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A proposal by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and several legislators requiring school districts and charter schools to combine purchasing power has met with guarded optimism among local school districts.

“Any vehicle exists that allows us to minimize costs on purchases, would be welcomed,” said Ray Queener, Stillwater Area Schools’ assistant superintendent of business and administrative services. “However, we have taken many opportunities to do joint purchasing with other districts and state contracts saving money for many years, and we will continue to do more as we can.”

The proposed legislation, which has not yet been assigned a bill number but is poised to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session, all Minnesota school districts and charter schools would be required to pool resources for food, equipment, supply, transportation and technology purchases, according to a statement Pawlenty’s office released on Wednesday.

The Minnesota Department of Education would create and maintain a list of “preferred vendors” with which it would contract for services. School districts and charter schools would then be required to purchase services from vendors from that list.

Pawlenty hopes the Legislature will pass a shared-services bill so districts “may realize savings during the 2009-10 school year,” he said. His office cited savings between 5 and 15 percent among school districts that engaged in similar service sharing in other states.

“There are 340 school districts and 150 charter schools in the state, but back-room functions don’t need to be duplicated 490 times,” Pawlenty said. “Shared services will allow Minnesota schools to focus resources where they are needed the most — in the classroom and on improving student achievement.”

Stillwater Area Schools collaborate already in several joint-powers agreements with metro-area school districts to share costs. It was unclear what effect the proposal would have on the district’s standing agreements.

Jon Gutierrez, executive director of St. Croix Preparatory School, a public charter school in Stillwater, said he supports the proposal in theory.

“Leveraging procurement committees is something the business world has done for a long time,” he said. “Any time you can leverage those communities to get better pricing, I think that’s good for everyone.”

However, he cautioned that any statewide purchasing system should do more good than harm. Like officials at charter schools across the state, he awaits more specific information.

“My only concern would be to make sure the vendors and the items and the services represented in those shared-services models represent the unique needs of individual school districts and charter schools,” he said further.

While Gutierrez sees the proposal as a potential boon for smaller school districts such as that representing St. Croix Preparatory Academy, he questioned whether larger school districts that have forged joint powers agreements have much to gain.

“We’re pretty much on our own for our purchase agreements,” he said. “Even though we have a sponsor, it isn’t a school district. So, yes, we definitely could gain from this.”

Tom Kearney, principal at New Heights Charter School in Stillwater, took a similar tack.

While he praised the state for seeking ways to save money, he said the charter school already “piggybacks” on Stillwater Area Schools’ joint-powers agreements to secure low prices for its goods and services Further, he voiced concern that state interference could compromise its savings.

“It’s would be pretty hard to have our school break its vendor relationships if we are already getting good pricing but our vendors don’t show up on the preferred vendors list,” he said.

Further, Kearney said the charter school’s relationship with Stillwater Area Schools’ is already a model in cooperation and cost-savings for other Minnesota charter schools. Like St. Croix Prep, the charter school comprises its own school district that is separate from Stillwater Area Schools. But unlike St. Croix Prep, the larger school district is its legal sponsor, leases its facility, and shares with it several employees.

“It sounds like [the Legislature] are forcing our hand to do business with other associates in some cases, which could be detrimental to a program like ours which is already bare bones.”

District 834's economies of scale

Below is a list of joint-powers agreements of which Stillwater Area Schools takes part to save costs, according to information provided by the school district:

• Chemical Health Services - A host agency, North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale schools, hires and supervise chemical health prevention specialists serving five school districts in Washington County, including Forest Lake, Mahtomedi; South Washington;Stillwater and North St. Pau/Maplewood/Oakdale.

• Purchasing Food Service Perishable and Non-perishable Goods - Stillwater Area Schools administers a purchasing agreement the Anoka, Bursville, Hastings, Inver Grove Heights, Mahtomedi, South St. Paul, South Washington and West St. Paul school districts.

• Food Services - Stillwater hosts an agreement with Mahtomedi school for providing food services to that district including running the food service program and training, nutritional analysis and food services program oversight.

• Purchasing - Northeast Metro 916 hosts an agreement with Stillwater for purchasing first-aid supplies, furniture and instructional and office supplies.

• Purchasing - the University of Minnesota hosts an agreement with Stillwater for buying products for science classroom and lab cabinetry for renovation projects at Oak-Land and Stillwater junior high schools.

• Purchasing - Minneapolis schools host an agreement with Stillwater to purchase equipment, materials, services and supplies.

http://www.stillwatercourier.com/articles/index.cfm?id=12129&section=News