Escambia Schools Celebrate $1 Million In Cash Back

February 23, 2017

Think of it as a really, really big cashback bonus on your credit card….the Escambia County School District celebrated $1 million in total rebates in 10 years on their Regions Bank purchasing card.

Each school in the district uses the purchasing card for items such as paper, cafeteria food and custodial supplies.

“It’s moved us more paperless,” Superintendent Malcolm Thomas said. “It  expedites a lot of our purchasing. Just think what credit card purchasing has done for families…how quick you can turn around what you need and when you can get it….Most of these banks will give you rebate, much like you might have a credit card that has cashback.

“It’s a similar process for the district. Now we’ve been into this for 10 years. Now obviously 10 years ago it was not as strong as it is today. We’ve really accelerated over the last two or three years,” Thomas said. “We’ve generated $1 million dollars, and those million dollars go back into schools and classrooms to give them more money to buy supplies and equipment, and it enhances education for our students.”"

Thomas says expects to be celebrating the next million dollar rebate in just a few years, not a decade.

“I believe we will make the second million in five years,” Thomas said. “We can push more purchases to the credit card.”

Pictured: A $1 million rebate celebration Wednesday at the J.E. Hall Center in Pensacola. Photos by Savanna Calhoun, ECSD, for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

6 Responses to “Escambia Schools Celebrate $1 Million In Cash Back”

  1. Chris in Molino on February 24th, 2017 8:04 pm

    Mr. reality- Your basing that theory on the fact that there is a zero to unnaturally low intrest rate on that card. While it looks good in the papers, i doubt Regions isn’t just doing Escambia County a solid without making money. In fact, this should be the prevailing assumption. Regions would advertise free or extremely low if they fit that bill while being party to any public announcements don’t you think ?

  2. Mr reality on February 24th, 2017 3:37 am

    Chris, the point is….the district has to buy these things anyway….by using this card reward system, from the bank, they got some of our money back…

  3. Chris in Molino on February 23rd, 2017 8:40 pm

    Is Malcolm Thomas pushing “go paperless” ? Sorry Malcolm, everyone doesn’t have the credit rating the county does. It’s a false sense of security anyway. Still cheaper to pay cash. I had to have the latest greatest jacked up Chevy 4×4 once. Dropped $8k immediately into it. The old man said i wasnt being smart, that i should’ve gotten one used with 10-15k miles on it that some poor guy couldnt afford. But i had to have it. Disaster struck and money stopped flowing as quick as a light switch being turned off. I lost that truck and it was a lesson learned. Just because you have credit cards doesn’t mean you should use them all the time. Now i won’t buy anything unless it’s cash. Cards are for vacations, christmas, and emergencies. Even then some cash is involved. Just like they tell you during a flash flood, ” turn around, don’t drown”.

  4. js on February 23rd, 2017 4:36 pm

    Feed your own kids. I don’t see you feeding mine.

  5. BobTheBuilder on February 23rd, 2017 3:27 pm

    How about Paying your food service/cafeteria people what they are worth they are the ones that work their butts off for very little money and the ones that help save you the money every day by cutting down on food waste like they are told to do,,,, and Angelique your child eating half frozen food is the cooks / manager of the kitchen fault whoever is preparing that food should be taking a Temp on all food hot and cold .

  6. Angelique on February 23rd, 2017 9:01 am

    That’s wonderful! I have a special request from my children. The provided lunch, which we are grateful for, is often not even there when the last lunch break worth of students goes to lunch. Tate simply runs out of food many days and my son gets no lunch. At Pine Meadow, the food isn’t even defrosted all the way, and my son and his peers throw all the unedible into the trash day after day, and they go back to class hungry and then grouchy. Does the district intend to do something about this? Or are American tax payers paying the government to fund our schools to Pretend To Feed Children?? Please fund the cafeteria system and develop anything to do this for Real. Our children are counting on us and old enough to be insulted by it.