Windham School Superintendent Sandy Prince released a statement last week in response to Town Councilor Kaile Warren’s statements about the school department spending too much on a bus part.

Warren called the additional $5,000 the town spent on five school bus door actuators over a local competitor’s price the “tip of the iceberg” in what he said may be a trend. But Prince disagrees.

“This is not a widespread problem,” said Prince. “And it is not indicative of the method in which the School Department purchases goods and services.” He said the issue has his “immediate attention” and he is working on fixing the problem.

Warren said he hopes the actuators are an isolated issue, but is still skeptical.

“I go back to the speed and ease I found the $5,000 (overspending),” he said. Warren said it took him two hours of research to find out about the actuator expenditure and he plans to bring the issue up again at the Aug. 7 town council workshop meeting.

In his statetment, Prince explained the purchasing policy of the school department. He said that items in the range of $400 to $1,500 require verbal or written quotes from at least three vendors.

The town paid $1,336.55 for each actuator to Portland North Truck Center. Other local vendors sell the same part at prices from $321 to $854.33.

Jim Morrison, parts manager at Portland North Truck Center, said the prices fluctuate and when the town purchased the parts in January, no one else had them for sale.

Prince said school policy requires purchases with only one choice of vendor need the approval of the assistant superintendent.

Donn Davis, assistant superintendent of schools, was on vacation this week and unavailable for comment.

Windham Town Manager Tony Plante said the Public Works Department will be careful when making purchases from Portland North Truck Center.

“Given the concerns that have surfaced, we will apply a heightened degree of scrutiny to purchases from this vendor,” said Plante. He said the town will closely compare its prices to other vendors and go with the lowest, but may make exceptions, such as when a vehicle needs to be on the road in a hurry and can’t the part anywhere else.

Warren said the Continuous Improvement Committee he wants to form would be able to find and fix problems like this. He said he thinks the town overspent on the parts because of human error.

Warren said if formed, the committee would want to find out how the overspending occurred and assess the conduct of Portland North Truck Center.

Warren also wants to know why the one-year warranty on the actuators was not used when allowed. He said Bus 33 had a new actuator installed in November and replaced it two months later without invoking the warranty.