Marblehead school biz manager under fire

MARBLEHEAD – Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac is holding a personnel hearing on what he described as School Business Manager Jonathan Goldfield’s “procedural inequities” in purchase orders for the Marblehead Village School project.The private hearing Thursday and today, attended only by Dulac, Goldfield and their lawyers, will decide what action Dulac takes on two purchase orders totaling about $25,000 each. Goldfield signed off on both orders. They were for moving and storing school furniture and the purchase of additional school furniture.Dulac stressed that the problems with the two purchase orders lay in the way they were handled. Both were processed as $24,900 quote items, but when the contractors presented the bills each one was in excess of $25,000.Under state law any purchase of $25,000 or more must go out to bid – and with the Massachusetts School Building Authority checking project costs, Dulac had no choice but to bring the two cases to light and take action.”This is such a shame, but it is what it is,” he said Thursday afternoon. “In my opinion the school business manager has to be scrupulous where Chapter 30B is concerned. I look at that as a commandment. The MSBA is watching us and we could lose our reimbursement.”Dulac learned of the problem the week of March 8 and began an investigation. On March 23 he placed Goldfield on administrative leave with pay and called in former School Business Manager George Gearhart to cover Goldfield’s duties, working three days a week.”I had him (Gearhart) check all the procurement records,” Dulac said. “There was nothing else wrong.”