By opting for a $1 million no-bid contract with Washington, D.C.-based Blackboard Inc. for its mass notification needs instead of participating in a three-year contract with a company bid through an educational agency, the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) has angered grassroots activists who are now insisting there be a public accounting of spending.
On March 31, 2009, Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager for DPS, signed a 27-month contract with Blackboard to distribute messages to voice, E-mail and text devices whenever an emergency occurs within the district, Freep.com reports.
The Coalition to Restore Hope to DPS, an advocacy group, believes Bobb should have searched for other bids for the service before making his decision. The law requires competitive bids on purchases of equipments, goods and services costing $20,959 and more.
In December 2009, the advocacy group sent letters to state representatives and the DPS school board, demanding an investigation into the DPS contract with Blackboard.
Originally, Blackboard placed a bid for the job through Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA); however, the company was not the lowest bidder.
Bobb is not required to go with the Wayne RESA contract, and DPS officials maintained that because the notification is a professional service, by law, it does not need to go through the bid process.
Furthermore, DPS said Bobb chose Blackboard because it offered a wider range of software products that the other companies that bid to the agency, such as allowing mass messages to be sent to 300,000 city residents and to the homes of enrolled students.
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