Case Study: Instructional Technology Contract Coordination

Broward County Public Schools, November 2023 - 2026

The Challenge

Broward County Public Schools operates an extensive and highly regulated contract process, involving multiple internal stakeholders and a review and approval timeline that can span eight months to a year before reaching the school board. When I stepped into the Project Manager role within the Department of Innovative Learning in November 2023, my predecessor had navigated only one contract through this new process. While a district workflow existed, I had no firsthand knowledge of it and needed to learn it from the ground up.

The Approach

I immersed myself in the district's established contract process by building relationships with every relevant internal department, including Procurement, the Privacy Officer, IT Security Risk Management, Research and Evaluation, and the General Counsel's office, as well as the Grants department when funding and compliance alignment was required. I sought step-by-step guidance from each to ensure I was following the process as written and meeting every requirement at each stage of review. I approached every relationship as a collaboration, and those relationships became instrumental in helping me navigate a complex and highly regulated system with confidence.

As my fluency with the process grew, I became the department's go-to resource for contract coordination, managing timelines carefully to prevent lapses and ensuring agreements moved through each review stage with enough lead time for board consideration, a critical factor in a process where delays can be detrimental.

Managing long timelines also meant navigating unexpected disruptions. Midway through one particular contract's review process, I emailed the vendor contact to move forward with the document and received an auto-response notifying me that she had retired with no prior warning. Using the successor's contact information provided in the response, I reached out immediately, scheduled a meeting, and walked the new contact through the full history of the agreement and any outstanding questions. Because I had kept the process ahead of schedule, the transition caused no delay in the timeline and the contract continued moving forward without interruption.

The Solution

Over the course of my tenure I coordinated nine vendor contracts through to school board approval, including new agreements. I also authored amendments where existing agreements required modification. While a district template provided the framework, I reviewed and wrote much of the substantive content within each agreement, accurately capturing the details of each vendor relationship, program scope, and commitment. Each contract represented close collaboration with vendors and multiple internal teams, precise documentation, and careful timeline management across a process involving numerous decision points and stakeholders.

Some of the agreements I coordinated were recognized from the school board dais as a model for how vendor agreements should be brought before the board, reflecting the standard of clarity and thoroughness I applied to every contract.

The Outcome

The nine approved contracts expanded technology integration options for staff and students across all 240 K-12 schools in Broward County, supporting equitable access to digital tools district-wide. My work strengthened vendor relationships, improved coordination across internal departments, and established a repeatable contract process where none had previously existed in the department.

What began as an unfamiliar responsibility became one of my significant contributions to the department's operational infrastructure.

Read more about this on the Contracts page.