Referendum Bids and Equity

The News-Gazette had some updates on various Unit 4 referendum projects and highlighted their efforts to improve minority and woman owned business bids for contracts.

Behind the Blueprints: Central utilities, minority contracts, South Side plans
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One of the ways Unit 4 officials say they want to be intentional in spending referendum dollars is by investing specific percentages into women- or minority-owned businesses.

So they've bumped up their goals for both categories — 8 percent of the work should go to minority businesses and 4 percent to women-owned businesses — and coordinated outreach efforts with Coleman & Associates, a Chicago-based accounting firm.

Of the $5,497,925 total awarded to bidders so far, $223,668 has gone to minority-owned businesses (4 percent) and $150,686 has gone to women-owned businesses (2.7 percent).

"Right now, we're not meeting our goal at this point," said Elizabeth Stegmaier, Unit 4's director of capital projects and planning. But, she added, it's still early in the district's schedule of referendum-related work.

Illinois School Code doesn't allow the district to award bids based on diversity goals; instead, Stegmaier said, the lowest bidder wins.

More at the full article here. Previous post on referendum updates here. and all referendum related posts available here.