ISBE Provides Guidance on New Requirements for Posting and Reporting School District Contracts

ISBE recently provided guidance on complying with the contract posting and reporting requirements in Public Act 95-707. This law became effective in January 2008 and requires school boards to post certain contracts on the district's Web site on an ongoing basis and to submit an annual report on contracts to ISBE. School districts with Web sites must continually post:

• All contracts over $25,000; and
• any contract (regardless of amount) with an exclusive collective bargaining unit.

School districts must also prepare a report to ISBE on contracts over $25,000. School districts with Web sites must post this report on their Web site as well. The report must include:

• The total number of contracts over $25,000;
• the total value of such contracts;
• the total number of such contracts awarded to businesses with minority, female, or disabled owners; and
• the total value of such contracts awarded to businesses with minority, female, or disabled owners. 

Posting of Contracts on Web sites
The ISBE guidance provides that any school district with a website must post all contracts over $25,000 on the district's Web site. According to ISBE, school districts can achieve compliance by posting the contracts “in a list” on their websites.

Annual Reporting of Contracts
As for reporting contracts to ISBE as part of the Annual Statement of Affairs, the guidance provides that the annual report must include contracts entered into during the relevant fiscal year. For example, only those contracts entered into during fiscal year 2008 need to be included in the first report, which is due December 1, 2008. If a contract covers more than one year, it should be included only in the report covering the first year of the contract. Personal service contracts and collective bargaining agreements should not be included.

Finally, ISBE also suggests that after a school district awards a reportable contract, the contractor should be asked whether the owner is certified as a minority, female, or disabled person owned business by a certifying agency (e.g. the State of Illinois, IDOT, Cook County, CTA, etc.).

The full guidance is provided at http://www.isbe.net/sfms/afr/asp.htm.