MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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The MiCase Consortium, Portage, Michigan is soliciting sealed proposals for a:
Student Information and Gradebook System RFP Issue Date: Monday, June 24th, 2013 Optional Respondent Meeting: Friday, July 12th, 2013 9AM K/RESA Conf. Room F Intent to Respond Notification Due: Monday, July 15th, 2013 4PM Proposal Due: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM Number of Copies Required: 3 (Three) paper, 1 (One) Electronic PDF – flash drive or CD Facsimile/Email Proposals Will Not Be Accepted You are invited to submit a proposal for this system. Specifications, terms, conditions and instructions for submitting proposals are contained herein. This Request for Proposal with all pages, documents and attachments contained herein, or subsequently added to and made a part hereof, submitted as a fully and properly executed proposal shall constitute the contract between the District and the successful proposer when approved and accepted on behalf of MiCase by an authorized official or agent of MiCase. All proposers shall submit all information requested herein in order for a proposal to be responsive failure to do so may result in the proposal being rejected as nonresponsive. The proposal document shall be returned in its entirety, in a properly identified and sealed envelope to the below address. Proposals must be properly received by the due date/time. Proposals received after the bid opening will be rejected forthwith. (Note: MiCase reserves the right to consider bids that have been determined by MiCase to be received late due to mishandling by MiCase after receipt of the proposal and before as award has been made.) Addendums (if any) will be posted on our website: www.micase.org/sisrfp.
Respondent Meeting and Declaration of Intent to Respond MiCase requests vendors who intend to respond to this RFP to notify us via an email to
[email protected] no later than Monday, July 15th, 2013 at 4PM. A meeting will be held at MiCase’s main offices (located inside of the K/RESA facility on 1819 E. Milham Road in Portage MI) on Friday, July 12th, 2013 at 9AM in Conference Room F. This meeting will serve primarily as a question and answer session for those who might respond. This meeting is not mandatory. A webex/audio conference line can be made available upon prior request.
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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Mailing Address & Submission Instructions MiCase Consortium Attn: Barb Smalla 1819 E. Milham Road Portage, MI 49002 Proposals should be mailed or delivered in person. Proposals will be publicly opened and summaries read at the MiCase Offices located within the K/RESA facilities at the above address at the aforementioned date and time in Conference Room F. Questions about this RFP should be directed to: Daniel J. Vomastek, Director of Information and Technology Systems, Portage Public Schools
[email protected] Questions will only be accepted via email and will be posted, with their response, on the MiCase web site (www.micase.org/sisrfp). Questions received prior to the optional respondent meeting will be held until said meeting. It is requested that Respondents NOT contact other MiCase Consortium officials nor member schools/ISDs, either for questions or solicitations, during the RFP process.
General Information Overview and Purpose The Michigan Collaborative Administrative Solutions for Education (MiCase) Consortium was established in 2007 as a center of excellence for school information systems. Currently MiCase facilitates approximately 40 districts on the Pinnacle Student Information System (SIS) provided by GlobalScholar. Due to a recent announcement that GlobalScholar plans to discontinue use of their SIS and an additional product named Pinnacle Instruction, MiCase is seeking proposals for a robust, webbased student information system to support for the districts that choose to participate. While it is anticipated that most or all of the districts will adopt the SIS as selected by the MiCase Consortium, it is possible that some districts may select a different SIS product due to their needs. Additionally, it is possible that districts not currently on the Pinnacle SIS may decide to participate based on the pricing and options available. This RFP is made upon by the MiCase consortium on behalf of its member ISDs and local school districts. While we expect all members to opt for the MiCase recommended proposal, it is possible one or more members will elect to choose another proposal. Respondent must indicate on the pricing summary page whether or not proposed pricing would be available to individual members acting of their own accord. The districts currently using the Pinnacle SIS are listed in the table below. The three ISDs (Allegan AESA, Kalamazoo RESA, and Van Buren ISD) are using the system for supplemental functionality to their Maximus Tienet Special Education System including generation of state reporting.
