ESU 10 Cooperative Purchasing Opportunities

Submitted by Dr. Wayne A. Bell
Administrator
ESU 10

Many people realize that ESU 10 works with the statewide ESU system to provide a plethora of cooperative purchasing opportunities to school districts.  The extent of these opportunities, however, may not be fully understood by the general school public. 

The main cooperative is the summer program through which schools can order a wide variety of products that are delivered from vendors to ESU 10 and then directly to the schools from ESU 10’s warehouse. It’s estimated that districts realize a savings of about 40%-50% compared to non-discounted retail prices.  Last year ESU 10 sold items totaling $446,329.66 through the summer general buy.  That alone would be impressive, but it is only the tip of the purchasing iceberg.

The statewide cooperative also has a custodial purchasing program from which ESU 10 schools ordered $202,881.46 worth of product; a food purchasing coop that ESU 10 schools used to order $251,226.06 worth of food items; and special buy purchases which totaled another $363,099.62 last year.  Special buys included software, lighting, sports supplies, and a bevy of other items. 

Besides the statewide purchasing program, ESU 10 also offers some other opportunities for school districts such as technology software and hardware special pricing that saves school districts from 50%-80%. 

ESU 10 even participates with National Joint Powers Alliance, a group headquartered in Minnesota, to provide school districts quality prices on Sharp copiers.  Eakes Office Equipment in Kearney is the main distributor utilized in this area that cooperates with the NJPA.

The Nebraska Educational Assistive Technology program located at the ESU 10 Cozad Center works statewide to provide discounts on equipment, software, and other learning materials to support education programs for students with disabilities.  ESU 10 also produced software, AT4ALL, which is used in a number of states as a free online service to list and find equipment for individuals experiencing disabilities.

The power of cooperative purchasing is a valuable asset offered to the school districts located in the ESU 10 area that helps stretch local school dollars.  Suggestions are always accepted for any new item or service that can be bid cooperatively to receive better pricing.

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