This paper presents a case study of a hands-on exercise to improve students' project management skills on repetitive infrastructure/modular projects. The exercise was to construct a large foam-board model of the University of Waterloo campus, involving over 40 buildings. The exercise design involved training on the integrated life-cycle decisions…

Public school districts use private contractors to provide support services in an effort to save money, improve services and better prioritize district resources. The Mackinac Center has surveyed school districts about their use of contractors since 2001. This year's survey revealed that 69.7% of schools contract out for food, custodial or…

This article describes a project where students in a low-performing suburban school learned about profit and area by forming their own companies and creating bids to re-surface of their school's floors. They learned by measuring floor area, calculating costs, performing cost analysis, determining desired profit, making a payment schedule and…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare food cost and public school foodservice directors' satisfaction between districts participating in school foodservice cooperatives or group purchasing arrangements and districts purchasing independently. It also assessed the prevalence of purchasing cooperatives in school foodservice and…

Reports findings from surveys in Ohio and nationwide that academic libraries utilizing competitive bidding policies received consistently higher discounts than did their sister institutions where decisions to purchase were made by other means. (Author/MLF)

Meaningful public procurement and inventory management automation encompasses all purchasing and materials management processes, including bidder selection; bidder responsiveness tracking; preparation of bid solicitations; bid tabulation; the tracking of requisitions, bid solicitations, and deliveries; and item purchasing history reports. (MLH)

School districts that bid for insurance are able to compare coverages, service reputations, and costs. The five components of bid specifications--general instructions, conditions, program desired, underwriting data, and proposal forms--are explained. Model bid specifications and guidelines are included. (MLF)

In buying school supplies and roofing, school districts need to realize that low bid too often equates to low quality, high maintenance, poor performance, and short life. The key is to write bid specifications that look at the life-cycle cost, not just the initial cost. (MLF)

Explains how putting the construction manager at greater risk for the projects he or she manages is of benefit to school districts. Why the low-bid process doesn't work and why school districts are still using it are discussed. (GR)

Examines some of the legal and practical matters involved when school boards adopt a policy giving competitive bid preferences to state and local vendors and contractors by penalizing the bids submitted by nonresident firms. (MLF)

For too long, contracts have been awarded to the low bidder based on "first" costs. It's time for a change. (Author)

This brochure provides statistical bid breakdown for Programs 1A and 2 of the Florida Schoolhouse Systems Project. Tabular information is provided on bidders, compatible building subsystems, bid tabulation by compatibility, "per school" building subsystems, nominated bidders and lump sums, and a comparison of programs 1A and 2 bids. Data…

Purchase of a telephone system saved an Ohio school district $25,000 in the first year. To get the most for their telephone dollars districts should (1) determine needs; (2) write specifications; (3) ask for bids; (4) review the bids; (5) work with the company selected; and (6) inform the public. (MLF)

The California legislature's Joint Legislative Audit Committee has issued a report on the design-build versus the design-bid-build process and offers a hybrid approach combining the two systems as a way of achieving the greatest cost efficiency at the least risk on public agencies. The cost benefits of faster delivery of the design-build method…

Several districts in Lower Hudson Valley region of New York decided to study cost savings of using software purchasing program versus other methods by conducting same bids at approximately the same time. The study reports, analyzes, and summarizes bids conducted during the 1992-93 and the 1993-94 school years and concludes that using the…