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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#
District
Students
1
Allegan AESA Special Education
150
2
Arbor Academy
222
3
Bangor Public Schools
1260
4
Benton Harbor
2806
5
Bloomingdale
1188
6
Burr Oak
289
7
Cassopolis
1053
8
Catholic Schools of Greater Kalamazoo
914
9
ClimaxScotts
528
10
Covert
485
11
Dowagiac
2293
12
Evergreen Academy
50
13
Fennville
1431
14
Forest Academy
100
15
GalesburgAugusta
1133
16
Glenn
40
17
Gull Lake
3175
18
Hartford
1383
19
Hopkins
1684
20
Ionia
3085
21
Kalamazoo Christian School Association
845
22
Kalamazoo RESA Special Education
618
23
Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center
300
24
Lakeside Academy
127
25
Lawrence
685
26
Lawton
997
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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27
Litchfield
307
28
Marcellus
769
29
Martin
602
30
Oakland Academy
235
31
Otsego
2360
32
Pansophia Academy
305
33
Parchment
1807
34
Paw Paw
2274
35
Plainwell
2741
36
Portage
8765
37
Reformed Heritage Christian
30
38
Schoolcraft
1388
39
South Haven
2145
40
Van Buren ISD Special Education
349
41
White Pigeon
788
42
Youth Advancement Academy
41
Total Student FTE for all Districts
52,087
Goal and Structure of RFP The goal of this RFP is to allow each Respondent to showcase the uniqueness of their software solution and the bestpractice implementation of said solution within a school system. With an acknowledgement of the fact that no system will have every feature we would like, nor implement every one in a way we would like, we will focus less on ‘checklists’ and more on a ‘bestfit’ analysis with both the solution and more importantly, the selected vendor partner. The RFP lists desired functionality for the overall system, student information component, and gradebook component. This desired functionality is divided into categories: ● A listing of features we consider to be nonnegotiable Respondents will be expected to outline their proposed software solutions capabilities/adherence to all of these components. ● A listing of preferred features none of these features are considered to be ‘dealbreakers’, however, the number of preferred features a proposed software solution has will influence final selection.
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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Instructions to Respondents This RFP includes standard legal and other important instructions. Respondents must be careful to adhere to all items. Failure to do so may result in an proposal being rejected forthwith. 1. Examination of Proposal Document ‐Before submitting a proposal, proposers shall carefully examine the specifications and shall fully inform themselves as to all existing conditions and limitations. The proposer shall indicate in the proposal the sum to cover the cost of all items included on the proposal form. 2. Preparation of Proposal ‐The proposal shall be legibly prepared in ink or typed. The proposal shall be legally signed and the complete address of the proposer given thereon. All proposals shall be tightly sealed and plainly marked sealed proposal and identified by project name, bid opening date and time. Proposals opened by mistake, due to improper identification, will be so documented and resealed. MICase will maintain and guarantee confidentiality of the contents until the specified opening date and time. 3. Additional Charges No additional charges, other than those listed on the price breakdown sheets, shall be made. Prices quoted will include verification/coordination of order and all costs for shipping and insurance costs. 4. Unit Pricing In those cases where unit prices differ from total prices, unit prices shall prevail. 5. Federal or State Excise, Use or Other Taxes MiCase is tax exempt. Do not include Federal, State, or Local taxes in your bid price except as related to enhancements to real property. 6. Acceptance of Proposals MiCase reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, either in whole or in part; to award contract to other than low bidder; to waive any irregularities and/or informalities; and in general to make awards in any manner deemed to be in the best interest of MiCase. 7. Required Responses On a per item basis, Respondents must clearly indicate whether or not their proposed software package includes functionality for the items included in the required and prefered feature sections. Should a required feature(s) not be supported, Respondents should propose alternate solutions. 8. Confidentiality During the selection process, save pricing information, proposals will be kept confidential. At the conclusion of the selection process, Respondents should be aware that any submitted proposal is subject to Freedom of Information Act Requests. As such, MiCase cannot enter into any confidentiality agreement regarding the contents of any proposal.
Demonstrations/References and Site Visits Once proposals are received, three to five finalists will be selected. Demonstrations will be scheduled with the following expectations: ● Demonstrations will be presented locally to the MiCase Student Information Vision Committee (SIVC) and others, a group of approximately 130 people. ● The demonstration will be broadcast and recorded via WebEx for maximum input from our consortium stakeholders. ● The demonstration is expected to be live using the Respondent’s actual, currently released and available software solution. ● Respondents will be provided an outline of items we expect them to demonstrate/review. ● Time will be allotted for adhoc Respondent chosen items and SIVC questions at the conclusion of the outline. ● Approximately 3 hours will be allotted for this first demonstration.
