Policy 3180 – Procurement of Professional Services

The Board of Education and the Administrators recognize that some professional services
are necessary on certain occasions to assist in the governance of the District. These services
include attorneys to provide legal counsel with specific expertise regarding education policy
matters, architects, certified public accountants to annually audit the financial statements of the
District and to provide answers to questions that arise during the course of the fiscal year.
Similarly, it may be necessary to obtain financial advisory services to monitor the long range
debt objectives of the District, as well as, bond counsel to address questions that arise with
existing debt and various reports occasionally sought by the Missouri State Auditor and the
United States Treasury branch of Internal Revenue Service and others.

While in some instances it may be possible to seek bids for the financial services and
bond counsel each time a need arises, there are also numerous benefits to maintaining longer
term relationships with specific professionals. Having a satisfactory relationship with a
professional service provider includes fair pricing, timely delivery, dependable and sound advice
concerning areas of expertise, a personality match with administrators and board members and
numerous other factors. As long as the board members and administrators are comfortable with
the quality of services provided, it is not essential that annual bidding occur merely to drive
prices to their lowest level. By losing historical memory of any professional service provider,
the District may in the long run incur more expense for the new firm to educate their
representatives. On other occasions if the administrator expresses belief that service quality is
slipping, expenses and fees are escalating at unacceptable levels, or any other non favorable
working situation is developing, nothing in this policy is intended to preclude seeking proposals
from other vendors offering similar services. The Board of Education and Administration
believes that the collective expertise within the District is sufficient to judge if and when seeking
alternative providers is prudent.