TIPs
Formerly known as TIPS/TAPS, TIPS is “a purchasing cooperative serving public and private school districts, colleges, universities, federal, state, county and city municipalities” TIPS is an interlocal cooperative purchasing system that provides schools with the legally required competition for contracts on commonly purchased items while saving the cost of going through a competitive RFP process. Schools (or other government entities) can purchase from Vendors with approved bids and bypass the RFP process altogether. This means that school...
PEPPM
PEPPM is a national technology bidding and purchasing cooperative administered by Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU), a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Authorized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for the past 32 years to take the responsibility for state bid law compliance for technology procurement, PEPPM aggregates buyers & demand in states across the country to get the lowest prices for technology products. PEPPM currently has more than 280 product line contracts awarded to...
BuyBoard
A program of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and several State School Boards Associations, BuyBoard was developed to comply with state laws which require government entities to make purchases from an approved list of vendors who have gone through a competitive procurement process. The Cooperative is governed by an 8-member Board of Directors composed of staff from the districts which formed the cooperative and representatives appointed by each of the four School Boards Associations which...
Advice from Support
A frequent issue this year-start involves new versions and/or updates of antivirus software that are blocking the communications ports between FASTrak and Alanas / NetPOS touch screens. This creates a "PC Time-Out" error message. If you run into this situation, please make sure that your IT department excludes the following ports from the antivirus software: Ports 5600, 200, 204, 203, 6600, and 6601....
Featured Solutions Partner – TigerChef
Fast Food Trays in all Sorts of Colors, Sizes, and Materials Fast Food Trays are as efficient as they are light weight, non-breakable, easy to clean and re-use. As the school year approaches, be sure you're stocked up with fast food trays for your cafeteria. TigerChef carries a full supply of food trays. This September, mention PCS and get 10% off Off Fast Food Trays: Cambro, Crestware, Update, Winco, Carlisle. Use promo code TRAY10. Click image to browse the...
Featured PCS Employee
Olga Vishnyakova Senior Support Technician Olga Vishnakova has been with PCS for 7 years in the Support Department. Everyone appreciates her personal, customer oriented approach, making her a shining star among the support staff. "Olga is wonderful to work with and quickly solves the problem" Melva Rodgers, Scottsboro City School District, AL "As always, Olga is the BEST!!!! She is thorough and makes sure you know what she is doing. She explains all my options and she checks with her...
Focus on the School Food Service Community
Aiding the School Food Service Community Joanne Terry Administrative Assistant II, Food & Nutrition Services Charlotte County Public Schools, FL Joanne has been involved in School Food Service at CCPS since February 2006 and has worked at Champ's Cafe since July, 2008. Joanne served as a Florida Highway Patrolman and was a Corporal with the Sheriff's department in Charlotte County before joining CCPS! A head on collision on-the-job with a drunk driver resulted in neck surgery and a career change...
School Lunch Hero Day
School Lunch Hero Day Project Children's book author Jarrett Krosoczka shares the origins of the Lunch Lady graphic novel series, in which undercover school heroes serve lunch...
Customer of the Month
A long time customer, Clayton County Public Schools in Georgia have been with PCS since 1999 and have implemented the full PCS product line, front and back office including PayPAMS. Director, Audrey Hamilton, M. Ed., is proud of her two CCPS schools that just won the Southeastern Dairy Association's highest participation award. Lee Street ES won an Atlanta Falcon's Pep Rally (players and cheerleaders visited the school) and Roberts Middle School won the second place prize...
PosNOW Technical Update
PCS is preparing a new version of RIGHTrak that contains the much anticipated component, "Mobility as a Service". This new version provides improved communications with PayPAMs. California customers should note that this update will include a new CNIPS export file. This revised file structure contains the new fields that are requested by the State of California....