TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Put School District On A Consultant Diet

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 5, 2007

Public schools are, fortunately, finally recognizing the link between a student's health and classroom performance, but the Hillsborough County School district's hiring of a wellness consultant is enough to make any fiscal watchdog sick.

The school administration pushed through a $54,000, no-bid contract for a consultant who is a longtime associate of the school official who hired her. The consultant was selected without conferring with any of three health-related committees stocked with doctors, nurses, teachers and parents, the Tribune's Marilyn Brown discovered.

The school board needs to rescind this contract and send a clear message to school officials: Taxpayers' money shouldn't be tossed around with such disregard.

And board members need to close a loophole in its purchasing requirements that exempts consultants from competitive bidding - a provision that clearly is being abused.

Sometimes consultants are needed to straighten out the bureaucracy or provide an independent assessment. But all too often, consultants perform tasks that could be done in-house.

If the district is incapable of finding a staff member who can collect and analyze information on nutrition and physical education initiatives, then taxpayers and school board members have cause to wonder about the abilities of its highly paid administrators.

The hiring of consultant Cindy Coney was initiated by Gwen Luney, the district's assistant superintendent for student services and federal programs. Luney and Coney previously worked together at Just Elementary.

Coney isn't a nutritionist or a physical education expert, but she does have a background in developing health curriculum.

Her experience hardly qualifies her as the only person who could do this job, particularly in a county where the University of South Florida's Health Sciences Center is developing one of the best multidisciplinary child wellness programs in the country and the Patel Foundation's Healthy Together initiative is linked to some of the brightest wellness minds in the region. The district didn't even consider its own staff physician, pediatrician Jonni Klapper, for the task.

The kids in Hillsborough schools aren't the only ones in need of healthier habits. The district needs to get its spending habits in shape - and it can start by cutting back on unnecessary, high-priced consultants.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT