Not all school districts are interested in hiring a consultant to shop for school equipment.

In April, Lawrence voters approved a $54-million bond issue to renovate, expand and replace buildings throughout the school district.

But school leaders aren’t ready to follow Tonganoxie’s lead in hiring a consultant to go bargain-shopping for school equipment, often on the Internet.

“It sounds interesting,” said Tom Bracciano, division director of operations and facilities planning for Lawrence public schools.

But Bracciano, who has been with the Lawrence district 23 years, said it’s not a direction he recommends.

“You’re better off putting it out to competitive bids for new equipment and buying it that way – that’s the way we’ll do things,” Bracciano said.

Bracciano said the Lawrence school district will reuse as much of its own equipment as possible.

“What we’re buying we’re buying new,” Bracciano said.

He said districts that use the Tonganoxie approach might wind up without product warranties.

“If it’s broken, who follows up on it? And there’s maintenance contracts – just a lot of different issues,” Bracciano said.