ESUCC Receives Awards at the AEPA Spring Meeting 2023

Relationship Excellence Award

The Relationship Excellence award recognizes excellence in stakeholder engagement strategies that proactively support opportunities for co-discovery, intimacy, trust-building, collaboration, brainstorming, solution development, and other activities that support the mission of AEPA. ESUCC was nominated for this award by Preston Frazier with Pitsco Education. This award recognizes the work of ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing but also highlights the statewide collaborative work of the ESUs in providing support and assistance to all of Nebraska schools in this statewide initiative.

“In 2022, there was a monumental opportunity that presented itself in which Pitsco and ESUCC worked together to provide coding and robotics kits to more than 300 schools and districts as part of a statewide initiative in Nebraska utilizing GEER funding. We worked together to provide support and assistance to each school and district through collaborative webinars, a recorded podcast, a customized miniature catalog to be shared inside Nebraska, and a valuable resource page specific to this initiative. We also had multiple meetings and visits to make sure this initiative was successful for students and teachers throughout Nebraska. ESUCC has been a pleasure to work with, and they are the picture-perfect partner!” 

Preston Frazier, Pitsco Education

Quality and Innovation Award

The Quality and Innovation award recognizes outstanding projects, campaigns, and innovations in the fields of digital media and communications. ESUCC was nominated for this award by Michelle Selak, Michigan. The award was presented to Craig Peterson, ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing Director, for the work that he and his team do in supporting AEPA. The quality and innovation Nebraska brings to AEPA is above and beyond.

“Nebraska has been a strong force in supporting AEPA in many categories. Although Michigan supports the front end of the website, Nebraska supports the website behind the scenes. Craig, as website chair, has been hands-on behind the scenes working with the AEPA website developer to make sure the website is supported, running, and functioning to its full capacity. Craig continually works to help develop, maintain, and continue to grow the CRM reporting system. This work includes collaborating with the Reporting Committee to support the process within the website. Craig also collaborates with the Marketing committee to better serve AEPA website marketing strategies. I have learned so much from Craig and I’m thankful for him and his knowledge.  Craig also serves on four solicitation committees including committee chairperson for one of them.” 

Michelle Selak, Michigan

What is AEPA?

The Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies (AEPA) is a multi-state non-profit organization made up of Educational Service Agencies/political subdivisions organized through a Memorandum of Understanding between all participating states. It is a true “cooperative” that serves to leverage purchasing power for all member schools and agencies with the ability to purchase at equal buying levels regardless of size.

AEPA Advantages

• AEPA streamline the bidding and purchasing process through a single, locally and nationally recognized purchasing solicitation.
• AEPA’s collaborative purchasing expertise ensures that contracts are legal, safe and bid law compliant.
• Contracts are bid competitively and tailored to meet each member state’s specific legal requirements and is facilitated by the state’s cooperative member agency.
• AEPA contracts are designed to protect buyers and are guaranteed to save members time and money.  
• Combining the needs of 25 million students nationwide provides an incentive to vendors to offer AEPA their best price and the highest quality products.

ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing

As a member of AEPA, ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing represents 17 Educational Service Units statewide which in turn service Nebraska school districts with over 300,000 students. We are authorized to coordinate purchases for public school districts, nonpublic school systems, other ESUs, and other public agencies, including any county, city, village, school district, or agency of the state government, any drainage district, sanitary and improvement district, or other municipal corporation or political subdivision of the State of Nebraska. For more information, contact Craig Peterson, or visit our website – ESUCC Cooperative Purchasing