Latest From P3

Straight A Fund update meetings scheduled

Dr. Susan Zelman will present a Straight A Fund update at five morning regional meetings. Find out the latest on the application, sustainability, program and cost-savings. If you are interested in attending, please register here:

http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Straight-A-Fund/Regional-Straight-A-Workshop.

Meeting dates and locations:
Northwest – March 4, Wood County Educational Service Center
Southwest – March 6, Montgomery County Educational Service Center
Central – March 7, Educational Service Center of Central Ohio
Southeast – March 11, Athens-Meigs Educational Service Center
Northeast – March 13, Cuyahoga Valley Career Center – Conference Center

Editor’s Note: The following is a news release issued recently by the North Coast Shared Services Alliance. P3 worked with the ESC of Cuyahoga County and NCSSA to deliver this strategic sourcing project for 52 northern Ohio school districts.

To save taxpayer dollars by combining the purchasing power of its members, the North Coast Shared Services Alliance (NCSSA) is changing the way many area school districts buy computer equipment.

“School districts have historically gone into the marketplace on their own or in relatively smaller groups of districts,” ESC of Cuyahoga County Superintendent Dr. Robert Mengerink said in a news release. “Through the North Coast Shared Services Alliance, the Cuyahoga, Medina and Lorain ESCs are bringing together school districts and local governments to the marketplace with their combined purchasing power.”

NCSSA’s members represent 52 northern Ohio school districts and have worked together for nearly a year to create standards for commodity computing hardware like PCs, laptops and tablets. Once each district was on board with a common set of specifications, the Ohio Schools Council ran a competitive process on behalf of NCSSA where vendors were asked for pricing based on the combined number of items needed by all districts. All school districts and local governments that adopt the standard may take advantage of the competitive pricing provided by the bid’s three winners: Open Systems of Cleveland, MNJ Technologies Direct of Twinsburg and Royal Business Equipment of Elyria. Pricing is firm through Sept. 30. Another competition will be conducted in the fall for pricing effective Oct. 1.

“Everyone understands the pressure public school budgets are under,” Mengerink said. “The school districts participating in this process are choosing to collaborate and work smarter to cut costs for taxpayers and keep current technology available to students and teachers.”

Ohio ESCs provide a range of centralized or shared services to their local school district members. The fact that multiple ESCs are collaborating on this purchasing effort — meaning even more districts are working together — is notable among Ohio education administration circles, said Hugh Quill, president of Public Performance  Partners, a not-for-profit business that  works with public sector organizations  throughout Ohio on shared service strategies.

“School districts and local governments are really beginning to understand that they are stronger together, marketplace leverage is enhanced and collaborative purchasing preserves important tax dollars for the classroom and critical public services,” Quill said.

One example of savings is demonstrated by the pricing NCSSA partners receive on a typical workstation. The Hewlett-Packard product districts will be purchasing through the bid retails between $525 and $650. Bid pricing, depending on the number of products purchased, is from $429 to $443.

Mengerink said NCSSA partners will collect data on the usage of the computer hardware contract and use the experience to move on to other commodities and services.

“Key to the long-term success of the purchasing alliance is adoption of the standards and participation,” Mengerink said. To learn more about NCSSA, visit www.northcoastssa.org.

by Hugh Quill

Fewer state tax dollars for Ohio’s local governments and schools have public administrators talking, in the light of day no less, about mergers and shared services – topics long taboo in the Buckeye State. Most public officials fear the former and suspect that the latter is just a catchy phrase that stands for comingling their funds for the benefit of others.

Elected officials can be forgiven for their reluctance to discuss mergers and service consolidations. They didn’t create this maze of public service delivery; and until stagnant population growth and the weakening economy caught up with Ohio, the status quo seemed sustainable. Citizens also have misgivings about consolidation and sharing. They view merging their local governments as a potential loss of identity and fear their sense of community will be sacrificed in the process. In Ohio, all politics really are local, and local control has been a sacred cow politically.

[Read more…] about Doing More With Less Demands Partners