Purchasing Guidelines for Remainder of 2009-2010 School Year

This communication is intended to update all staff on the status of purchasing for the remainder of the 2009-2010 school year.

In response to the State’s 10% across-the-board budget reduction for this year, the purchasing of materials and equipment at Heartland will be limited. Although there is not a freeze on the purchase of materials or equipment, there is an expectation that only essential materials and equipment will be purchased and all other purchases will be deferred. It is necessary for all directors, supervisors, budget managers and staff to work together to support limiting all non-personnel budgetary expenditures to allow as many resources as possible to be dedicated to personnel. We need to ensure that staff members have essential workable tools to do their jobs, so a thorough review of each material/equipment purchase is necessary to ensure it is focused on the Agency’s educational mission. Limiting purchases to essential needs fits into our “Culture of Austerity.”

Merriam-Webster defines austerity as 1: the quality or state of being austere, 2a: an austere act, manner or attitude, b: an ascetic practice, 3: enforced or extreme economy. Another definition of austere is “markedly simple or unadorned.” Wikipedia states, “In economics, austerity is when a national government reduces its spending in order to pay back creditors. Austerity is usually required when a government’s fiscal deficit spending is felt to be unsustainable.” For our purposes, we are trying to be as simple and practical as possible in our behaviors and purchases in order to lower our spending to help us get to a sustainable expenditure level.

Please keep these guidelines in mind when evaluating purchasing decisions:

• Can the material be borrowed instead of purchased? Are there others I can share it with if I do purchase?
• Has there been an investigation to determine if the materials or equipment exists elsewhere in the Agency and might not be in use?
• Can I do without an owned hard copy? Is it available as an electronic resource?
• What is the minimum quantity I require?
• Can I reuse or adapt other materials?
• Is this replacing a broken piece of equipment required to do my job?
• Can I function reasonably effectively without this equipment this year?
• Is this equipment critical to my ability to do my job?
• If this is just an upgrade, is the added benefit really worth the investment?
• Consider durability and repairability of products prior to purchase.
• Consider using approved re-manufactured products (e.g., toner cartridges, check with Tech staff).

If we all pitch in together, we can cumulatively have a significant impact. If each of our almost 700 employees saved just $100 in the next six months, that adds up to a savings of $70,000 or the cost of one staff position.