Join Us at the IASL-IRC Conference!

The Iowa Association of School Librarians (IASL) and the Iowa Reading Conference (IRC)- have joined together for 2018.   The joint conference is being held on June 26-27, 2018 in Ames, IA  at the Scheman Building.  If you are involved with teaching reading (in any aspect) or work in a K-12 library, this is the place for you to be this summer!  Many excellent authors, educators and speakers will tantilize audiences with their presentations. 

For more information about this event, click here!

AEA Purchasing will be exhibiting at this joint event.  If you are planning on attending, please stop by the AEA Purchasing exhibit booth to say hello, find out about products we have under contract and play an easy game for a prize! (Everyone’s a winner!)  You’ll learn which contracts might be beneficial for your classroom, school, or district to help eliminate the individual bid process (saving time) and also provide you with the opportunity for saving money, so you can spend more of both on the students!

We hope to see you there!

Check Out Our HOT Deals!

Our Hot Deals! section is the place to go when looking for special, limited time only offers from our valued vendor partners. Offers from vendors include, but are not limited to:

CDW-G                           Midwest Computer Products
Rick's Computers            Scott Electric
Quill

Siteimprove: Your Guide to Web Accessibility

Looking to make your website more inclusive? Refer to Siteimprove's web accessibility guide for some best practices on keeping your site compliant and accessible to all!

In partnership with AEA Purchasing, Siteimprove will offer negotiated pricing for interested Iowa schools.

Siteimprove helps make your school’s website more accessible for every student, parent, and community member.

Teachboost: Using Video to Advance Coaching

If you're looking for a great tool that can help improve your teaching practices, TeachBoost and their blog (The Launchpad) is a great place to start. As such, we'd like to draw your attention to an original TeachBoost blog post on the use of video to advance your coaching practices. 

Take a minute to read what they have to share and then head back on over to our website for complete details on how your school can take advantage of the services TeachBoost provides while saving money at the same time!

TeachBoost is an instructional leadership platform that integrates evaluation, coaching, and professional learning to build capacity and improve teaching practices. 

Siteimprove's Intelligence Platform

Siteimprove's mission is to improve your website. Their name says it all. Simply put, their Intelligence Platform does the following (and more!):

• Measures website performance at a glance.
• Provides quality assurance to eliminate errors and keep your brand/messaging consistent.
• Draws attention to accessibility issues.
• Offers key metrics to help understand your online audience.
• Allows you to act with digital certainty.

For complete details on the magic of Siteimprove, view their PDF that's all about their Intelligence Platform. When done, head on over to their AEA Purchasing profile page and learn more about how to build their platform into your existing site and save money while doing so!

Q&A Series: CMMS-DudeSolutions

What is a CMMS?

How do you use and/or implement a CMMS?

Why make the switch to a CMMS to keep on top of your inventory, maintenance tasks, etc.?

All these questions and more are explored by DudeSolutions in their  Q&A Series: CMMS.

DudeSolutions is a long time vendor partner of AEPA and AEA Purchasing.

3 Partners You Need to Know (May)

Rapids Wholesale provides discounts and savings on the tools and equipment your kitchen needs to serve your students. Such items include cookie sheets, pots, pans, utensils, aprons, carts, racks, food storage, etc.

School Specialty carries a wide array of school essentials, furniture and technology from well-known brands as well as popular proprietary brands. Their many catalogs include special education supplies, PE equipment, school security products, your everyday classroom supplies and much more.

Sportime provides physical activity equipment and sporting goods that have been designed by PE teachers and are driven to motivate children of all ages and all ability levels.

Promotion from National Business Furniture

AEA Purchasing vendor partner National Business Furniture invites you to participate in their Ultimate Office Makeover promotion. Visit them online for entry details.

In addition, join their chat on Tuesday, May 8th at 4pm CST for a chance to win a classroom full of furniture! Event hosted on Twitter @nbfonline. #WhyWeWork Participants will be entered to win 30 desks and 30 chairs valued at $4000.00

Mark Your Calendars! (May)

There's still time to order the 2018-19 IASL Award book titles! Order forms are available online from Perma-Bound.

Adobe webinars are scheduled for May 9th at 10 am and May 10th at 2 pm. Contact Laurie for more details.

The last day to respond to our "Get to Know Us" survey is May 10th. Email Laurie for more information.

On May 15th, AEA Purchasing will be presenting at Clayton County's Safety Day. Staff will be teaching students and school staff on the importance of safe food handling. If you're school will be attending, be sure to say hello!

AEA Purchasing's Summer 2018 Paper Buy closes May 25th. Get your order in today!

2018 Buyer's Guide

Interested in what our purchasing programs have to offer? Take a glance at our 2017-18 Buyer's Guide for a quick overview on all of our contract opportunities.

School Health Provides Savings on Sports Medicine

As schools around the state are gearing up for spring and summer sports activities, there is no better time than now to take inventory of the supplies needed to treat sports injuries. School Health’s collection of athletic training supplies covers the entire scope of possible needs for your athletes, including emergency response necessities. To see what’s available, go here.

Adobe Licensing Webinar for K-12

In conjunction with our software partner CDW-G, AEA Purchasing is offering two opportunities to join an informational Adobe Webinar this May (2018) to provide updates regarding K-12 Adobe licensing options for 2018-2019.

One session will be on Wednesday, May 9th at 10:00 a.m. and a second session will be held on Thursday, May 10th at 2:00 p.m. 

If you would like to join one of these sessions, please email your preferred date of attendance to:

laurie@aeapurchasing.org

Webinar links will be sent to those who have expressed interest in attending.

Food Program Steering Committee Meetings

AEA Purchasing's food program steering committee meetings for April are right around the corner, starting next week! If you are a foodservice director serving on one of these committees, be sure to check out the full schedule below.
           
 April 17, 2018 - Storm Lake  (NW Steering Committee)
Lakes Conference Room - 824 Flindt Dr. Storm Lake

April 18, 2018 - Urbandale (SW Steering Committee)
Affinity Food Marketing - 3281 100th Street, Urbandale

April 24, 2018 - Cedar Falls (NE Steering Committee)
Central Rivers AEA - Board Room -  1521 Technology Parkway - Cedar Falls

 April 26, 2018 - Coralville (SE Steering Committee)
Kirkwood Regional Center, 2301 Oakdale Blvd, Coralville - Grant Wood Room 500

As a reminder, minutes from the November 2017 meetings were emailed on March 26th. For additional questions, contact Dan.