Purchasing alliance chalks up savings 

The Walter Porter Elementary School’s north campus that opened in San Diego last month boasts nearly $150,000 worth of new classroom furniture. San Diego Unified School District paid only about $138,500 for the furnishings, though. It chalked up a savings of more than 7 percent thanks to the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance, a service sponsored for California K-12 schools exclusively by CSBA and the California Association of School Business Officials.

The discount on the Porter school’s furniture is just a fraction of the savings that San Diego USD has realized through the U.S. Communities program. In all, the district has saved more than $100,000 on classroom and office furniture since December 2005, according to Arthur S. Hanby Jr., director of business support services for SDUSD.

“And that’s just one of the U.S. Communities contracts,” Hanby noted. The purchasing alliance also offers the lowest prices available on office furniture and machines, park and playground equipment, maintenance and hardware supplies, and a dozen or more other categories of products and services.

Hanby and Rey Reyes, director of operations at Davis Joint Unified School District near Sacramento, are among the 20 key government purchasing officials who sit on the purchasing alliance’s Advisory Board, providing leadership and overall direction for the consortium. Each board member also actively participates in product bids and selection. The contract with school and office furniture vendor Virco Inc., for example, was negotiated by Wichita Public Schools’ purchasing officer in Kansas. The Wichita purchasing officer and another official from Maryland join Reyes and Hanby on a subcommittee responsible for all the school contracts negotiated through U.S. Communities.

“We’re the ones who are responsible for bidding all the bids for school districts nationwide,” said Reyes, who also availed himself of U.S. Communities’ services at Elk Grove Unified School District, a larger and more urban area also near Sacramento, before going to work in Davis. He said the purchasing alliance hopes to surpass the $1 billion mark in total value of its contracts before its annual meeting in April, ensuring the continued purchasing power of the group.

With cities, counties and other local governments as well as schools among its clients, the alliance is a powerful market.

“It’s based on national volume discounts,” explained Suzi Rader, CSBA’s director of District and Financial Services, who coordinates participation in the purchasing alliance. “All the contracts are competitively bid, so it allows districts to piggyback” on the best deals available.

CSBA began sponsoring the alliance four years ago, after working with U.S. Communities to allow schools to participate. At first, Office Depot was the main vendor enrolled in the program, but the variety of products and services has grown enormously.

“It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to obtain quality products,” Rader said. If a school district or county office of education isn’t participating, she urged, “at least look at it and compare it to your current purchase prices.”