Obtaining Instructional Services at Frontier Charter School
Each year Frontier Charter School parents & guardians use Frontier funds to purchase instructional
services as part of the overall education plan for their students. Instructional services range from
academic courses and tutoring to music, fine arts and PE.
Parents and guardians have wide discretion to choose the service providers of their choice. However,
Anchorage School District policy and procedure determines the process by which contracts are
established and payment made.
In general, a contract for services will be processed by ASD Purchasing and a purchase order issued.
Once the PO is effective, ASD accounts payable can pay invoices. An invoice from the vendor is required
for payment.
ASD policy requires that all for-profit vendors must be paid by ASD accounting to assure that an IRS
Form 1099 is issued each year. We are unable to reimburse parents/guardians for payments they make
to for-profit vendors. To use Frontier funds when a service provider requires advance payment, the
vendor needs to agree to reimburse the parent once payment is received from ASD accounting.
Instructional services provided by recognized not-for-profit vendors and paid by Frontier
parents/guardians can be reimbursed. Recognized not-for-profit vendors include: Municipality of
Anchorage Pools, YMCA, UAA, Alaska Fine Arts Academy, ASD Community Schools, the American Red
Cross among others. Not sure? Call the business office.
Steps and hints to getting an instructional services contract issued. We can pay for services during the
school year: July 1 – June 30.
1) Choose the vendor. Please let the vendor know that your student is with Frontier and you want
to use Frontier Funds. If the vendor has any questions or concerns, ask them to call Frontier’s
Business Manager (Scott Grant) at 742-1184. We do not maintain a formal list of approved
vendors but are happy to let you know the vendors that parents are using.
2) Ask your vendor if he/she is an ASD employee in any capacity (including a substitute teacher).
This is important and may limit our ability to contract with the vendor. This has to do with ASD
Conflict of Interest Policy and Municipality of Anchorage Ethics Ordinance. We ask all
instruction service vendors to review the Conflict of Interest page at the ASD Website:
http://www.asdk12.org/depts/purchasing/conflict_of_interest.asp
(A Waiver of Conflict of interest may be needed. This process takes time requires approval by
the ASD Board. This may impact the start date of the services provided by the vendor to your
student).
3) Create a requisition at our online system (SALTT). This will need to tie to an ILP and vice versa.
Your advisor will review and approve/disapprove the requisition.
4) To create and send the contract document, we need to know:
a. Vendor Name, address, phone number and email address. Website also, if available.
b. Start date and end date of instruction
c. Number of lessons/sessions/months/etc.
8/27/13
d. Fee schedule/rate (per hour/lesson/month/semester/etc.)
e. The total amount of your student’s Frontier funding you want to go toward instruction
by this vendor.
f. Description of what will be taught.
5) Make sure that the vendor will send an invoice (we do not have a required invoice format). If
your vendor has questions about how or when to invoice, or does not provide invoices, call Scott
at 742-1184 or email at Grant_Scott@asdk12.org.
6) Allow 3-4 weeks from the time your requisition is approved by your advisor to the issue of a
purchase order. This is a guideline only. Actual processing time varies due to the time it takes for
the vendor to return the documents as well as workload at Frontier and ASD Purchasing.
In many cases we have contracts in place already. Some examples:
UAA
Arctic Gymnastics
Alaska Fine Arts Academy
The Art House / Betty Dye
Dimond Athletic
The Alaska Club
Please remember that the actual contract is a legal agreement between Frontier Charter/Anchorage
School District and the vendor. We expect to pay for the number of lessons contracted and will
presume that any lessons missed will be made up per the vendors’ absence policy. We will reduce
contracts only if mutually agreed to by the parent/guardian and the vendor.
The process is not as complex as it appears and with the right information up front, we will get the
contract documents on the way to the vendor within 3 business days of your approved requisition
hitting the business office queue. Included in the packet sent to the vendor is the contract document, a
letter of introduction and instruction, an IRS Form W-9, a request for a certificate of insurance when
necessary (when the type of instruction involves risk such as gymnastics, swimming, martial arts, etc.)
and request for a copy of the vendor’s business license. A stamped, addressed return envelope is
included for the vendor’s convenience.
We encourage vendors to contact us direct at any time with questions about contract issue status,
payment status, etc.
Final tips:
Please plan your entire school year requirements for instruction services early in the year.
Please submit your service requisitions as early as possible. Our workload is heaviest from about
August 15 - November 15 and again in January and February.
Questions, comments, suggestions are always welcome. Please call or email!
Scott Grant
Business Manager
Grant_Scott@asdk12.org
742-1184
8/27/13
LaNore Smith
Administrative Assistant
Smith_Lanore@asdk12.org
742-1189
8/27/13