Recently, the North Kitsap School Board approved a contract for a new roof at Vinland Elementary School. The process through which this roughly $450,000 repair was accomplished presents two concerns for me.

First, there was no competitive bid process, just a single source quote. It sounds like the award was given to the first contractor they spoke to. How does one determine the value of their “purchase” unless one has multiple bids with which to compare it? Most people don’t operate this way in their private affairs when making large ticket purchases.

Second, the company chosen for this work resides outside our community. The Kitsap business community is very supportive of our schools. They supply jobs, property taxes, levy funds, and donations to keep our schools going. At the very least, they should be given consideration for public work in our community.

Schools are short on money. We are short on money. Even a 5 percent savings is considerable on a project this size and could be used to offset all the cutbacks that have been made over these last few years. But we’ll never know if that savings is possible unless we make the bidding process more competitive.

John Wahl Jr.
Kingston