The board of education wishes to establish and carry out a careful system of purchasing and accounting to help provide an effective program of education while guarding against loss due to carelessness, inefficiency, theft, or improper maintenance of records.

The duties of purchasing are to be centralized under the business administrator, who shall be familiar with and perform all his/her activities within the limitations prescribed by law, board policy and legal opinions.

The board of education encourages the administration to seek advantages in savings through joint agreements for the purchase of work, materials or supplies with the governing body(ies) of other contracting units within this county or adjoining counties or by other cooperative pricing arrangements. The administration shall also evaluate any savings which may result from the purchase of any materials, supplies or equipment under contracts entered into by the state treasury department, division of purchase and property.

The board may use competitive contracting instead of public bidding for purchasing specialized goods and services, the price of which exceeds the bid threshold, for the purposes and with the conditions specified in law.

Affirmative Action Statement

The board of education shall not knowingly enter into contract with any company that does not subscribe to and implement a policy of non-discrimination. The board secretary shall be responsible for so informing all prospective suppliers of work or materials. The school system shall not enter into any contract with a person, agency, or organization if it has knowledge that such person, agency or organization discriminates, as defined by law, either in employment practices or in the provision of benefits or services to employees.

Conflict of Interest

The school system shall not extend favoritism in purchasing practices. Each order shall be placed on the basis of quality, price and delivery with past service being a factor if all other considerations are equal.

The school, or individual staff members, shall not solicit funds or material from vendors, however worthy of purchase. No purchase will be made from a member of the elected board of education, or from a member of the board member’s immediate household, nor from an enterprise in which the board member holds a substantial interest except for public utilities. No employee shall endorse any product of any type or kind in such manner as will identify him/her in any way as an employee of the school system.

Students and their parents, suppliers, contractors and others doing or seeking to do business with the school system shall be discouraged from giving gifts to a staff member, the gift shall not be unduly expensive. Administrators, teachers, and other staff members are urged to discourage the solicitation of funds from students for a class or group gift to an individual staff member.

Bidding and Quotations

N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-2 provides that a board of education shall assign the authority, responsibility and accountability for the purchasing activity of the board of education to a person or persons who shall have the power to prepare advertisements, to advertise for and receive bids and to award contracts a permitted by this Title 18A, and N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-3 provides that contracts, awarded by the purchasing agent that do not exceed in the aggregate in a contract the bid threshold may be awarded by the purchasing agent without advertising for bids and bidding therefore when so authorized by board resolution.

N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-37 provides that all contracts that are in the aggregate less than 15% of the bid threshold may be awarded by the purchasing agent without soliciting competitive quotations if so authorized by board resolution.

The Ocean Gate Board of Education pursuant to the statutes cited above may appoint the business administrator as its duly authorized purchasing agent and is duly assigned the authority, responsibility and accountability for the purchasing activity of the Ocean Gate Board of Education.

The business administrator is authorized to award contracts on behalf of the Ocean Gate Board of Education that are in the aggregate less than 15% of the bid threshold without soliciting competitive quotations as permitted by N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-37.

The business administrator is authorized to seek competitive quotations, when applicable and practicable, when contracts in the aggregate exceed 15% of the bid threshold but less than the bid threshold as permitted by N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-37.

Other Items

The purchase of any single item or service not falling into one of the above categories must be processed on a purchase order which has been authorized prior to purchase. This means that there should be no confirming purchase order, except in the case of an emergency, and those should be authorized by the chief school administrator prior to the commitment of funds. (See Regulation 3320: Emergency Purchase Order Procedures)

Approval

All copies of the quotes and forms must be forwarded to the board office for approval before a purchase order can be prepared.

All purchases shall be approved by resolution of the board.

Nothing is to be ordered independently by school personnel.

Adopted: February 21, 2001
NJSBA Review/Update: August 2008; January 2010, October 2017
Readopted: February 4, 2009
Revised:

Key Words

Purchasing Procedures, “Set Aside” Contracts, Nondiscrimination, Affirmative Action, Vendors

Legal References: N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 et seq. Law Against Discrimination
See particularly:
N.J.S.A. 10:5 31
through 35
N.J.S.A. 18A:18A 1 et seq. Public School Contracts Law
N.J.S.A. 18A:19-1 et seq. Expenditure of Funds; Audit and Payment of Claims
N.J.S.A. 52:32-44 Business registration for providers of goods and services (definitions)
N.J.A.C. 6A:7-1.8 Equity in employment and contract practices
N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-1.2 Definitions
N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-16.5 Supplies and equipment
N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-20.4 Ownership and storage of textbooks
N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-21.1et seq. Management of Public School Contracts
N.J.A.C. 6A:27-9.1et seq. Contracting for Transportation Services
N.J.A.C. 6A:30-1.1et seq. Evaluation of the Performance of School Districts

20 U.S.C.A. 1681 et seq. – Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

42 U.S.C.A. 2000e et seq. – Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended by the Equal Employment Opportunities Act of 1972

29 U.S.C.A. 794 et seq. – Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Possible
Cross References: *2224 Nondiscrimination/affirmative action
3300 Expenditures/expending authority
*3326 Payment for goods and services
*3327 Relations with vendors
*3570 District records and reports
3571 Financial reports

*Indicates policy is included in the Critical Policy Reference Manual.