Comments on: Could School District Save Parents’ $$$ with Bulk Buying?

By: Corinna

Corinna — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:03:00 +0000

I have told my husband the exact same thing, the schools should buy in bulk and charge the parents a fee. Anyone that has ever done any buying for a large corporation knows the same thing…combine your buying power!

I am glad to see that I am not the only one that is thinking this way!

There is an additional benefit of it causing the teachers to be more consistent with their requests and to really evaluate what their needs are. It also means that the kids will all have the same stuff, no need to feel like they don’t have the right items or feel like the odd one out.

What I have noticed is the kids “extra stuff” doesn’t come back home! One year a particular teacher wanted art pastels and not once did I see a project come home with that media used. When I inquired I was told that the lesson plan had changed. The unused pastels never came home at the end of the year.

Three kids means a lot of hassle supply shopping and lots of $$.

By: Mary Colborn

Mary Colborn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:02:18 +0000

Wow. I didn’t know the schools receive such a rebate. I long felt that the supply list for too long. It averaged, I remember when my kids were in grade school, at about $60 a student. So, I didn’t do it. I read through the list. It would call for a box of colored pencils, pencils, glue sticks, loose leaf paper, etc.

We would go through our supply cabinet and pull out their supplies from previous years. Why would a child need a brand new box of colored pencils when they had boxes from past years? Why would they need new pencils or pens, when we had dozens around the house? Plus, we always went to the fair right before school started, so we had promotional pencils and pens galore.

When it came time to buy the things we didn’t have, we would go through the lists of store flyers and circle the sales. I remember one year sitting down with my daughter. She saw that one store had two glue sticks for $1.00, another offered three for the same price, a third had four. Since four office supply stores – Rite Aid, Office Depot, Staples and Walgreens are right on the same corner in Port Orchard, we could hit them all easily and with little gas expenditure.

It taught her to be frugal. Essentially we only bought the stores’ “lost leaders,” or sale items.

That way we could bring down the costs to under $20 a student. By the time they got to Junior High and High School we would need the more expensive calculators, but you only need one per student and you can keep them longer than a year, too.

By: Mark Powell

Mark Powell — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:34:21 +0000

I also have not verified the actual cost savings of buying in bulk for supplies but consider this. If you think that idea is good – why not multiple you’re buying power by 5. If all districts in Kitsap County were reduced to one imagine the savings. We all saw the the Bremerton Superintendent ‘s salary and car alowance published here but think of the staff times 5. We are punishing our children for allowing the schools to not combine districts. Money is reduced and we pay huge for their upward mobility as training sites for future administrators. some say combining 5 districts into one would increase the size akin to Seattle’s 40,000 – so let’s consider two districts: combine Bremerton and South Kitsap; and also combine Central Kitsap, North Kitsap and Bainbridge Island. The two districts could combine buying power with a memorandum of agreement. Do not let them attempt to spin this with what is best for the kids – their motive is their own greed.

By: Pooch

Pooch — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:42:17 +0000

The schools have the ability to purchase at the best available prices in the market today from their Co-Op which is KCDA. The reason they put this burden back on the parents is that it comes out of the supply budget. Which is their smallest of more than 10 different budget buckets. The box stores know this and pressure the schools with rebates to the schools supply budget if their students purchase from their store. So the parents spend their money on supplies, and the schools actually receive more money to their supply budget in the from of a rebate from the retailer……..

By: Sharon O'Hara

Sharon O'Hara — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:19:57 +0000

What a great idea!

Do I understand correctly that the students are expected to bring all that material to the class for the school to store? If the students must bring their materials, why not bring them when needed?

Bulk buying, of course, makes the most sense.
Sharon O’Hara