Oxford Board of Education President Tom Donnelly reminded his colleagues of the board’s own policies during the Feb. 26 meeting. Donnelly made the statements with the apparent hopes of reminding the board of being up front with the community when it comes to spending.

The discussion was triggered when Ken Weaver, the district’s deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction, asked the board for the purchase of 309 Google Chromebook laptops along with some accessories, like charging carts, that would cost $95,504.70.

The purchase, approved in a 7-0 vote, comes from “extra” funds in the district’s curriculum fund. During the meeting, Weaver apologized for forgetting to bring the matter to the board sooner.

“We got excited that we were able to do all of this, got all the way through the process about a month ago and realized that we needed board approval,” he said. “So this has been a month in process going all the way to the very last step and then having to pull it back.”

Though Weaver said he didn’t absolutely need the matter to be voted on that night, he said teachers and students were waiting on the new laptops.

“If you don’t want to (approve the purchase), that’s going to be fine, too,” Weaver said. “I’ll just have to ask also the English department at the middle school for forgiveness because I promised these a while ago to them. So, they are anxiously awaiting them.”

This led Donnelly to remind those in attendance of the board’s policy regarding votes. In following policy outside of emergencies, the board is supposed to be able to review a voteable agenda item, such as this purchase, one meeting before it actually has to vote on it.

“In the two years I’ve been doing this, (this is) about the fourth or fifth time that technology has been asked to be voted on at one meeting,” Donnelly said.”You know it’s coming. I mean, you said you knew a month ago. It’s not going to look right to this community if we are constantly saying we are going to bypass the way that we do stuff.”

Donnelly continued to say he doesn’t want to create the impression of unprofessionalism with the board’s constituency.

“It’s going to look, eventually, like we don’t know what we’re doing or like we’re shuffling things under shelves and I want to avoid that,” he said. “So I will vote yes for this, but just hear my warning. As board members, we have to stay alert to our policies and how we do stuff.”

The approved Chromebooks will go toward the district’s efforts to create a one-to-one ratio between students and technology. Weaver said the district’s goal is to eventually have one laptop per student.

The question of proper process came up again later in the meeting when Sam Barna, the district’s assistant superintendent of business operations, further discussed the district’s Oxford Virtual Academy (OVA) building expansion that was discussed at the board’s Feb. 12 meeting.

The board had already approved over $300,000 in costs for the construction, and Barna brought the separate costs of furniture and a fire alarm system to the board for discussion on Feb. 26. There was no vote on either item.

The fire alarm system would cost $27,141.00 and would connect the three locations of the expansions spot at 162 S. Washington St. The furniture, which includes office furniture and furniture for student rooms, would cost $90,026.15.

Though Donnelly said he understands these are separate costs from separate companies, he would have liked to have heard the project’s total sum up front.

“To hear about a 10 percent increase two weeks after we approved a $300,000-some build-out – I would have liked to have known last time that you pulled (the cost of fire alarms and furniture) out and that we would be looking at it again at our next meeting,” he said.

Barna said he was not trying to mislead anyone and that the different services came from different providers.

“Construction is one thing,” he said. “Furniture, as well as fire suppression are two separate things… I understand where you’re coming from, but the information you were presented wasn’t a bait and switch.”

Donnelly then stressed the importance, in his opinion, of transparency.

“This information was known last time we met,” he said. “Tell us that you’re pulling something out. I just think this is not the way to do stuff because it feels weird. Tell us what you’ve got and then say you’re going to pull something out because there’s a reason for it… When you say you’re going to build out something, the community hears ‘We’re going to build out OVA.’ Everyone doesn’t know that fire suppression is dealt with differently.”

After this conversation, Barna informed the board he would likely also bring technology costs for the OVA expansion project to the board.

Donnelly ended the conversation again stressing professionalism to his colleagues. “I mean, this is what we do for a living,” he said.

The board of education is scheduled to meet again on March 12 at Oxford High School. Meetings start at 6:30 p.m.