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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After demonstrations, it is our hope to reduce the field to 23 Respondents. At this stage, reference checks and site visits with existing customers will be conducted. Specifically: ● At least 5 references shall be provided, preferably with customers/consortiums of 10,000 students or more in Michigan. ● A listing of all Michigan customers shall be provided to the SIVC. ● Speaking with technology/administrative staff is less important to us than the feedback provided by endusers such as teachers, secretaries and principals as such, references should include contact information for individuals in these roles. ● An appointed subset of the SIVC will conduct site visits OR the SIVC will bring in references to speak to the whole team. ● We will likely send reference surveys to multiple customers. ● Logins to a demonstration system will be provided to the SIVC for testing/exploration.
Target Timeline The targeted timeline for this RFP is as follows: ● June 24, 2013 RFP released ● July 12, 2013 Respondent Meeting To Discuss RFP Questions ● July 15, 2013 Intent to Respond Notification Due ● July 26, 2013 RFPs Due ● Starting week of August 5, 2013 Initial review and selection by SIVC ● Starting week of September 16, 2013 Initial demonstrations to SIVC ● Starting week of October 4, 2013 Reference checks/Site visits ● First week of November, 2013 Recommendation to MiCase Governing Board, Contracts, Etc. ● Second week of November 2013 Data migration, implementation and training planning meetings begin ● January 2014 Initial training and data migration begins ● July 7, 2014 Go Live Date Upon selection, the winning Respondent and MiCase shall agree to a more detailed implementation timeline. Failure to comply with items in said timeline may result in a 1% penalty of the total first year costs for each day each milestone is missed should MiCase, at its discretion, determine the lack of compliance is due to vendor negligence.
Selection Procedure A winning proposal will be selected based on the following criteria: 1. Overall fit and functionality of the proposed solution 2. Trust and fit with proposing respondent and applicable partners 3. Data migration, training, implementation and support models 4. Overall upfront and ongoing costs
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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List of Non-Negotiable Features/Requirements Overall System 1. Options for MiCase/KRESA to host on behalf of the consortium or for LEA’s to host locally 2. Webbased and accessible from any HTML5 compliant browser, regardless of platform, OS, brand or hardware. With the exception of JAVA, no plugins shall be required to use any part of the software. 3. System should have highquality, fully integrated modules for: a. student information b. gradebook c. parent/student portal which includes broad support for multiple mobile device platforms d. master schedule creation e. data analysis (historical and current) f. adult ed, alternative ed and other community/nontraditional school programs 4. Back end database must be read/write accessible to facilitate data imports and exports, ad hoc queries and custom view/function/stored procedure creation 5. System must support thirdparty integration services 6. Ability for MiCase and LEA’s to create custom reports for SIS and Gradebook (ranging from simple to complex) for enduser use via the product’s web interface 7. Flexible assignment of user rights, including the ability to assign rights by role 8. Reports, stock and custom, restrictable by user rights/roles 9. Ability to add data fields and customize user interface 10. MiCase will have a strong voice in ongoing product development priorities 11. Complete/robust support for Michigan State Reporting via MSDS, pupil accounting, and other state systems (current and future) 12. Support for CRDC and other federally required reporting (current and future) 13. Processes to eliminate/avoid duplicate information (people/contacts/households, etc.) 14. Up to date online documentation and help 15. System must maintain data from previous years and said data must be enduser accessible 16. Ability to create additional ‘virtual’ schools for special programs and/or administrative use with the ability to link these schools to actual schools for the purpose of state/federal reporting
Student Information System The system should have commonly accepted SIS functionality (including): 1. student enrollment 2. households and contacts 3. demographics 4. student/staff pictures 5. confidential data (with restricted user access) (such as free/reduced lunch status, homeless, etc.) 6. health information 7. alerts for health, guardianship and other critical items 8. grades 9. transcripts/academic records including graduation requirement tracking 10. course catalogs
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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11. multiple calendars/terms/rotations (in same building/same year) 12. attendance/pupil accounting 13. special ed records (at minimum requirements for state reporting) 14. Preschool/GSRP/Title/31a and other federal/state programs 15. migrant student data 16. English language learner data 17. test results (summary) 18. teachers 19. lockers 20. discipline 21. transportation information 22. scheduling (robust secondary... ‘easy mode’ for elementary) 23. educational develop plans (EDPs) 24. portfolios 25. student profile summary 26. fines/fees 27. student notes 28. support for monitoring and reporting academic eligibility
