Pittsburgh Public Schools, facing a multimillion-dollar deficit that will force it to draw down precious emergency money from its reserve fund, could find partial relief by overhauling its contracting processes, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
“Given the district’s ongoing financial woes, compounded by the board failing to pass a much-needed school consolidation plan in November, any and all avenues to find cost savings must be seriously explored,” says Alex Sodini, a research associate, at the Pittsburgh think tank.
It was on Jan. 12 that PPS Controller Rachael Heisler (who also serves as city controller) detailed for the school board an October special report on deficiencies in the district’s request-for-proposals (RFP) competitive bidding procedures in awarding contracts, potentially costing PPS millions of dollars…