On July 25, 2006, the School Board approved a proposal submitted by NIGP in response to a request for proposals for a Procurement Management Assistance Plan. Representatives from NIGP collected data and studied the district procurement process and the purchasing department. In consultation with district staff NIGP has developed a Procurement Management Assistance Plan. This plan will establish a new foundation for success that will provide high quality procurement services to district clients. The procurement plan is designed to address needs in organization structure, business process improvement, paper work reduction, and strategic management of major responsibilities.

A major recommendation from the NIGP study is to revise the Purchasing Department organizational structure and the job positions within the Department. Another recommendation is to increase the district-wide use of procurement cards. The study also provides steps to reduce the level of involvement of the purchasing department in the day-to-day, high volume, low dollar value purchases that occur across the district. (e.g. supply purchases from Office Depot.) The staff is moving forward with the implementation of many of these recommendations. For example we are rolling out programs to increase the use of procurement cards and to move all Office Depot purchases from the Lawson system to an Office Depot catalogue accessed by sites using procurement cards.

We are also doing the analysis necessary to map and then re-engineer the business processes of the Purchasing Department. Steps are being taken to involve users, including department, school and district personnel who are Purchasing Department clients, in the business process re-engineering.

The four focus goals of Student Achievement, Safety, Human Resource Management, and Financial Management are addressed by this plan.

The financial impact of this study was included in the Business Division budget in an amount not to exceed $131,000. Implementation costs will be determined as the improvement plan proceeds. Board members will be informed of those financial impacts as appropriate.

The Procurement Management Assistance Plan will be evaluated by the completion of tasks according to the implementation timelines.