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Broward Schools Bring Back Cap-and-gown Vendor Despite Audit’s Past Billing Concerns
Two years after Broward schools severed ties with a national vendor of caps and gowns over allegations of overbilling, the company has been approved to do business again with the district.
The School Board’s approval of Indiana-based Herff Jones has troubled some members of the district’s Audit Committee, who say the company still owes the district a lot of money related to issues identified in a 2022 audit of caps-and-gowns contracts.
Auditors determined that Herff Jones owes the district about $96,000, although the company has argued it didn’t overbill the district and doesn’t owe the money.
A former contractor for Herff Jones, Chuck Puleri & Associates, owes the district more than $300,000 and students and parents more than $331,000, audits have said. Herff Jones severed ties with Puleri’s company in late 2022, and district lawyers determined they couldn’t collect that money because his business had closed.
Concerns about the audit findings prompted the School Board in 2022 to terminate the caps-and-gowns contract with Herff Jones as well as a class rings contract with Chuck Puleri & Associates. But the termination didn’t preclude Herff Jones from bidding again on future contracts. On Jan. 22, the School Board voted to 6-2 to give Herff Jones a new four-year contract.
Now, starting with the Class of 2026, Herff Jones will be one of two vendors schools can choose from for caps and gowns and other services related to graduating seniors, the other being Jostens, which has had an exclusive contract for two years. The School Board also approved contracts that will allow both companies to sell class rings to students, which also ends the ban on Herff Jones.
“Our high schools will now have choices, and we’re going to (be) the beneficiary of the competition between more than one company who go in and make pitches to these schools,” School Board member Allen Zeman said at the Jan. 22 meeting. “For two years, we have not had that.”
But several members of the district’s Audit Committee said Herff Jones should first pay back money that auditors say is owed to the district.
“I don’t understand why we’re rewarding this vendor,” Audit Committee member Peter Turso said at a Jan. 16 committee meeting.
“This can be resolved easily if they just write us a check,” committee member Ruth Carter-Lynch added.
Herff Jones officials have said that could be perceived as an admission of guilt.
“Herff Jones has always maintained that no overcharging occurred and that our company did not owe the amount cited by the audit,” the company wrote in a statement to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Herff Jones CEO Ron Stoupa “demonstrated the inaccuracies of the audit through discussions with the Broward County Board and audit committees. We are not accountable for charges that were proven false.”
Rika Cuff, a senior vice president for Herff Jones, told the School Board on Jan. 22 that the company was agreeing to provide $20,000 worth of “in-kind services” to the district. She said this money would be used toward a “ring ceremony” for high school seniors who bought class rings.
Broward school officials agreed to audit its caps-and-gowns contracts after a series of South Florida Sun Sentinel investigations in 2021 revealed that Puleri’s company was charging inflated prices to students and parents, while maintaining cozy relationships with high-level district officials, several of whom spent weekends at his beach home near Marco Island.
As a result of the Sun Sentinel’s reporting, the school district instituted price caps and new regulations for the 2021-22 school year, including a requirement that all caps-and-gowns contracts be with parent companies, rather than contractors.
In October 2022, the district released the audit from the Alabama-based Carr, Riggs & Ingram, which concluded Puleri & Associates overcharged parents and the district more than $300,000.
The audit also said Puleri’s company failed to supply invoices, including shredding four years of invoices that were required to be maintained, making it impossible to know the full extent of overcharging. The audit also concluded there was about $16,000 in overbillings for a contract directly issued to Herff Jones.
School Board members debated at the Jan. 22 meeting whether they should bring Herff Jones back, considering the scathing audits. But Marylin Batista, general counsel for Broward schools, told board members they had no legal basis to reject Herff Jones.
“At no point was Herff Jones debarred under our policy,” Batista told the board. “They were not given an opportunity to file any kind of administrative process to challenge anything the district did as a final order.”
District administrators have given conflicting responses as to whether they expected Herff Jones to repay the district.
On Oct. 24, 2023, then-district Procurement Director Mary Coker sent demand letters seeking payments from Jostens, Herff Jones and Chuck Puleri & Associates related to findings from the audits.
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Coker’s letter said Jostens owed the district $5,364 in overbillings from the 2021-22 school year. Auditors and Jostens officials say the company paid the district that money.
Coker’s letter to Herff Jones asked for $96,838, which included the audit cost, $80,512, plus $16,326 in alleged overbillings related to the district’s purchase of certain graduation regalia, such as medallions and honor cords. The vendor contracts said they had to pay audit costs if the audit found overbillings exceeded 2% of total billings.
Three weeks later, Coker wrote a letter to a Herff Jones executive saying the demand was being rescinded. The letter provided no explanation.
“We are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused,” Coker wrote in the letter, dated Nov. 14, 2023.
Coker, who no longer works for Broward Schools, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel recently the letters were written by Joris Jabouin, then-chief auditor, and she was asked to sign them. Jabouin couldn’t be reached by the Sun Sentinel.
A school district spokesperson did not respond to questions from the Sun Sentinel, despite multiple attempts.
Coker also sent a letter to Puleri at that time asking for $301,489 related to numerous alleged overbillings to the district from 2016 to 2020, as well as audit costs. The letter did not seek to recover another $331,000 that auditors say Puleri overbilled to parents and students. Batista determined the district didn’t have legal standing to collect that money, emails show.
District officials said they were unable to collect money from Puleri’s company because it had gone out of business, emails show. Puleri could not be reached by the Sun Sentinel.
Some Audit Committee members said Herff Jones should be responsible for money owed by Puleri’s company.
“I keep hearing people say Chuck Puleri was a contractor for Herff Jones,” Carter-Lynch said. “Anywhere in the world, you have to be responsible for your subcontractors.”
Herff Jones officials have insisted they aren’t responsible for issues involving Puleri’s company.
“Chuck Puleri was an independent contractor of which Herff Jones provided product,” a Herff Jones statement said. “As soon as we learned that he had not followed proper protocols and maintained accurate billing records, we took immediate action and ended our relationship with his business.”
It’s unclear why Broward schools required Jostens to pay more than $5,300 in fines since they didn’t collect them from the other two caps-and-gowns vendors.
“Jostens has fully complied with all the terms of our contracts with SBBC, including the required remedies when there is an audit,” W. Jason Phelps, president of Jostens contractor Rhodes Graduation Services, told the Sun Sentinel. “The district spent tens of thousands of dollars on external audits, and we have cooperated throughout and complied at every opportunity.”
Phelps said the company doesn’t intend to file a complaint.
“Instead, we want to work with the board and district officials to streamline this process, ensuring greater accuracy and transparency,” he said. “Since this is a purchase made by the students and their families, ensuring transparency is of utmost importance.”
