CPS considers automatic ban on school deals for businesses barred from getting city contracts

The newly seated Chicago Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a proposal to block companies that have been banned from getting business by City Hall or other city agencies from getting work from the Chicago Public Schools system.

CPS Inspector General Nicholas Schuler recommended the change to the contracting ban.

It would prevent “engaging in business relations with dishonest, unethical or otherwise irresponsible individuals,” according to CPS documents prepared in advance of Wednesday’s Board of Ed meeting.

CPS spokesman Michael Passman wouldn’t make anyone available Monday to discuss the proposal, which would take effect July 1 if approved and apply retroactively. CPS wouldn’t say how many contractors and subcontractors would be automatically dumped under the move, though no current ones would be affected.

The schools system has kept a list since 2009 of companies — now numbering about 130 — that it has banned from getting contracts with the school system.

City Hall, which has a much larger list of banned contractors, automatically disqualifies companies that “any other government agency” has excluded. The Chicago Transit Authority does the same.

Standardizing purchasing procedures so they’d be the same across city agencies and departments was one of the aims of a citywide task force begun under former mayor Rahm Emanuel and run by Joseph Ferguson, inspector general for the city, and Jamie Rhee, former head of procurement. The school board had approved a long list of updates to its purchasing rules in March that did not include contracting bans.