City-schools panel explores the power of shared buying

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

youngstowN

There’s strength in numbers, and the business committee of the city school board wants to learn if there’s also buying power.

Michael Murphy, chairman of the business committee, hopes to meet with other area school districts to learn if they can buy items as a group.

“I’m hoping we can get all of the business managers and heads of the business committees together and see if we can buy as a group,” Murphy said.

He hopes to set up the meeting early next year.

“We’re just researching it right now,” Murphy said.

Any items are on the table for the possibility of shared buying.

“I want to start out with paper products, but anything that we can” is a possibility, Murphy said.

The district buys much of its supplies through state purchasing, said Harry Evans, district operations chief. Items available through that system include copy paper and office products.

“It’s a laundry list of items,” Evans said.

Murphy said that Evans is checking into the state purchasing system to try to determine if it’s possible to get a lower price through shared buying. Evans is in the early stages of his research.

The business-committee chairman said he came up with the idea when the district began examining pooling of its local, state and federal finances. Such pooling is the fastest way to implement an academic-recovery plan for the district while having the least impact on the district’s general fund, officials have said.

“I hope to have something by the first the year — a meeting at least,” Murphy said.