Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Ep 122: Canyons Purchasing Giving Items Second Chance in Public Surplus
For most people, if you need a pencil or a binder, it's a quick trip to the store or an even faster click of a button. But what if you need hundreds of pencils or electronic devices for a classroom? That's where Canyon School District's Purchasing Department comes into play.
“Our department handles anything a school could need,” says Canyons Purchasing Director Nancy Webb. “Whether it’s student furniture, food or pencils, contracts, special education counselors, or even medical insurance.”
Webb says CSD’s purchasing agents are there to help schools and teachers with everything from basic needs to helping to navigate larger purchases. As classrooms update and evolve, some items are upgraded or no longer needed, and the department has come up with a way to ensure they don’t go unused.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyon School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach, and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great. Students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections. So connect with us.
SPEAKER_03:For most people, if you need a pencil or a binder, it's a quick trip to the store or an even faster click of a button. But what if you need hundreds of pencils or electronic devices for a classroom? That's where Canyon School District's purchasing department comes into play. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, Francis Cook. Today we're talking about all things purchasing and surplus, which doesn't just mean items for internal use, but sometimes it could mean a nice little Christmas gift for someone. So how does it all work? To answer these questions and more, I'm joined by Nancy Webb, Director of Purchasing, and Holly Bishop, Canyon's purchasing technician. Ladies, thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_01:You're welcome. Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_03:Of course. Let's start with what it is you and your team do. Because for me, frankly, it's mind-boggling how much your department handles. I don't think people really realize the extent that purchasing is involved in running a school district. Nancy, would you start us off and kind of explain what it is your department handles?
SPEAKER_02:Basically, anything a school needs, whether it's student furniture, food, pencils, papers, different contracts they may need for services, for counselors, special ed counselors, or our medical insurance, pretty much everything we are involved in. Anything that involves a contract, we would help with. And that everything we purchase and manage, contracts we manage, are within State of Utah procurement code.
SPEAKER_03:So really everything from pencils to building projects to Chromebooks, you guys handle it.
SPEAKER_02:We do. Smaller items the schools can purchase on a P card. Anything over a certain limit, they have to go through purchasing. And we also stock pencils and pens and sharpies in the warehouse. Right. So they should first look in the warehouse. If we don't carry it in the warehouse, then they can purchase it on a P card.
SPEAKER_03:Which probably makes things a little easier for them too, right? They don't have to necessarily do all these deep dive searches into finding something that they're looking for. You guys probably already have those answers for them. Holly, how about you? Would you walk us through a day in your life? What does a purchasing technician do?
SPEAKER_01:I am there as really support for everybody in the department. I help the buyers, the senior buyers, Nancy, who is the director. I uh try to keep all the ducks in a row, like make sure we are minding contract deadlines, renewal time periods, things like that, so that we don't have contracts expire without us having something else secured first.
SPEAKER_03:You're the go-to gal. She is, definitely. That's awesome. And I know you, Nancy, in particular, have been working on this new project with artwork, and I'm excited to talk about that with you. As a purchasing department, you've begun a new venture when it comes to items and surplus, things that we maybe have too many of that we're no longer needing or aren't being used. Now Canyon's employees can access some of those items first and foremost to use at work. Can you talk to us about what this surplus project means?
SPEAKER_02:All items in the district, if nobody wants those items anymore, these items were purchased with taxpayer dollar. We are supposed to put everything on public surplus. And we have started a lot of the older buildings that were rebuilt. We had a lot of artwork just sitting in storage, not being looked at. We have a lot of desks and student chairs and things like that and in the warehouse in storage. Some of the schools know and they'll go over there and look when they need things and they're able to pull that for their use if it's something they need. Not a lot of it has been put on public surplus, but we have started recently putting a lot of stuff on there that was just sitting in storage. And then the schools can look if they would like to pull something. And so they can register and if they'd like a piece of artwork that maybe was at one of the schools that was taken down for their office, they can pull that for their office. Some of the items when they are past their useful life, say lawn mowers or something in facilities, a snowblower or something like that, iPads. Once they're past beyond their useful life, we would post them on public surplus for public to be able to buy. Employees can buy it, public can buy it for personal use. When it's internal, it's still only to be pulled for in school or in district use.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe somebody knows how to fix that lawnmower and make it work for them. That's right. What is that process like for you going through all of these items?
SPEAKER_02:A school will determine they have no need of the item anymore, or they've received some new desks or new chairs and they don't need them anymore. They'll fill out a surplus form and send it to the warehouse, and the warehouse will pick those items up from them. And then and it could be a case of maybe a teacher decides she wants to go to two student tables instead of desks. Yeah. And so they're just rearranging their classroom and they're that's very cool.