Gradebook System The system should have commonly accepted gradebook functionality, including: 1. Support for a. locked gradebook templates to control grade calculation and reporting including template verification reports b. standardsbased grading and report cards c. easy display/access of officeentered alerts d. teachercreated grading categories (weighted and unweighted) e. missing/exempt assignments f. calculated grade overrides g. seating charts h. nontraditional grading scales and calculation methods i. private and shared teacher created notes (accessible via parent portal if teacher wishes) 2. View and/or edit access to all gradebooks as assigned via user rights 3. Report card comments, both pick list and freeform (including citizenship) 4. Integration with key SIS modules for data entry and reporting, including: a. attendance b. autocreation of gradebooks with automatic roster updates c. student demographics, households and contacts d. discipline e. student profile report
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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List of Preferred Features General System 1. Back end based on Microsoft’s .NET and SQL Server technologies 2. Countywide/Regional comprehensive. Allows for students from several or all districts in the county to be loaded on the system with student data accessible to all entities that provide education to a child. These entities may include, but are not limited to: a. Career/Technical Education. Students from a given home district may be signed up for career/technical education courses in other districts in a county/region. It is desired that the student be enrolled once, then assigned to a course in another district. Grades entered by a teacher in the CTE provider district should flow through to the home district for report card purposes. b. Dual enrollment within a district. A student may have classes in a middle school and a high school simultaneously. This should not be handled by having duplicate copies of the student. c. Transfer of records. Students should be easily moved between districts with the system maintaining important historical information such as transcript and attendance information. 3. Online curriculum and assessment features that are completely integrated with the system (i.e. learning management system) 4. Support for Android and iOS device use by teachers and administrators 5. Support for Active Directory and eDirectory integration 6. Support for static and dynamic student groups 7. Support for automated jobs and report generation/distribution 8. Teacher portal pages (read for parents/students, write for teacher contact and demographic information) 9. Adhoc query tool with userrights awareness 10. Compatible data exports for direct import into the EdFi data repository
Student Information System 1. Support for online entry of student course requests 2. Support for RTI/MTSS progress/intervention monitoring and reporting 3. Support for automated notification emails and letters based on attendance, grades, etc. (stock and end user defined/created) 4. Support for online enrollment/data verification, including an office approval process 5. Support ‘paytoparticipate’ tracking with family/student caps
Gradebook System 1. Support for assessment scanning and/or import of data collected via clicker systems 2. Historical grade tracking, both at individual assignment and roll up grade levels 3. Ability to see previous grades (assignment and roll up) when students change to another section of the same course
Software Updates/System Support
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Respondents shall outline their product support for system bugs and enhancements. MiCase prefers the following: ● early access to scheduled updates ● detailed release notes for updates ● ability to test updates prior to deployment to production ● information related to the number of updates per year, including the timing and notification for those updates ● a description of and consideration of access to the Respondent's ticketing system
Pricing In their response, Respondents shall provide line item one time costs for the following: 1. Any one time licensing costs 2. Initial installation and configuration of the product 3. Migration of data from current SIS installations as needed 4. Initial Training (see Training section below) Respondents shall also provide itemized recurring costs for the following: 1. Annual license fees 2. Annual fees for support including a deduct amount should MiCase wish to provide tier one support to the consortium, including any applicable response time targets for support requests 3. Custom report development Items to be included at no additional cost: 1. Program modifications driven by changes in state and federal reporting requirements (changes delivered with enough time to ensure reporting deadlines are met) Additionally, Respondents shall: 1. Document any discounts applicable based on volume of students/school districts electing to use the MiCase endorsed SIS partner. 2. Include any applicable upcharges or discounts related to hosting under three different scenarios: individual school districts, the MiCase Consortium, the Respondent. 3. Commit to the following binding agreements: a. Should the selected Respondent subsequently negotiate a contract with the state at a lower price, said price shall be immediately available to the MiCase consortium. b. Should MiCase add additional school districts or ISD’s to their consortium, pricing provided via this RFP shall be available to them for the duration of the contract. c. Should the size of the participating user pool increase, any tieredpricing adjustments outlined in the contract will be made. 4. If applicable, clearly indicate which modules/features/options are included in the above pricing along with any added costs for optional modules. 5. Complete the overview pricing response sheet included in the proposal response section. MiCase prefers a contract length of 35 years with an option for rolling, annual extensions.
Training MiCase prefers to operate under a ‘train the trainer’ model. Respondents shall describe in detail the training
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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outline and schedule they recommend, along with all associated costs for initial and supplemental trainings. Respondents shall provide a fully functional demo site (preferably with local data) to support training. Respondents shall detail all asynchronous training options, including written documentation, videos, etc.
