Nearly 90 Choice Partners (CP) vendors and members were recognized during the national purchasing cooperative’s annual appreciation luncheon on Jan. 24. The event is an opportunity for CP members and vendor representatives in attendance to network and fellowship with each other, while Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) and division leaders thanked them for helping Choice Partners best serve Harris County learners.
“We’ve had a lot of success thanks to a lot of input from you and we really appreciate it,” CP Senior Director Jeff Drury said. “We hope for vendors, we made your business easier to operate and work with our member partners. And for members, hopefully this has made operations a little more efficient. It’s a collaborative effort – our team working on our side and the members and vendors doing their part to be successful.”
HCDE Superintendent James Colbert Jr. thanked guests and lunch attendees for their support of public education through providing and utilizing competitively bid contracts with Choice Partners. Colbert also reiterated that he feels CP is his “Excalibur” and allows HCDE to best serve Harris County students and families while being fiscally responsible.
Choice Partners secured $12 million in revenue during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, a record-setting achievement made possible through securing new vendors and members and drafting competitive contracts that benefit area students and educators.
Colbert’s address also included two videos highlighting how funds are leveraged to improve campuses serving area students and their families, including the recently opened Coolwood Head Start center. Other new projects include the Adult Education Learning Center and Academic and Behavior School East (both opened July 2023), and Highpoint School’s middle school campus (opened August 2023).
“We are public servants,” Colbert said. “Our commission is those students we end up sending to college. It’s sitting there watching a parent cry because a child they never thought would graduate from high school is getting a diploma. That’s what the bonus is.”
Houston, Katy and Humble independent school districts were recognized at the luncheon as CP’s top three members. The districts use more than a dozen contracts to procure goods and services that range from student meals and supplies to employee software.
Robert Half, Inc. was recognized as a top vendor in the commodities and services category. Amber Watts, regional director at Robert Half, described Choice Partners as a key component in the company’s growth and networking reach over the last three years.
“I actually feel like we’re just getting started,” Watts said. “There’s so much opportunity and we’re helping to get the Choice Partners name out there on top of Robert Half, and it’s really just opening doors that we didn’t think were going to be open.”
Choice Partners also recognized Vaugn Construction as the top vendor for construction and Labatt Food Services as the top food vendor.
To learn more about Choice Partners, visit choicepartners.org.