Parents urging principals to change vendors
By:Sally Goldenberg
A Hillsborough-based photography company recently won contracts to shoot student pictures for half of the school district securing territory previously served by a longtime vendor in the district.
But the year-old photo group, Milan Rose, is disappointed because it claims it was promised contracts for eight of the nine schools.
Nearly two months after the promise, Lifetouch a national corporation that has shot school pictures in the district for years obtained contracts Milan Rose had already been promised for the Auten Road Intermediate and Hillsborough Middle schools, Milan Rose President Susan Harding said.
Ms. Harding said the district administration unjustly offered Lifetouch an additional opportunity to upgrade its services after promising Milan Rose eight contracts for the upcoming school year.
Both companies were granted 15 minutes each to pitch their products to a committee of school officials and parents, who then voted on the vendors Dec. 12.
"That would seem unethical. Obviously Lifetouch had another bite of the apple," Ms. Harding said.
The school district had used Lifetouch for many years without question, but in 2001, three elementary school principals signed contracts with Milan Rose.
Sunnymead Elementary School Principal Linda Gross said she signed on with Milan Rose because parents who had seen the new company’s work in area nursery schools, karate classes and churches, asked her to switch.
Superintendent of Schools Robert Gulick informed Ms. Gross that principals could not switch vendors without supervisory permission, prompting the formation of the committee in 2002 to compare and select the vendors.
Though the committee initially voted to use Milan Rose in every school but the high school, the intermediate and middle school principals later opted to stay with Lifetouch.
Dr. Gulick said the principals of the intermediate and middle schools reconsidered their decisions after Milan Rose was promised the contracts because Lifetouch promised to offer the same digital photography Milan Rose initially proposed to the district.
"Both (principals) have worked with Bill Urban, who is the Lifetouch representative, for many years. There are services and products that are provided, have been provided and will be provided in the future that caused both men … to request an opportunity to stay with Lifetouch for next year," Dr. Gulick said.
Ms. Harding said that once the committee chose Milan Rose, Lifetouch should not have had another chance to lure the principals.
"I don’t understand why, with everything that we offer, which exceeded what they had been receiving, and our being a local business, that these principals would decide to stay with Lifetouch," she said.
Mr. Urban refused to comment on Lifetouch’s services and prices, stating he did not want to get involved in a "media blitz" over a business deal.
"At this time, I’d rather not say anything," Mr. Urban said.
The committee’s decision to switch vendors in K-8 was primarily based on the digital photography Milan Rose offered, which Lifetouch promised to have in two to three years, said Ms. Gross, who headed the committee.
"Basically the pricing and the packages would be the same. The big distinction was that Milan Rose was digital and Lifetouch was film. With the digital, they immediately view the pictures and know whether to take the pictures over immediately. With film, what you see is what you get," she said.
Milan Rose offers full-body pictures with scenic backgrounds and vowed to take candid shots for the school yearbooks as part of the package deal an offer Lifetouch did not make during the hearing, Ms. Gross said.
Sunnymead’s yearbook co-advisor Rita Droumbakis was pleased to learn the school will use Milan Rose next year.
"As far as our paperwork goes, it’ll be wonderful. Milan Rose will be willing to come in and do all that for us, so I will just be putting pages together," she said.
She presently takes the yearbook pictures and uses a cut-and-paste method to create the final product, she said.
Milan Rose would also touch up pictures free of charge a service Lifetouch did not offer during the committee hearing, Ms. Gross added.
For Patti Buckle, a parent and director of education at St. Joseph’s Church, the decision to use Milan Rose for communion shots was a no-brainer, she said.
"I was thrilled with them and I have been so disappointed over the last few years with the school pictures with Lifetouch," Ms. Buckle said.
In addition to fast delivery, Milan Rose touched up her daughter’s picture by removing her tan lines, she said.
The school pictures Lifetouch took were often unacceptable because her children were looking away, she added.
The qualitative difference she noted between Milan Rose and Lifetouch left her wondering why some schools opted to stay with Lifetouch.
"Everyone wonders what’s the connection between (the district) and Lifetouch and nobody really knows," she said.
Ms. Gross said Lifetouch and Milan Rose offered the same rebates to the district a standard 20 percent for all sales in each school.
Schools use the rebate from photography companies for their general operating budgets, Ms. Gross said.
Once her third-grade daughter reaches the intermediate school, Ms. Buckle said she will encourage the school to use Milan Rose.
"I will definitely make a push for it, especially after having them now," she said.
Contrary to Ms. Buckle’s description of Lifetouch’s services, Dr. Gulick said Lifetouch has been a worthwhile vendor in the district and may improve in the coming year.
"Not only has Lifetouch been our exclusive vendor for a long time, but they’ve made a very concerted effort to enhance their technology that will result in, according to the two principals, a continuation of good service, but at the same time an enhancement in the product that has been produced," Dr. Gulick said.
High School Principal Doug Poye chose to stay with Lifetouch immediately after the December hearing, he said.
Lors, another photography company, shoots senior portraits for the high school.
"Doug Poye was adamant that he did not want to move away from Lifetouch," Dr. Gulick said. "Lifetouch was providing services to the high school that everybody enjoyed and the high school principal saw no reason for moving away from Lifetouch."
But Ms. Buckle said her other daughter Lauren, who sits on the Principal Student Advisory Committee in the high school, will recommend Milan Rose during the next meeting.
Home and School Association member Lauren Downes said she hopes to see Milan Rose in every school as well.
In September of 2001, Ms. Downes’ first-grade daughter was photographed with her eyes closed, she said.
"When they handed her her picture, she cried all the way home on the bus. It just rips your heart out when your daughter comes in and cries because her eyes were closed in a picture," she said. Lifetouch retook the picture two months later, she said.
"That was the worst part waiting," she said.
She too plans to make a push for Milan Rose when her daughter enters Auten Road.
Dr. Gulick said at the end of the 2003-04 school year, the district will decide whether to keep both companies of choose one over the other. The Board of Education does not choose the photography vendor because the district is not beholden to competitive bidding rules for photo vendors, Dr. Gulick said.
Since the school acts as an intermediary between a photo company and the parents, rather than as a consumer, the competitive bid rules do not apply to the board for photo companies, he explained.
To that end, all parties involved agree on one thing: families, not schools officials, are should be pleased with the result of school photos.
Dr. Gulick said the district could see enough improvement in Lifetouch’s digital photography to use the company exclusively after next year.
Though Ms. Gross and Ms. Harding declined to comment on why they believe the district would choose Lifetouch over Milan Rose for several schools, both agreed that Milan Rose should be the primary vendor in coming years.
Ms. Gross said Milan Rose is the popular choice of parents, who are the consumers of school photographs.
During a recent interview with Ms. Gross, she was unsure whether Lifetouch had committed to digital photography for the upcoming school year.
"This is a service that is for the benefit of the children and their parents and I really just want to make sure that they receive the product that they want to pay for," Ms. Gross said. "The bottom line is the district isn’t buying the product. It’s the child and the parent."
Ms. Buckle agreed.
"The parents are the ones paying for the pictures," she said. "We’re the ones that have to be satisfied."