By Jacquinette D. Murphy
NDG Special Contributor
The decision whether to adopt a Minority/Women Business Enterprise policy is the question facing some Texas school districts today, but it is the same one the Dallas Independent School District answered 20 years ago. The DISD school board decided to develop more than a targeted purchasing policy; it created an entire department to oversee how these contracts are issued.
“The M/WBE Department serves as a liaison between the district as well as the vendor community,” said Annie Holmes-Partee, the current director of the Dallas ISD M/WBE Department. “The Purchasing and M/WBE departments have developed a strategic partnership. The combined efforts support the district’s M/WBE policy.
Holmes-Partee said the goal of the department is to maximize the participation of minority and female-owned businesses in all phases of the district’s purchasing and contracting opportunities. These include grooming vendors for the opportunity to compete for major construction-related and professional services contracts.
“The M/WBE Department provides training, outreach, contract compliance and monitoring services, selection committee evaluations, M/WBE reporting, M/WBE advocacy, student advocacy, and philanthropic support for Dallas ISD students,” Holmes-Partee said.
In addition, she said the department serves as a resource to provide a list of “certified” M/WBE’s for subcontracting opportunities, an added benefit to help the district’s Purchasing Department meet its current M/WBE contract allocation of 30 percent M/WBE participation for goods, services and construction contracts and 35 percent for bond-funded professional services.
Assessing the success of the service offering of the department over the past five years, Holmes-Partee said the district has been able to achieve its M/WBE goals for bond-funded construction and professional service contracts.
Holmes-Partee said there are currently more than 3,000 minority and women-owned businesses in the district’s database. By the close of the 2009-10 fiscal budgetary year, the district had spent in excess of $43 million with minority and women-owned businesses. Holmes-Partee said these numbers are based upon prime and subcontracting dollars from the general operating fund and did not include bond-funded procurements.
In reflection of the numbers, Holmes-Partee said the keys to the success of the program include its internal and external organizational support system, strategic planning and the continued creation of beneficial partnerships
She said a strong dedication to outreach is a popular avenue by which the DISD M/WBE Department maintains its level of success.
“We extensively attend community and business-related functions to recruit minority and women-owned companies, Holmes-Partee said. “This is a continuous effort.”
Community visibility and vendor relationship building are other tools used by the organization to boost its participation and rate of retention. In conjunction with the efforts of the purchasing department, Holmes-Partee said that this has positively impacted the purchasing efforts of the district. The department has conducted numerous workshops, attended countless M/WBE outreach events, implemented vendor rotation initiatives and multiple vendor awards, actively fostered M/WBE participation, incorporated M/WBE policy language within the purchasing documents, advocated for the implementation of M/WBE Programs with other school districts, assigned a numerical M/WBE score for proposals.
One of the newest developments of the department is the Dallas Alliance Business Coaching program, offered in conjunction with the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) and the city of The program is designed to help disadvantaged, minority and women-owned businesses (D/M/WBE) move to the next level of success through education, business development, training, and meaningful participation in business opportunities. A protégé will be paired with an experienced mentor or business coach from a participating organization for a minimum of one year to gain experience and utilize resources available within the mentor company. The success of this program for the participants will expand the entrepreneurs’ technical, management, marketing, and other essential business skills.
With the myriad of resources and programs available within the DISD M/WBE department, Holmes-Partee said one area of strategic improvement is the goal of creating more joint venture partnerships.
DISD is the second largest school district in the state of Texas with approximately 160,000 students. The district is 68.4 percent Hispanic, 25 percent African American, 4.5 percent Anglo, 1.1 percent Asian, 0.5 percent American Indian, 0.1 percent Pacific Islander and 0.4 other. DISD employees 12,000 teachers and educational support staff.
For more information on the vendor programs and M/WBE opportunities available within DISD, visitwww.dallasisd.org, or contact Holmes-Partee and her staff at 972-925-4140 or via email at mwbe@dallasisd.org.