Project Management Respondents must outline their proposed plans for project management, including direct contact information for the key individuals involved. These plans must address strategies which take account of both the size of the MiCase user base and tight timelines for installation, migration and training.
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
Proposal Response Forms
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(Pages 12-15)
Legal Status of Bidder Certification regarding debarment, suspension and other responsibility matters: the Vendor and/or Respondent certifies to the best of its knowledge and belief that it and its principals: are not presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from covered transactions by any federal department or agency; have not within a threeyear period preceding this agreement been convicted of or had a civil judgment rendered against them for commission of fraud or a criminal offense in connection with obtaining, attempting to obtain, or performing a public (federal, state, or local) transaction or contract under a public transaction; violation of federal or state antitrust statutes or commission of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, or receiving stolen property; are not presently indicted for or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by a government entity (federal, state, or local) with commission of any of the offences enumerated above in this certification; and have not within a threeyear period preceding this agreement had one or more public transactions (federal, state, or local) terminated for cause or default; is not now or has not been, within a threeyear period preceding this date, listed on the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) website .
Name of Bidder Firm Name: Address:
Telephone, Fax & Email Address: Name, Signature and Title of Individual Duly Authorized to Execute Contracts:
Project Name Project Name:
MiCase RFP - Student Information and Gradebook System
MiCase Consortium – Request for Proposal Student Information and Gradebook System Response Due Date: Wednesday July 26th, 2013 – 1PM
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Agreements MiCase reserves the right to accept or reject any or all Bids in whole or in part, or to waive any informalities therein. If in MiCase’s opinion it is in their best interest, the contract may be awarded to other than the lowest bidder as outlined by the selection criteria included above. The undersigned acknowledges the following are included with the Bid Proposal For: (initial) ●
Pricing Information as Requested Above: _________
●
Detailed Product Information:_________
●
Notarized Familial Relationship Disclosure Statement:________
●
Three (3) paper copies One (1) PDF of the Proposal: ______
●
Iran Economic Sanctions Act Certification: ______
Local Affiliation (If it pertains): Do you maintain a permanent office, factory, or other facility in Allegan, Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, or Van Buren counties with employees working in any of these counties? If yes, please provide the address: _____________________________________________________________________________________ Have you paid real or personal property taxes relating to said business in the previous tax year? ________
Summary of Pricing (to be read at bid opening): For your responses in this section, please assume the following: ● all listed entities participate, a total of 52,087 students ● ensure Year 1 costs include all required installation, training, data migration and other implementation costs in additional to any onetime and/or annual licensing costs ● any and all modules required to meet the listed nonnegotiables are included Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Please indicate total costs **It is understood that final pricing may vary depending on total participants and/or modules selected**
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Will this pricing be available to individual MiCase members should they choose a proposal other than the one selected by MiCase? ____________
Familial Disclosure Form The undersigned, the owner or authorized officer of ____________________________ (the “Proposer”), pursuant to the familial disclosure requirement provided in the MiCase Student Information System Request for Proposal (RFP), hereby represent and warrant, except as provided below, that no familial relationship exists between bidder(s) and any employee or board member of the Michigan Collaborative Administrative Solutions for Education Consortium, any member of the Board of Education of the School Districts represented in this RFP or the Superintendent of the Schools represented in this RFP List any Familial Relationships: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________
Dated: _____________________
PROPOSER: ______________________________
By: _______________________________________ Its: _______________________________________ State of __________ ) ss: County of __________) This instrument was acknowledged before me on the _____ day of _________________, 20__, by ________________________________.
_________________________________(Signature) __________________________________(Printed) Notary Public, ______________ County, ________ My Commission Expires: ____________________ Acting in the County of ______________________
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Iran Economic Sanctions Act Effective April 1, 2013 all bids, proposals, and/or qualification statements received in the State of Michigan (MCL 129.313) must comply with the “Iran Economic Sanctions Act”. The following certification is to be signed and included at the time of submittal. CERTIFICATION Pursuant to the Michigan Iran Economic Sanctions Act, 2012 P.A. 517, by submitting a bid, proposal or response, Respondent certifies, under civil penalty for false certification, that it is fully eligible to do so under law and that it is not an “Iran linked business”, as that term is defined in the Act.
________________________ Signature
___________________________ Title
________________________ Company
___________________________ Date