SPEAKER_03:I I don't think I would realize if I were a teacher, you know, when we were in school, we all you had was the singular desk, right? You were seated by yourself. You didn't have, you know, your closest friend wasn't even within reach, but now we have like the group tables. So if they want to do group work, maybe they take those desks out. I wouldn't have even thought of doing something like that. You mentioned the artwork, Holly. I know this has been kind of a big undertaking for you. Some some of these pieces of art have really great histories and they're great pieces.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we have a mix of artworks that we have discovered because, like Nancy said, we've had buildings that have come down and the schools don't necessarily want the same artwork. Maybe it doesn't appeal to the new principle or you know, for whatever reason. Everyone has different tastes. Yeah, we end up with this stockpile of art that in a lot of cases the artwork has been here since the 70s or 60s, or some of you even before that. Yeah. Some of it is student artwork that, like maybe this student got a sterling scholarship for it, or the student there used to be like a superintendent art award that would happen every year. And for those pieces that won awards, that artwork would stay at the school.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Be showcased there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So it's ended up in a stockpile here at the warehouse. And we are not art dealers, we're not an art gallery. This isn't Sotherby's. Yeah, we're a a public school district, and we don't have facilities to properly store art. Sure. So with no schools showing interest in it, we're just starting to post it on public surplus. And the process now is first I will post it on public surplus, but it has a seven-day period right when I release it, that it is open to only internal Canyon School District employees.
SPEAKER_03:A counselor wants to put it up in their school office or a teacher in the classroom.
SPEAKER_01:So for that first seven days on public surplus, the public doesn't actually see it. Only internal employees can.
SPEAKER_03:Sure.
SPEAKER_01:And they can over the course of that seven days, if they see it and they decide they would really like it in their classroom or their office at work, they can say, I would like that, and then it immediately gets pulled off and sent to their school or their department.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:After seven days, it rolls automatically into the public surplus realm where everyone can see it and they can start bidding on it, and there's a 10-day period where they can bid.
SPEAKER_03:And the bidding prices are extremely reasonable, especially when it comes to, like you said, some of this art is decades old. Right. And just because it's student art, in my opinion, I know a lot of people might think, oh, it's finger paintings, you know. No, this is quality artwork. You walk through any of our schools when they have their art competitions for the classrooms and see some of the pieces that are hanging up, and I go, I want that. I want to put that in my house. Yeah. So it's in my opinion, I think it's a very attainable bid process. Have you seen, I know we're still early in this surplus realm, but have you seen any of the bids kind of get a little exciting yet?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, definitely. For the first several weeks, the several rounds of selling the art on public surplus, it didn't have a lot of traction. I got the impression that there might be three people who were looking and seeing the stuff and then they would get bidding against each other. But not a lot of competition, so the prices weren't very high at first. Yeah. Now they're getting a lot more eyes on them. And some of the pieces, and re regardless of whether it's a professional piece or a student piece, some of the pieces are starting to really garner competition among the bidders. And there was a piece in particular that I really wanted for my house. I can picture it on my wall behind my house. Right, you know, right where you're gonna put it. And I could not compete. Like I I I said I had my upper limit and I passed that by a hundred dollars and I lost it still.
SPEAKER_03:No, you have to set those limits for yourself. You just keep bidding.
SPEAKER_01:So some of those pieces, like if it's a nice piece, it's a nice piece, and people are gonna want it.
SPEAKER_03:But again, everyone has different tastes, so maybe there's a piece out there that just speaks to one person and they're gonna get a steal for it. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02:And I have to say that Holly has been just amazing at putting great descriptions on there. Yeah. If there is a slight mark on it or the frame is damaged, she posts all of that information as well. So she's just been wonderful at posting those.
SPEAKER_03:Even just the detail of, you know, this is a rubbing or this is an acrylic piece or a print. It's I think pr in particular, art enthusiasts are gonna be like, okay, we're not in an art auction, we're not expecting, you know, Louvre standards here, but you're you've been doing a great job of getting that as much information on those pieces out as you can.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and like I said, like the circumstances under which the art has been stored over the past decades has not been ideal. So there are scratches on frames, not everything has glass in front of it.
SPEAKER_03:But easy fixes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I try to make it clear with the pictures and the description that these are the problems with it.
SPEAKER_03:Can we give a teaser before this you were telling me about a piece that you're looking at now? Can you share about that one?
