ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES

K12 procurement coping with macro issues

In today’s volatile education landscape, procurement professionals are being asked to do more with less — and to do it faster, smarter, and with greater foresight than ever before. From rising tariffs to supply chain slowdowns and policy shifts, the stakes are high. But if the June 2025 K–12 Canon Advisory Board discussion proved anything, it’s that strategic relationships and adaptable leadership are becoming the essential tools of the trade.

“We’re seeing it sneak in little pieces at a time,” said Dianna Drew, Executive Director of Technical Document Services at Grand Prairie ISD in Texas, referencing the quiet but consistent price increases triggered by tariffs. A $5,000 jump on a $160,000 quote might not seem catastrophic, she noted, but multiplied across hundreds of purchases, the impact is real. Drew’s strategy? Build strong supplier relationships that provide early alerts — and when possible, stock up. “I bought a ton of cable… pallets and pallets of it. It can sit in my warehouse just as good as someone else’s,” she said.

Drew emphasized that procurement isn’t just about reacting — it’s about playing the long game. “We’re not playing checkers. We’re playing chess,” she said. “We’ve got to be strategic. We’ve got to be looking at long-term viable solutions that can sustain us and still give that high level of education for every single one of these kids.”

“We’re not playing checkers. We’re playing chess.”

– Dianna Drew, Executive Director of Technical Document Services at Grand Prairie ISD

For private schools like the Houston School in Alabama, which Vince Janney leads, policy impacts are being felt in different ways — especially with new programs like the Choose Act, which allows families to redirect public funds toward private tuition. “There are many students in the state of Alabama that are getting $7,000 towards their education whose parents don’t really need it,” Vince noted. That shift creates added financial pressure for public institutions, even as those schools are still tasked with serving the broader population.

Meanwhile, Gary Kerbow, Director of Purchasing for Hurst-Euless-Bedford schol district in Texas, offered a real-world example of how timing and agility can pay off. A ten-minute phone call saved his district $180,000 on a bulk laptop order. “We narrowly escaped a tariff increase,” he shared. “That was a call well worth it.”

Kerbow also revealed a clever workaround for rising prices: using purchasing cooperatives. “We stumbled into it, but now we funnel as many purchases as we can through cooperatives like the Texas Department of Information Resources. Their negotiating leverage helps hold vendors to pricing.”

The advisory board also noted that macroeconomic pressures are being compounded by labor shortages and shifting legislative priorities, including increased security expectations and staff salary realignments. As Drew put it, “We don’t even know what pricing is going to look like tomorrow, much less a year from now.” In this climate, collaboration, planning, great vendor relationships and flexibility aren’t just best practices — they’re survival skills. As Drew aptly summarized, “The decisions we make now, those kids in our classrooms are the ones that have to live with them.”