Our history and authority as a program of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit

PEPPM is a technology cooperative purchasing program established in 1982. It is a program and service of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU) also known as IU 16. Offices are located in Central Pennsylvania, in the borough of Milton.

The PEPPM purchasing cooperative has a proven record of serving school districts and other public agencies across all the United States with purchasing contracts competitively bid under the high standards expected for public-sector procurement.

The program is administered by a group of purchasing professionals who have successfully managed thousands of purchasing contracts awarded to hundreds and hundreds of national vendors.

The name of the program is pronounced PEP-um, a now-archaic acronym that originally meant “Pennsylvania Education Purchasing Program for Microcomputers." Its first bid was for four lines of microcomputers. Today the program serves schools and public agencies in all U.S. communities, and its bid awards extend to all types of technology products, supplies, and solutions.

The CSIU is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania created as an educational services agency. The Agency is an intermediate unit established by and existing under Article IX-A of the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949, as amended, 24 P.S. §§9-901-A et. seq.

The Pennsylvania Legislature created intermediate units under Act 102 of 1970, Section 901-A of the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949, to provide services to school districts. There are 29 intermediate units, each serving an assigned number of local school districts. IUs began operation on July 1, 1971.

Intermediate Units are governed by boards of directors whose membership comes from representatives from their member school district boards of directors.

Act 102 provides that intermediate unit services include curriculum development and instructional improvement, research and planning, instructional materials, continuing professional education, pupil personnel, management services, and state and Federal agency liaison, as well as contracting for specialized services, consolidating and letting combined bids for bulk purchases. However, intermediate units are not restricted from providing additional services requested by their local school districts.

Intermediate Units provide quality education services and save tax money by delivering cooperative services that cost each participant less than had they been produced independently. By combining resources, intermediate units can offer services that each school district, individually, could not conduct as economically or effectively. Intermediate Units, unlike public school districts, are not empowered to levy taxes. Revenue comes from a variety of sources; state general operating and capital subsidies, state and Federal grants, and fees for services provided to other local education agencies, local governments, and individuals.

 

The PEPPM staff is a group of experienced public sector employees of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit in Milton, Pennsylvania. They are leaders in educational purchasing and informaton technology. As purchasing agents, the group solicits bids, evaluates responses, and recommends awards to the agency’s board of directors.


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