SPEAKER_01:There's a piece I just pulled out of the warehouse earlier this week. And when I was researching it, trying to figure out, do the Google Lens research, trying to figure out what it was, I discovered it's not the block print that I thought it was. It is a rubbing, a charcoal rubbing, that they were popular in like 1960.
SPEAKER_03:You take the paper, you put it on a surface that has some contrast to it, and you rub it with the charcoal, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, can I do that anymore? It's kind of like I remember doing a field trip when I was in grade school where we went to a cemetery and we did grave rubbing. Yes. So same idea. Yeah. You're just you're taking a contoured surface and you're rubbing, you're putting paper on top of it and then rubbing like charcoal or some sort of like even chalk over it. In this case, it's three horses. And when I did the Google lens search of it, it showed all these returns on my search that were saying it's from uh a temple in Taiwan, and these were popular in 1960. People would do these charcoal rubbings at the temples.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And they were outlawed by the country because eventually what they were seeing are these rubbings were destroying the surface of the stone. So these are no longer done. And so here we have this like piece from about 1960, right before it was outlawed.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:That somehow ended up in our collection in the warehouse.
SPEAKER_03:And maybe one of the last ever done.
SPEAKER_01:Right. It's a really neat piece and it's got a nice history. So I'm eager to see when that hits.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe I shouldn't have had you talk about it. Because now I'm gonna have to bid against somebody else for it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It it's it'll be interesting to see what happens if that ends up on public surplus.
SPEAKER_03:So cool.
SPEAKER_01:It's possible that somebody internally will decide, oh, I need that in my school. Yeah, you never know. We'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_03:I know art has been a big focus right now. It's a a big, again, undertaking, particularly for you, Holly. So on behalf of us art lovers, thank you for doing that. But there's more that filters through this surplus realm, right? So what kind of we've talked about desks and things. What other kind of items might people expect to see on it's it's kind of a rotating basis, right, as things come through?
SPEAKER_02:Yes. As the schools no longer need them, or for instance, we've had a lot of iPads, um, Gen 5 and Gen 6 iPads this year, uh, which was a test initially to see if those would sell, and they have been selling. I bet. And just so you know, all of this money goes back into the general fund. Yeah that's any back to the surplus. Any money that's made on the surplus goes back into the general fund. Anything we can recoup and helps the public as well because they do get a nice deal on some of this stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:What better way to find something that you may have been looking for, you're willing to maybe put a little work into or enjoy its history? But then you're not just paying some corporation, it's going right back to the kids in the schools. That is so cool. Yes, that's right. What overall message do you want people to know about purchasing, about surplus, just about the work that you do?
SPEAKER_02:Purchasing is just a huge undertaking here. And all of the employees in purchasing try to get the best pricing, the best products for the best price, and in time to meet uh the school's needs. And they're a great team and they're always working hard making sure that we follow state procurement code and contracts are taken care of.
SPEAKER_01:I think often purchasing is viewed as a like the no people, like no, you can't do that. And we are trying really hard to change that perception. Sure.
SPEAKER_02:We are really a service organization and we are here to help. We really are. And with the warehouse, we've been taking on a lot of additional items. We're just we're here to help with the whole district. That's what our whole department is.
SPEAKER_03:If someone's interested in looking at, you know, what's available on surplus, whether that's internally for teachers or any employee really at the school, or then our community who might be interested in the public surplus, how do they access that?
SPEAKER_01:So the general public can access it just by going to the publicsurplus.com website and you register and then you can bid and you can hopefully win everything you ever dreamed of. For internal surplus, if the Canyon School District employees want to see what we are surplusing internally prior to it going to public surplus, they can contact the purchasing department and I will share a link and a code and they will be able to view internal items.
SPEAKER_03:Kind of that pre-sale of the sale. Early bird access. Exactly. Beautiful. And we'll of course link to the public surplus website on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:That'd be great.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. With the public surplus, there are several other, like most of the state entities and several other districts that post on there as well. So it's not just Canyon's school district that's on there.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe they have a lawnmower when we don't. You see teachers working in the classroom, right? You see the nutrition specialists in the lunchroom, you know, working with our kids. There's a lot to be seen on the service level, but there's so much more that goes on behind the scenes. And it's I want to thank you both for sharing what it is that you all do and how much the work that you do impacts our students. And then now we can also maybe repurpose some of these things and give them a second life, you know, kind of like the island of misfit toys. Oh, yeah. And maybe somebody gets a nice little Christmas gift out of it too. If there's a topic you'd like to hear discussed on the podcast, send us an email to communications at canyonsdistrict.org.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at Canyons District, or on our website, CanyonsDistrict.org.
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