Curriculum committee forwards vendor agreements and sole-source renewals to the full board

At its June 24 meeting the Union County Public Schools Curriculum Committee reviewed and voted to forward a slate of vendor agreements and sole-source renewals to the full board.

The Exceptional Children's program requested continuation of service agreements with Melmark for students whose IEPs require specialized placements and behavior services; Sarah Staley, EC assistant director, said Melmark has been used over the past four to five years. Several sole-source and renewal requests came from the curriculum and college-readiness teams for platforms and programs including Fall Content Solutions LLC, Lexia Learning Systems LLC, Curriculum Associates (intervention materials and manipulatives), Renaissance, and Savas Learning Company LLC (SIOP strategies for multilingual learners). Casey Rimmer said these are renewals or long-used vendors and staff recommended the full-board approvals.

On the Ron Clark Academy item, Rimmer said staff have previously sent teachers to Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta and are seeking a sole-source approval to host professional development locally and increase access. "I am super excited this year about a plan to bring some of the Ron Clark Academy excitement," Rimmer said, noting prior partnerships and grant-supported travel to expand teacher access. Staff said they are tracking which schools use Ron Clark and Leader in Me programs and plan to provide a list to committee members.

None of the procurement items discussed at the meeting included contract amounts in the committee presentation. Each item was moved and the committee voted by voice (3-0) to forward the items to the full board for final approval.

Next steps: staff will prepare full-board packets that include contract details, costs and supporting documentation for each vendor; the committee's approvals at this meeting were referrals, not final contract awards.