RUBBERSTAMP REBOUND

What do you have to do in this town to get your measly $1.7 million no-bid contract extended for another year? That’s the question ResulTech (Citadel Group)—the Maryland company contracted by the Buffalo Public Schools to provide “ongoing technical support at Academy School 44”—has been asking lately.

ResulTech has been paid $2.7 million by BPS each of the last two years to provide their services for 500 students per year. Both years the actual number of students was closer to 300, so they agreed to knock a million dollars off the price to extend the program into next year.

Everything was set. The contract was all filled out and signed as far back as May 8 by Associate Superintendent Will Keresztes, and apparently initialed by Associate Superintendent for Budget Barbara Smith. The contract was recommended and signed by Chief Academic Officer Folasade Oladele, along with Superintendent James Williams.

All that was left to do was to get the school board to approve it, which they finally did after a month-long delay due to various news stories that were critical of ResulTech’s effectiveness at Academy School 44. (Some of those stories appeared here in AV.) A 100 percent failure rate for students in eighth grade math is not the kind of statistic you’re likely to find on ResulTech’s Web site anytime soon, but that’s what was achieved at the school for troubled teens this year.

Even though there has been no evaluation of the program’s second year, and no such examination is in the works, school board members Mary Ruth Kapsiak, Catherine Collins, Florence Johnson, Vivian Evans, and Pamela Perry-Cahill voted to approve the new ResulTech contract on June 25.

Business as usual down at room 801 City Hall, in other words, were it not for the fact that authorization to spend this $1.7 million also needs approval from the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority. Every city contract worth $50,000 or more goes through this process. On Tuesday, after raising questions about the unevaluated program, BFSA Secretary George K. Arthur moved that the vote to approve the contract be tabled for now.

Results of a State Education Department investigation at Academy School 44 are still pending, and it is unclear whether or not it will deal with ResulTech specifically.

Tabling the vote, Arthur says, will allow the control board time to examine the ResulTech deal more closely and put questions to BPS—perhaps even holding a public hearing on the matter.

—buck quigley