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The UCDSB Purchasing Department demonstrated immense dedication and work ethic in order to make UCDSB schools a safer place for staff and students during the COVID-19 pandemic by taking on the monumental effort of ensuring the school district’s personal protective equipment (PPE) was in place in time to welcome back students to in-person learning.
This work involved to ensure PPE was available to support schools and worksites included researching, sourcing, costing, receiving, organizing, counting, packaging, and scheduling deliveries to make this happen for the September school start up, and for each month thereafter. This work is on top of the purchasing department’s regular day-to-day duties, putting in extra hours to meet deadlines to assure they were never behind.
Working off multiple spreadsheets and courier schedules at one time, the team would gather the amount of PPE supplies required for each location and package accordingly – that’s after counting the equipment to ensure there are no discrepancies in their numbers for all shipments received. Department members organized the warehouse for functional use when preparing the PPE supplies and courier drivers loaded their trucks top to bottom, and front to back for school deliveries.
This department has come together as an impeccable team, with some working from home, some at the board office, some at the warehouse, and some on the road delivering. There is not one member who hasn’t contributed to ensuring our schools have the PPE supplies needed.
The Upper Canada District School Board appreciates the Purchasing Department’s commitment to keeping our schools safe, which is why they have been recognized with a Director’s Award of Merit.