In 2021, Jericho Union Free School District approved a five-year contract with Finalsite to completely redesign the district’s website. The agreement totaled more than $103,750 and was intended to carry the district through 2026 with a modern, stable platform.
It didn’t.
The website never functioned as promised, and the district is now preparing a full redesign in 2025.
While the outcome is financially wasteful for taxpayers, it’s important to be clear: this failure does not belong to the current board or to Superintendent Robert Kravitz. They inherited the consequences. They did not create them.
The responsibility rests with the board that approved the 2021 Finalsite contract — and two members of that board remain on the board today.
Who Approved the 2021 Contract
The Finalsite agreement (Schedule 2021-84-E) was approved unanimously on April 22, 2021 by the following board members:
William Ferro – President
Jill Citron – Vice President
Deborah Lee – Trustee
Pam Wasserman-Heath – Trustee
Dr. Divya Balachandar – Trustee
Motion to adopt: Jill Citron
Seconded by: Dr. Divya Balachandar
Every trustee voted yes.
Today, two of those board members — Jill Citron and Dr. Divya Balachandar — continue to serve on the current board.
What the District Paid For
The contract included:
Setup Fee:
– $33,000
Annual Fees:
– $14,150 per year for five years
– $70,750 total
Total Minimum Cost:
$103,750
Contract Term:
July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2026
Auto-Renewal: Another five-year term unless canceled
The district paid for a “turnkey” solution, including migration of all pages, images, documents, optimization of 100 pages, and a full transition.
The promise was a long-term, high-quality system.
What the Community Received
The result did not meet the district’s needs:
• Navigation issues
• Missing or poorly migrated content
• Layout inconsistencies
• A difficult mobile experience
• Staff forced to rebuild content manually
• A site that underperformed from the start
A website redesign like this should last 6–10 years. Jericho is replacing theirs after two.
This is not normal. It is evidence of a significant procurement failure.
Why This Isn’t About the Current Board
The current board is:
Samuel Perlman, President (Term expires 2027)
Jennifer Vartanov, Vice President (Term expires 2027)
Kenny Jin, Trustee (Term expires 2028)
Jill Citron, Trustee (Term expires 2026)
Dr. Divya Balachandar, Trustee (Term expires 2026)
It is important to draw a line between those who approved the 2021 Finalsite contract and those who are now responsible for unwinding it.
President Perlman, Vice President Vartanov, and Trustee Jin were not on the board in 2021.
They did not approve the contract.
They did not authorize the spending.
They did not choose the vendor.
They did not create the problem they are now fixing.
Superintendent Kravitz also inherited this failed platform.
He did not choose it, design it, or implement it.
This redesign is not a reflection of their leadership — it is a correction of a past board’s mistake.
Why the Current Board Deserves Credit
Unlike the 2021 board, the current board and administration are taking action:
• They are ending reliance on a platform that never worked.
• They are moving toward a more functional website for families and staff.
• They are acknowledging — through their decisions — that the 2021 project failed.
• They are preventing Jericho from being locked into another five-year renewal of a broken system.
Correcting inherited mistakes can be harder than avoiding them in the first place.
This board is choosing to fix the problem rather than ignore it.
And that should be recognized.
Why the Community Still Needs Answers
Even as the district moves forward, the community deserves transparency about the past expenditure:
• How much was paid to Finalsite to date?
• Which contracted deliverables were never met?
• Did the district seek refunds or remediation?
• Has the auto-renewal been formally canceled?
• What guardrails will prevent Jericho from paying twice again?
This is not about re-litigating history.
It’s about understanding how a six-figure technology project failed so quickly and ensuring it never happens again.
A Necessary Fix, and a Reminder of What Went Wrong
The move to rebuild the website in 2025 is not optional; it is the consequence of a 2021 contract that failed to produce a functional platform. The district is now addressing a problem created by a prior board decision, and the financial impact speaks for itself: a six-figure website that is being replaced well before its contract term ends.
Two trustees who voted for the Finalsite agreement remain on the board. The other current members were not involved in the approval, but they are now responsible for navigating the fallout.
The situation is straightforward. The 2021 project didn’t work. The district is now paying again. And the community has every reason to expect a clear explanation of what failed, how much was spent, and what will be done differently this time