By Skip Schaeffer, Somerset.
Updated: Schaffer wrote this to the board after its Nov. 20 action:
Thank you Dr. Seitz, Ms. Biesiada, and Board of Education members for choosing to pull the vote on Item B-06 from the agenda in last night’s meeting. I commend you for your willingness to further evaluate additional suppliers for the district’s natural gas requirements in order to save as much money as possible. I will make myself available to you at any time to answer any questions you might have or provide you with additional info. I also recommend that you contact John Calavano to answer any questions you may have about his decision process in this area over the last four years.
Original column:
To the Board of Education:
Item B-06 on the Board of Education’s Nov. 20 agenda proposes to lock the Franklin Township School District into a contract for 3 1/2 years for natural gas with ACES (Alliance for Competitive Energy Services.) ACES is one of several co-op buying associations that school districts traditionally have used to aggregate their buying power in order to receive lower prices on many items that make up a district’s budget. One common prevailing belief is that school districts are required to purchase budget items from co-op organizations sanctioned by the New Jersey School Boards Association. That is simply not true. A second common prevailing belief is that the rates that ACES (or MRESC or any other co-op organization) procures for its members are the lowest available in the market. Again, that is simply not true. Passing this agenda item at this time will likely result in increased natural gas expenses for the district for the duration of this contract. I’ll explain below.
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