Cooperative Purchasing

There are two bills in the Indiana General Assembly that directly encourage Indiana schools to do more in the area of cooperative purchasing. Portions of these bills enable schools to build upon past cooperative purchasing efforts. Indiana Education Service Centers have been active in this arena by pooling resources with member districts and private schools for 25 years. Plymouth Community School Corporation has been an active member of the Northern Indiana Educational Services Center for 25 years. Through our association we have saved thousands of dollars on a yearly basis, not only through cooperative purchasing of equipment and materials, but through many other services and products. If we focus only on the cooperative purchasing done by our school corporation during the 2004-2005 school year, $96,472 in savings were achieved. These savings were made on items such as school buses, cafeteria food and supplies, waste removal, copy paper, light bulbs, carpeting, school furniture, and thousands of other items. Through NIESC we have access to a web based purchasing system that allows us to purchase thousands of materials at bid prices or at reduced catalog prices. Many of these items are on statewide or multi-state bids.

We have actively pursued these savings for years. A ten-year history would show savings approaching $572,178 for Plymouth Community School Corporation. Yearly savings have grown significantly as more opportunities have been added. While there are concepts found in HB 1006 and SB 323 that need continued work and clarification, the cooperative purchasing portions of the bill will enable Indiana schools to do even better and save more dollars to be used directly for instruction. That is what we have worked to do in the past and will continue to do in the future.