BRIDGEPORT — Earlier this spring Interim School Superintendent Paul Vallas and Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Kase announced to the school board that they had struck a five-year deal with Houston Mifflin Harcourt to supply the textbook-starved city school district with math, reading, science and social studies texts for all grade levels.
Vallas told the board the best part is that the district would get all the textbooks up front and not have to start paying until November. Kase said the company had agreed to throw in replacements for textbooks that go lost and would give fresh supplies of consumable workbooks annually.
The lack of textbooks has been a constant complaint among students and parents. Even where there are textbooks, students aren’t always trusted to take them on. Company officials set up a display of the texts at the meeting of the school board Monday night at the Aquaculture Center.
District supplied a copy of the $10.5 million contract late Tuesday. Will let you know what it says shortly. It will be up to the elected school board, which takes over in September, to start paying down the bill. The first $2.6 million payment is due by December 15. The district pays $2.1 million in each of the next three years and $1.6 million in the final year.
Will keep you posted.
