Lowell Public Schools staff told the finance subcommittee that three main issues—lengthy municipal contract routing, limited access to the city's finance system for school principals and a staffing gap in accounts payable—have combined to delay vendor payments and leave employees uncertain about what extra pay on a paycheck represents.

Jackie, a district purchasing/finance staff member, explained the vendor setup and payment process and cited compliance with state procurement rules. "Any vendors that are new have to provide a W‑9 to the school department. The city of Lowell purchasing office handles the setup," Jackie said, and added that the district complies with Massachusetts procurement guidance (Chapter 30B). Jackie described the typical flow: requisition → purchase order → verification of goods or services → payment, with a target to pay within two to three weeks when processes run smoothly.

Dr. Pinto told the subcommittee that contracts have been delayed in the city approval process and that some contracts dating to August–October still had not been executed, forcing vendors to provide services while signatures and routing continued. She said the city introduced a master contract/subcontract model this year that, in practice, can create many subcontracts (for example, one subcontract per student for certain transportation services). "So if you think about it, 40 homeless students...there's now 40 contracts, 40 additional subcontracts that need to go through multiple stops," Dr. Pinto said, calling the result cumbersome.

Staffing and system access: Dr. Pinto said principals and site managers currently lack view-only access to the municipal finance system and that city IT controls user accounts; she said she has requested view-only access since October and is pressing the city for faster action. She also said the accounts‑payable office has been short-staffed after an employee passed away over the winter, which has increased processing lag. That department has closed the job search and staff expect a hire soon; in the meantime, accounts payable is clearing invoices weekly through cross-training.

Procurement standards and Amazon purchases: Committee members raised concerns that teachers cannot make purchases on Amazon and be reimbursed when district-approved or preferred vendors may cost more. Jackie said the district prefers purchases through approved vendors to ensure quality, warranty and vendor recourse, and added that the district can use market comparisons to seek price matching from contracted vendors.

City collaboration: Dr. Pinto said the district is meeting with city finance, city legal, the city auditor and other stakeholders to compress contract routing; she reported that Kelly Oakes, the city auditor, has agreed to attend the district's twice‑monthly finance department meetings going forward to help address the delays.

Employee pay codes and transparency: Several committee members asked why extra pay amounts do not show line‑item detail on employee checks. Dr. Pinto said employees submit timesheets and supporting documents and that pay codes exist; the problem is a capacity and staffing gap at the city side to delineate those codes on checks. Staff committed to obtain and circulate the list of pay codes and to work with city payroll to improve check-level clarity.

Ending: No formal policy vote was taken; staff outlined several operational steps—expanded cross-training in accounts payable, engagement with city IT for system access, and twice‑monthly meetings with the city auditor—to reduce payment delays and improve payroll clarity.