Sidford also believes that effective purchasing strategies can help to streamline deployments, cut costs and even improve educational equity.
Until several years ago, the district had a policy of bidding out any purchase over $5,000, resulting in lengthy delays for even small projects, such as running new cabling. Since then, Mt. Diablo has centralized its procurement practices and partnered with CDW to access resources through cooperative purchasing programs such as Sourcewell. “CDW points us to vendors we can trust,” Sidford says. “We would not be able to make moves as quickly without this partnership.”
Over the past several years, Mt. Diablo has implemented a one-to-one Chromebook program, upgraded its data center infrastructure and deployed Promethean interactive digital displays to classrooms throughout the district. Sidford describes the Promethean rollout as a prime example of the district’s new procurement practices in action.
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Before that initiative, school leaders throughout the district made their own decisions about what audiovisual equipment to purchase. “Principals change, and they have different priorities,” Sidford notes. “It’s almost impossible to support all of those technologies.”
Today, by contrast, every teacher in the district has access to the same technology. And, if something needs to be fixed or replaced, IT professionals can quickly get the job done without having to rummage through storage closets in search of outdated spare parts. “I see it as an equity initiative,” Sidford says. “Every student needs equal access, and the only way to ensure that is through centralized purchasing.”