Alabama School District Leverages Cooperative to Achieve Savings and Spend Relief Funds

Around 25 miles north of Montgomery, Alabama, Elmore County Public School District serves approximately 11,000 K-12 students. Making sure “every student is empowered and every student succeeds,” teachers and administrators in Elmore County are dedicated to the education, growth, and potential of each child that walks through their doors.

Procurement teams in school systems across the nation know that equipping their schools with innovative education supplies and health and safety items is crucial to maximizing the student learning experience. Though not in the classroom with the kids, Director of Federal Programs, Celeste Tilley, and Federal Programs Accounting Specialist, Cecile Sanford, spend each day ensuring that Elmore County students and teachers have all the school supplies they need, right when they need them through collaboration with their cooperative purchasing organization, OMNIA Partners.

CHALLENGE & OPPORTUNITY

Purchasing for 15 schools with a variety of needs isn’t an easy task but adding more money than you’re used to dealing with, and it becomes a bit more overwhelming. Elmore County received Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding and needed assistance with sourcing and coordinating a large volume of orders for their schools.

In dire need of high demand school supplies quickly along with better vendor communication and support, the education purchasing leaders turned to OMNIA Partners supplier, Quill, for classroom solutions, cleaning, and PPE supplies to improve the learning and teaching experience. By working with Quill and OMNIA Partners, Celeste and Cecile were able to maximize spend and use their ESSER funds quickly and efficiently.

“Why would I want to go through that bid process if someone else has already done it? Just the process and the advertising requirements and the time it takes and all of it. The fact that OMNIA Partners exists to do that process. To do that for public entities, it’s a game-changer for us. It eliminates a huge amount of work. It simplifies the process. Then we have the vendor representatives we work with that have all been very helpful.” – Celeste Tilley, Federal Programs Director, Elmore County School District

“We would almost have to have another hired person to do that part if we weren’t apart of any cooperative. Because it’s so time-consuming.” – Cecile Sanford, Federal Programs Accounting Specialist, Elmore County School District

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Brought to you by: