HAZARD – The Perry County School District should initially save about $40,000 per year by consolidating its copier leases, and those savings could increase in subsequent years.
District Finance Officer Jody Maggard informed the board earlier this year that he hopes to be able to entertain bids from copier companies to service the entire district under one lease. As it was, each individual school was supplied copiers under individual leases. Maggard explained that by combining the leases, the district should be able to save money and have each school supplied with copiers at the same time. The board approved advertising to receive bids for the combined lease, and Maggard presented those bids and his recommendation to the board during its regular meeting last week.
With all of district’s leases considered, the board is currently paying out about $23,000 each month. Two of the bids Maggard received, from Xerox and Commonwealth Technology, were under what the board currently spends. A third bid, from Oce, came in at $28,500.
Maggard told the board that Commonwealth Technology is a relatively unknown company to him, and their bid came in at approximately $19,000 per month and included the least amount of copier units to the school. He recommended the board not approve that bid due to a lower limit of overall copier units.
“While they did provide the lowest monthly cost by about $1,000, they did provide the least equipment than anybody else,” said Maggard.
Xerox, which holds many of the district’s current leases, submitted a bid for $20,198 per month. According to Maggard, Xerox would agree to buy out the remaining individual leases and begin supplying copiers to each of the schools and to the central office. The company also offered unlimited black and white copies at each of the schools.
“That was one of the big selling points of their proposal, because the main objective was to reduce the cost that we have for print and copiers in our school system,” he said.
The bid from Oce offered more units, said Maggard, which contributed the higher cost per month. But considering the cost, Maggard suggested the board approve the bid from Xerox.
Following discussion, the board unanimously approved the bid from Xerox.
With the approval of the new copier proposal, Maggard said the district should save about $40,000 during the first year. He said he hopes to be able to save even more money by setting up a network copier at central office and have each office, such as his, begin printing to that copier rather than individual printers in each office.
“We’ve got 20 offices here at central office; every office has a printer,” he said. “[We should] try to get away from that and start printing to the copiers because the cost is so much cheaper. The printer I’ve got in my office, if I need toner it costs $400. And I’m printing to that every day when I could be printing to a copier only a few feet away.”
Maggard said if each school can begin to use these copiers on a network, it should be a “huge savings” to their budgets by the money they’ll save in toner and other expenses.
In other business, the board also voted to approve a bid to replace their bread vendor. Food Service Director Linda Campbell and Jody Maggard noted that their current vendor, Flowers, was not up to par in terms of service.
“We’ve have went several times this year and had to buy bread commercially from a grocery store to service our students during the day, and it’s just not working out,” said Maggard. “We question, too, some of the freshness they are giving us.”
While the bid from Flowers was a lower bid, both Maggard and Campbell explained that though Flowers has won the bid for the past three years, the board should approve the higher bid from Heiner’s, which they did unanimously.
The board also approved Bob Roberts Insurance to provide the district’s student insurance policy. According to Maggard, the insurance company has provided student insurance to the district for several years, though an increase in rates will most likely cause the district to look for other providers next year.
“There has been an increase the last two years with them, so probably next year I will ask other insurance companies to at least give us a quote,” Maggard said, though he noted that the Bob Roberts company had worked well with the district and been dependable.
Another small issue with the student insurance policy was a $435 charge that would increase coverage for a catastrophic injury to a student athlete. The board voted to approve that added expense to the student insurance coverage. With the added expense, the district will be paying approximately $60,000 on the policy.
Read more: Hazard Herald (KY) - Schools could save thousands on copier changes
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