Board Discusses Hiring Outside Consultant For Audit Of Bernards School District

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — A discussion over the possibility of hiring an outside consultant to conduct a personnel audit of the Bernards Township School District was discussed during the March 27 Board of Education meeting.

Board member Kirsten Light spearheaded the conversation saying she is "looking at a holistic method of looking at the district."

The audit would look at how each position and department is run, look at ways to cut costs, and help to find alternative ways to get the job done while reducing stress for employees.

"There are opportunities where we can survey personnel and start narrowing down the focus of what that scope of services would look like with a consultant," said Light. "We want to understand the service of what every employee is bringing to the table."

Board member Jennifer White questioned the need for an outside consultant when Superintendent Nick Markarian "is fully able to do it" at no additional cost.

"And how would an outside consultant have any idea of the needs of our students in the programs and the services we offer?" asked White.

Light said the cost can fluctuate depending on the scope of the services and that the consultant would work in conjunction with Markarian and the Business Administration to conduct the audit.

"I don't know what the total cost would be... I am recommending personally to the Board that we start pursuing looking at this and really start discussing this in earnest. This is not something that will be done in the next two months. This is something we are looking at for the long term, sustainability for the most part. But also trying to look for quick hits," said Light.

Board member Robin McKeon said she couldn't find any other public school districts that had done a similar audit.

"I don't think we should get hung up on if any school districts do it. I think we should decide as a board whether it makes any sense from a long-term sustainability," said Light.

More discussion on the topic was needed and the Board agreed to send it over to the Personnel Committee.

"I think it has a lot of potential value but we are not going to solve it all here tonight," said Markarian at the meeting. " I think it is a good idea to send to personnel to work on it and kind of develop some ideas, come back and answer some questions."

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