Board of Education Policy Change Extends Purchasing Authority

A policy change adopted by the Board of Education for the extended purchasing authority to the Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, a position currently held by Joan Niles.

The policy allows for general supervision of the district’s purchasing agent, Beth Woods.

The vote was approved five votes in favor to two votes in opposition.

Board President Gladys Waldron, Vice President Theresa Knox and members Joanne McEnroy, Grace Plourde and Christopher Alcure voted in favor of the policy change. Members Joseph Saggese, Louis Liguori voted in opposition.

Saggese urged the board to send the amended policy back to the policy committee for further discussion before the board votes to approve or deny the changes. 

“This is a very dangerous change for the district … what this policy is attempting to do is take out the internal control that was in place for 35 years,” Saggese said prior to the vote. “This policy has not been authorized by the external auditors, the internal auditors, the audit committee, New York State Education Law.”

Superintendent Edward Ehmann explained that the change to the policy was to specify who has and will continue to perform the general supervision tasks for the district. 

“The purchasing agent in this policy does not lose the authority that they have by law to say no to anyone in the district, including me,” he said. “The practice is that the Assistant Superintendent for Finance oversees the purchasing agent so rather than have ‘his or her designee’ we specified who has been historically doing the job and moving forward who will be doing the job.”