Schools, towns join in bulk buying to trim budgets

LEE – When SAD 30 set its 2005-06 budget, school officials figured they would spend about $26,000 for oil to heat their three schools for the year.

That was in June 2005.

When SAD 30 closes its accounts next month, the school system probably will have spent about $52,000 on heating oil for the fiscal year, an almost runaway doubling of budget that gives Superintendent Fred Woodman heartburn.

That’s why he and several school superintendents, town managers, and even some churches and American Legion chapters are working together in an unprecedented effort to buy common supplies in bulk, they said Tuesday.

“Anything that can be done in bulk, we are trying to do in bulk,” Woodman said Tuesday. “It will save the taxpayers lots of money. It’s already being done.

“We are all spending the same dollar, and we’re trying to make sure that we get the most for it that we can,” he added.

SADs 30, 31 and 67, Region III vocational schools and the towns of Chester, Enfield, Burlington, Howland, Lee, Lincoln, Medway, Millinocket and Passadumkeag have signed on to plans to buy heating oil in bulk through Maine Power Options of Augusta, SAD 31 interim Superintendent Jerry White said.

The SADs also are seeking bulk buys on everything from computer programs to teacher training to building maintenance services such as heating system and air conditioning repair.

“We’ve been doing this sort of thing off and on for three years, but this year is the first time we have gotten this big a group together,” Michael Lambert, SAD 67’s director of operations, said Tuesday. “So far, there aren’t any hurdles. It’s just a matter of coordinating the whole thing.”

The agreement sets the heating oil price at $2.34 per gallon for a year. Given the upward climb of fuel prices lately, no one expects the price to drop below that, but even if it does, the end to price fluctuations that can demolish thoughtful planning and push budgets into the red will make up for it.

“This way we can budget and not worry about next winter,” White said.

Bulk purchasing has its limits. For example, school districts and towns would love to buy electricity in bulk, but not everyone can purchase it from the same supplier, Lambert said. Computer program distributors require licensing fees that prohibit bulk buying savings, but training costs can be cut.

“We have looked at indexing oil prices before, but the risk is too high,” Lambert said.

Exactly how much will be saved overall by bulk buying is undetermined, but the SADs report some significant savings already.

Last month, White said, SADs 30, 31 and 67 bought PowerSchool, a browser-based, cross-platform school management system. This will save an aggregate $12,000 to $13,000 in training costs as staff from the three districts will train together.

The North Woods Partnership of schools from Millinocket, East Millinocket and the Katahdin region is working with SADs 30, 31 and 67 for areawide training seminars to produce similar savings.

SADs 30, 31 and 67 and the Lowell School Committee have agreed to combine some bus services. Before the deal, the districts were running different buses over the same routes, Lambert said, an obvious waste of money.

The same districts are looking to buy paper supplies in bulk, which could produce significant savings, Lambert said.

“I think this is a win-win for taxpayers and suppliers. The suppliers get a bigger chunk of business, and we get a better price,” he said. “You’re going to see this practice grow.

“More and more school districts will do this in the long term.”