A nationally used option for purchasing is now available to South Dakota school districts.
BuyBoard is an online purchasing cooperative designed to streamline the purchasing process and help districts make confident buying decisions while giving districts flexibility and additional options in purchasing.
ASBSD joins 11 other state school board associations as a sponsor of the BuyBoard cooperative, which combines the purchasing power of cooperative members to leverage better pricing from vendors and save dollars by reducing administrative and resource time. More than 1,200 school districts in the nation are cooperative members. Download the BuyBoad Q & A doc here and Information Sheet here
South Dakota bid law compliance
Multiple SD statutes were reviewed before ASBSD chose to become a state sponsor for BuyBoard. SDCL Ch. 5-18A (Public Agency Procurement–General Provisions), SDCL Ch. 18B (Procurement of Public Improvements), and SDCL 5-18C (Procurement by Local Government Units) were all reviewed.
Based on the research done by ASBSD, it is the opinion of ASBSD that a school becoming a member of the National Purchasing Cooperative would be consistent with a school participating in a joint agreement as contemplated by SDCL 5-18A-37.
However, ASBSD does recommend that prior to a school becoming a BuyBoard member that schools contact their own local school district attorney for his or her opinion as to whether the National Purchasing Cooperative would be participation in a joint agreement contemplated by SDCL 5-18-37.
Request for Quote
The “Request for Quote” function allows Cooperative members to submit electronic RFQs in an effort to obtain additional savings based on quantity purchases. In other words, awarded BuyBoard vendors are asked to compete with each other for even lower or more advantageous pricing and terms than what the vendors are required to offer under their awarded BuyBoard contract.
A RFQ can be created, submitted to the vendors, received, and finalized in as few as 3-5 days, rather than weeks for a typical formal bid by an individual governmental entity. Thus, the RFQ feature provides a very efficient and cost effective process for both the Cooperative member and the vendor community.
Download the BuyBoard Comprehensive Vendor List here.
How to become a BuyBoard member
To become a cooperative member, your school board simply needs to pass a resolution authorizing participation in the national purchasing cooperative and the interlocal participation agreement.
- Ready to Join BuyBoard website
- Download the resolution here
- Download interlocal participation agreement here
Test out BuyBoard
Access the training website at https://training.buyboard.com
- Login: sdtrain (case sensitive)
- Password: trainme (case sensitive)
South Dakota BuyBoard member districts
- Aberdeen School District
- Alcester-Hudson School District
- Baltic School District
- Belle Fourche School District
- Beresford School District
- Brandon Valley School District
- Brookings School District
- Colman-Egan School District
- Corsica-Stickney School District
- Custer School District
- Douglas School District
- Elkton School District
- Haakon School District
- Hamlin School District
- Hot Springs School District
- Huron School District
- Kimball School District
- Lake Preston School District
- Lead-Deadwood School District
- Leola School District
- McLaughlin School District
- Meade School District
- Milbank School District
- Mobridge-Pollock School District
- Parkston School District
- Pierre School District
- Plankinton School District
- Rapid City School District
- Redfield School District
- Scotland School District
- Spearfish School District
- Stanley County School District
- Tea Area School District
- Todd County School District
- Tripp-Delmont School District
- Vermillion School District
- Yankton School District
Contact
If you have questions about BuyBoard, contact BuyBoard Assistant National Director Travis Maese at travis.maese@buyboard.com or at 512-909-2555. ASBSD is also available to answer questions about BuyBoard, contact ASBSD Director of Communications Tyler Pickner at tpickner@asbsd.org or at 605-773-8382.