’s purchasing power at $50,000 to streamline the purchasing process.
“I believe in the area it would make us the only 6-A district to have a $25,000 instead of $50,000 (cap),” he told board members during Tuesday’s meeting.
“On average, 10 (purchase orders) per month would have to come to the board for consideration, and whether that happened in the regular meeting and we waited for the regular meeting, whether we had
additional board meetings so we could consider those POs, or we did a large open PO at the beginning of the year — but then you’re losing that control over those individual purchases,” Carmen said.
Day-to-day operations
Amid tense debate, board member Orlando Lopez, the board’s past president, warned the $25,000 purchasing cap will bog down the district’s day-to-day operations.
“I think one of the major issues here, of course, is borderline micro-managing,” Lopez said. “If we were struggling financially, then I think it would be something to look at,” he said. “But we’re not. I mean, you know, once again, we’re in ‘A’ standing. Most of the board members here went through the audit (which) said we’re doing great — financially we’re doing decent. Just to affect the day-to-day operations, to me, it’s a little absurd.”
From the podium, Vicki Martinez, the district’s interim assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said the district’s system of checks and balances safeguards the purchasing process.
“We have wonderful internal controls, all documented — procedures, guidelines,” she said. “We have different levels that safeguard us.”
Martinez told board member Janie Lopez an audit showed the district’s $128 million budget’s $21 million fund balance reflected a $9 million deficit as a result of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act’s $4.7 million grant along with a drop in student attendance stemming from the pandemic.
“As a school board member, it’s our duty to oversee the finances,” Janie Lopez said.
Department heads warn cap will slow purchases
As the debate opened, Orlando Lopez called the district’s top department heads to the podium, with each warning the $25,000 limit could slow down purchases ranging from student meals, sanitation products used to disinfect buildings amid the coronavirus pandemic and school bus parts.
“With a district this size and the amount of federal funds that we are awarded from the government, it makes it very difficult for us to spend when we throw another step into having to approve POs,” Fred Perez, the district’s federal programs director, told board members.
“Our kids are going to have to wait for some of these things to go to the board to get approval and go through the PO process and then go get the orders,” he said.
Moreno calls for better purchase planning
The board’s move to cap purchasing orders could even impact the district’s use of sanitation products used to disinfect buildings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert Perez, the district’s maintenance director, said, warning of a “safety issue.” Twice a month, he writes orders for as much as $60,000 worth of purchases, he said.
“It would slow down the process completely,” he said. Perez said the department didn’t have storage space to stockpile products.
“If you’re talking anywhere between two or three months, no sir,” he told Moreno. “As it comes in, it leaves. I don’t like to maintain anything because there’s obviously a shelf life. We would have to build more space.”
In response, Moreno said careful planning could help Perez purchase his supplies under the new cap. “With careful forecasting and planning it could be taken care of as well,” Moreno told Perez. “You should be able to come to the board with plenty of time to order things in advance.”
Taking the podium, Arceli Soto, the district’s child nutrition director, warned the cap will impact students’ meals.
Twice a month, she writes orders for purchases of up to $35,000 to $50,000, she said.
“Will it affect child nutrition? Yes, it will affect child nutrition,” she told board members. “We do not have space to be able to order a whole month’s worth of supply and store it somewhere. We have to order on a weekly basis. We order two weeks in advance. I think that if we were to order two or three weeks in advance, we would have a huge storage issue.”
Board open to reconsider if cap slows purchases
As the discussion closed, Moreno said the board could reconsider the purchasing cap if it bogged down student services. “If we opt at a later time to increase that as well because of any problems we see in students not getting what they need or services not provided in a timely manner, then we can always come back,” he said.
