Money For Nothing	by Buck Quigley

Buffalo Schools wants to put more money in the pocket of a hapless firm

This week Buffalo Teachers Federation president Phil Rumore voiced strong concerns about the extension of a $1.7 million contract to ResulTech, Inc., of Frederick, Maryland.

ResulTech claims to offer “Enterprise Solutions for High Performance Organizations,” but when I called their headquarters to ask them about their work here for Academy School at 44, the phone rang 30 times without ever being answered by a human or machine. One would think that the previous $2.7 million contract the board approved in July 2006 might have given them the cash to spring for an answering machine, but no.

Even then, former school board members Donald Van Every and Jack Coyle roundly criticized the contract. Van Every was quoted in the Buffalo News saying, “They [school officials] have a partner who’s been coming to the dance without a ticket. It shouldn’t have been done this way.”

He was referring to the fact that over half a million dollars worth of work had been done on the project, not only without school board approval but also without their knowledge. There is still speculation as to what that initial $550,000 was used for. At the time board members protested that the ensuing executive session that was called to discuss the lucrative no-bid contract was held in violation of the open meetings law. Imagine that.

As this issue goes to press, the school board is scheduled to vote on a $1.7 million extension of the contract. The contract was prepared and signed by Associate Superintendent for Educational Services Will Keresztes, as recommended by Chief Academic Officer Folasade Oladele and Superintendent James Williams—both of whom also signed off on it. Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Gary Crosby’s signature is conspicuously absent from the paperwork.

David Patrick Wright, president of ResulTech, and Keresztes signed the contract. Schools counsel Kelly Gale Eisenried approved the form of the contract on May 5. It was notarized on May 6, 2008.

One interesting part of the contract concerns the limitation of liability and indemnification. The schools agree to hold ResulTech harmless if they fail to comply with the terms of the agreement, if they do anything illegal, or if any hazardous conditions arise, and so on. ResulTech agrees to do the same for the Buffalo Schools. Eisenried did not return a phone call asking for an explanation of who exactly will be responsible for anything that might go wrong in connection with this agreement.

Keresztes explained that a memo would be distributed to the board members right before the meeting, saying that although the contract was drawn up, reviewed by counsel, signed by all parties, and notarized without their knowledge or input, it of course has to meet with their approval before taking effect. It must also gain the approval of the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority.

Keresztes would not provide a copy of that memo to Artvoice. “I couldn’t even consider releasing a document that I wrote to the press before board members saw it. I mean, it would just be unprofessional to do that,” he said.

Wednesday afternoon, he was on his way to put the memo into the mailboxes of board members, begging the question: How professional is it to withhold information from elected public officials until minutes before they are expected to cast an intelligent vote on an issue?

It’s hard to imagine there will be any meaningful debate on this big contract, which the head of the teacher’s union has sharply criticized based on input from teachers who work at the school.

For its part, ResulTech released a half-page statement of their research findings. Among them: “The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network evaluates school district dropout prevention programs and specifically alternative education programs all over the country. The ResulTech model was found to be among the strongest they had studied in the way it employs proven strategies for students at risk of not graduating.”

Those aren’t “research findings,” are they? The statement can’t even be construed as a testimonial, but ResulTech had to write something to fill up a half page if it wanted to win another $1.7 million from the Buffalo schools.

As this issue goes to press, a rubber-stamp approval is expected from the majority of the school board who support the superintendent’s every move—except perhaps his ongoing job search, which includes an interview for the superintendent position in Memphis this Monday, May 19.

—buck quigley