District Administration - November 2009 - (Page 80)

Tightening the Purchasing Process teacher salaries—all employee salaries actually—and it looks like we’re going to have to cut some more.” When Herzog took the reins last September (he was previously the district’s chief operating oﬃcer), he immediately issued a letter to all principals giving them notice of what essentially amounted to a spending freeze. Any purchase would need to be fully justiﬁed against how it was essential for instruction, and all purchases would be subject to public scrutiny through the district’s Web site. “It’s not just ColoThinking Big rado; it’s across the PURCHASING TIP #2 Richard Gay, purnation,” says McCul“Make sure a group of you agree chasing manager for ley. “Everybody is on evaluation criteria prior to the 105,000-student just trying to ﬁgure it sending out an RFP. You don’t Baltimore County out. Something’s got want an emotional response, and (Md.) Public Schools, to give.” you’ll do a better job if you take is responsible for a For example, this your time.” massive $1.57 billion past year McCul—Ron McCulley, director of purchasing, total operating budget. ley has had to weigh Douglas County (Colo.) School District “Over the last several purchasing a greater years, we’ve seen a number of computers shrinkage of revenues for his normal districtwide computer rotations against pur- coming in from our tax base,” he says. chasing new buses. “We still did our com- “We’ve been able to hold our own, but the puter rotation, but the number of buses future doesn’t look too good.” Over the last few years, Joe Hairston, was way down because we just didn’t have the dollars,” he says. McCulley will now Baltimore County schools superintenintensify bus maintenance schedules in dent, has given department heads, who order to keep the buses they have running oversee the district’s 17,000 employees, properly. But regarding budget reductions, he says, “I don’t see any end to that in the near future.” From McCulley’s experience, administrators want to ensure that purchasing departments are exploring opportunities, looking at cooperative purchasing, and going after the most competitive-priced products that they can. “ ey’re getting asked those same questions by taxpayers who also want to know what’s going on,” he says. “‘Should we be rolling this bid over in these conditions?’ ey want to make sure we’re spending our money wisely. We always have, but it’s become more of a need lately as budgets have been so small and limited. We’re not sure how the state is going to fund us down the road.” PURCHASING TIP #3 “Keep your business and procurement practices as efﬁcient as possible. The savings you create are dollars returned to the classroom to educate kids.” —Rick Gay, purchasing manager, Baltimore County (Md.) Public Schools notice that there will be no new dollars this year. Anything in a budget request should only be for existing programs. “It’s a maintenance budget more than anything,” Hairston explains. “ ose decisions will loom very heavily on the minds of our decision makers within the organization. We’re becoming more introspective with regard to what currently exists. I know now that there isn’t going to be a lot of money in there, so there is no need for me to ask for things that we know are not going to be funded.” Meanwhile, Hairston has requested his resource department to review initiatives and programs yielding few or no results and to redirect their funds. “Last year there was hope we could prioritize. is year there will be no new initiatives—no new dollars whatsoever.” Prompting this is what Hairston characterizes as “the realization that when your state legislature is looking at the state budget and the governor is anticipating a $2 billion deﬁcit and then you listen to the county budget oﬃcials and the county executive, who are very fearful that any state cuts would impact the local govern- Timely, Targeted and Totally Yours Free for Share the valuable ideas and insights of District Administration! www.DistrictAdministration.com/DigitalMag 80 November/December 2009 DA Digital Edition odd horiz partial.indd 1 Have your associates request a free DIGITAL subscription. District Administration 11/3/09 3:22:48 PM http://www.DistrictAdministration.com/DigitalMag

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2009

District Administration - November 2009
Contents
Advertiser Index
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Facilities & Construction
Stimulus Monitor
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Mobile Learning Guide
The New Writing Pedagogy
Staying Ahead in Education
Tightening the Purchasing Process
Minding Your E-mail
New Books
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Problem Solution
New Products
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response

District Administration - November 2009