West Platte official rethinks his companys bid award

Citing perception concerns, new superintendent says he will ask Board to rescind vote that gave his business school contract
Jason Lawrence Citizen Staff Published June 27, 2012 New Superintendent Dr. Jerrod Wheeler may have sidestepped a bit of controversy he created at the helm of his first West Platte School District Board of Education meeting last week in Weston. At that meeting, Wheelers personally-owned business, Wheeler Designs, was awarded a contract for $135,720 to perform classroom technology work for the school district. The Boards vote was 6-1 to award the bid, and was made with some concerns about a potential conflict of interest. On Tuesday of this week, Wheeler who took over earlier this month for longtime West Platte Superintendent Kyle Stephenson, who retired this June said he was withdrawing his companys bid. As owner and operator of Wheeler Designs, I understand the opportunity for perception to lead to impropriety, Wheeler said. After further consideration, I will be requesting that the Board rescind this vote and award this bid to a different company. Wheeler Designs, a company owned and operated by Wheeler, is an eight-year-old business which specializes in instructional focus for the classroom. This includes SMART classrooms, which combines a whiteboard with a computer, allowing teachers to deliver lessons and write notes in digital ink on the board and save it for later use. The district purchased 10 of these classrooms in April and earlier this month sent out a request for bids to potential contractors to convert 45 classrooms to SMART classrooms by the time school starts in August. Wheeler said he and Director of Technology Shane Farmer put together a list of specifications for potential bidders to meet when placing their bids. Wheeler said he passed the specifications along to school district clerk Diana Summers and had her send the specifications out to firms that had responded to prior bids or done previous work for the school district. Summers e-mailed out the specifications June 12 and bids closed June 15. Wheeler did not see the bids until after the deadline, according to Summers. Wheeler Designs was one of four contractors to submit a bid and was the low bidder at $135,720. Schillers was second at $155,515. The West Platte Board of Education voted 6-1 to award the bid to Wheelers Designs. Board members Donald Wilson and Aaron Johnson expressed concerns at the meeting over how Wheeler receiving the contract could potentially be perceived by the public. I think this is a situation that calls for special scrutiny, Johnson said. This has the potential for conflict of interest, so ordinarily if the bids were close, my preference would be to go with the outside person. In this case, its a $20,000 savings for the district, which justifies taking the lowest bid. Wilson was the only Board member who voted against having Wheelers company do the work. Wheeler initially said he was also worried about public perception, but cited the savings to the school district and his value of winning the bid as reasons to overlook that perception. On Tuesday, he also said that West Platte policy, the Missouri Ethics Commission and a prominent educational law firm were consulted to determine whether it was appropriate for an employee-owned business to submit a bid for products and services to a school district in which that employee works. Wheeler said all three clearly supported that the bid award was both legal and ethical. But after reviewing the situation the past several days, Wheeler said he felt it was in the best interest of the school district and its patrons to remove his business from the process. I understand the importance of public perception and also understand that in many cases perception is reality, Wheeler said. This task is one of many important tasks which will be occurring in the next few months, all of which are focused on the goal of providing the tools and resources needed by teachers and students in order to maximize 21st century learning. Certainly, I do not want this opportunity of misperception to overshadow the important progress being made. Wheeler said he will ask the Board at their retreat June 28 to choose a different contractor to complete the work. Midwest Technology and KCAV were the other companies to submit bids.