Bid submissions should be signed and, if accepted by the applicant, binding on both parties in the E-Rate sense. Awards are contingent upon E-Rate application approval at approximately the levels requested. Contracts should include reasonable provisions for adjustment to the levels of service or scope of work, due to unavoidable risk factors, such as delayed opening of a school, facilities relocations, or SLD processing delays. (For example, if T1 level data service is sought, but SLD approval does not occur prior to July 1, contract must allow substitution of DSL or similar lower-cost solution until such time as the Funding Commitment Decision Letter is received.)
The information in this Request For Proposals [RFP] is provided in conjunction with the Schools and Libraries Division [SLD] Forms 470 and 471, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the FCC Universal Service Fund (a.k.a., "E-Rate") discounts. These programs provide discounts for: certain telecommunications products and services, including voice and data communications; Internet access; and, in some cases, internal connections. For more information about these Federal programs, and before responding to this RFP, please refer to the SLD web site, www.usac.org/sl/, or call the SLD Help Line at 888-203-8100. Please do not contact applicant personnel either with general questions about E-Rate, or to offer ineligible services or services not requested on this RFP. Bidders must have a valid Service Provider Identification Number [SPIN]. Telecommunications providers must also be registered ("common carrier") providers as defined by the SLD. Service providers must be prepared to discount invoices to the school and submit the balance to the E-Rate program via Service Provider Invoice [SPI] forms, as specified by the SLD. ("SPI mode" rather than "BEAR mode" invoicing is expected.)
Important Note to Bidders. At the time of posting this RFP, this applicant has several Internal Connections funding requests from prior years still in the "as yet unfunded" status, typically due to a combination of SLD processing delays and discount percentages near a non-final funding year cutoff. Therefore, this RFP necessarily includes some funding requests that might be fulfilled based on competitive bidding procedures that occurred in a prior year. In situations where SLD decisions are still pending, winning bidders awaiting awards from prior years are hereby offered the option to confirm, in writing, that their bid remains valid for Y10. In this case, applicant would resubmit the request, without modification. It is acceptable to offer comparable or better functionality at the same or better pricing, provided that such substitutions remain compatible with existing and planned infrastructure. When in doubt, new proposals may be submitted instead, subject to a fair and open competitive bidding process for Y10. Updated information about approved prior year FRNs for this applicant can be obtained using the "Data Retrieval Tool" on the SLD web site.
With the exception of cellular phone service, priority 1 services for a subset of the current consortium members are covered by previously competed and awarded multi-year contracts. Not all consortium members are covered by the existing contracts. One or more of these sites sites might choose to obtain certain services from a parent district, rather than through this consortium application, or from a newly successful bidder. Please refer to the detailed site information below for specific guidance in preparing Priority 1 bids other than for cellular phone service.
Leadership Public Schools [LPS] is a not-for-profit school development organization founded in 2001 to replicate the model and success on a large scale of San Francisco s Leadership High School, one of the first charter high schools in the State of California and one of the most successful charter schools in the nation serving educationally and economically disadvantaged students.
Mark Kushner, who founded Leadership High in 1996, heads Leadership Public Schools, and is supported by a board of directors and advisory board of experienced educators, business people, and community leaders. Leadership Public Schools plans to open and operate a centralized network of outstanding public charter high schools in California, based on the Leadership High model. Leadership schools will serve ethnically and economically diverse student bodies and be located in or near low-income urban neighborhoods.
Our vision is that all children - regardless of background, ethnicity, or neighborhood - receive an excellent education that prepares them to succeed in college and to make the world a better place. Our mission is to serve diverse and traditionally underserved students by building a network of outstanding small public high schools, preparing our students to succeed in college and become effective community leaders.
LPS is applying for E-Rate as a consortium, including the headquarters location and each school site, as shown. An average discount level for the consortium in the ballpark of 85% is anticipated through the E-Rate program during the next funding year.
2601 Mission Street, 9th Floor San Francisco, CA 94110 |
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2601 Mission Street, 9th Floor San Francisco, CA 94110 |
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715 Chanslor Avenue Richmond, CA 94801 |
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157 9th Street Richmond, CA 94801 |
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2369 84th Avenue Oakland, CA 94605 |
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28000 Calaroga Avenue Hayward, CA 94545 |
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1881 Cunningham Avenue San Jose, CA 95122 | ||||
1980 Hamilton Avenue, Room 12 San Jose, CA 95125 |
Our Richmond Campus opened in September, 2003, with a freshman class of about 150 students. It is located at the corner of 8th Street and Chanslor Avenue in Richmond, about 1/2 mile from the Richmond BART station. We serve a highly diverse student population, reflecting the demographics of the surrounding community, including a high percentage of families eligible for the Federal Free/Reduced Lunch Program. Because of growth, LPS Richmond has temporarily arranged for additional classroom space across the street (Gompers Annex), but anticipates a facilities move. Since facilities details are uncertain, bids must be prepared on a cost per drop basis, typically without floorplan specifics; and there remains the possibility that the move does not occur or that an alternate location is selected where less of wiring is required; contracts must be flexible regarding such contingencies. Similar uncertainties apply to almost every site.
Our East San Jose Campus opened in September, 2004, with a freshman class of about 87 students. This school is in the East Side Union High School District, and first opened on the campus of Mt. Pleasant High School, at 1750 South White Road; it is presently located at the Overfelt High School site. It serves a highly diverse community including 75% Latino, 4% Asian, 3% African American, 3% Caucasian, 1% Filipino, and 1% Native American. (Not all students provided ethnicity information.) E-Rate discounts in the 90% range are anticipated for internal connections at this location.
Two additional campuses opened in the fall of 2005: LPS Oakland ("College Park"), and LPS Hayward. LPS Campbell opend in 2006. Additional schools typically open every year or so. Each new site serves populations with high free/reduced lunch demographics. Some require data and/or telephone wiring; most require at least some internal connections. Typically, when schools first open, they are small--from 100 to 150 students--and often housed in temporary facilities during the first year of operation. Hence, there is a need to avoid over-spending on wiring or similar non-recurring costs, for schools whose facilities are considered temporary.
The LPS Consortium has a CDE-certified technology plan. Additional material is added to the plan, to include site-specific information about new schools, when they are added. This provides a foundation for the very similar technology requirements of each new site in the LPS organization. For existing schools, a sufficient number of computers have already been acquired to fulfill E-Rate requirements. The newer schools usually purchase additional computers during the summer months. Likewise, electrical capacity has already been addressed for existing sites; when new facilities open, each school reviews its electrical capacity needs, also during the summer. LPS is committed to ongoing professional development, including technology training opportunities; all current staff have had adequate training to fulfill E-Rate commitments; but additional training needs arise as new staff are hired. LPS has adopted an Appropriate Use Policy [AUP] applicable to all sites. Existing schools are already in compliance with the Child Internet Protection Act [CIPA], while the new campuses are undertaking actions to comply. LPS does not seek bids for desktop computers, laptop computers, modems, curriculum materials, desktop filtering software, or staff development services in conjunction with the RFP, but will address growth in these areas separately as needed. More generally, offers of products or services other than those described in this RFP, or proposals which attempt to bundle eligible with ineligible products or services, or otherwise circumvent E-Rate regulations and guidelines, will be considered non-responsive. Any materials received from vendors that appear designed to encourage fraud, waste, or abuse of the E-Rate program risk being reported to the SLD Hotline.
This RFP seeks qualified bids for the following types of services:
Services may be provided on a month-to-month basis, tariffed basis, or under contract (including multi-year contracts or contracts with voluntary extensions) signed within the allowable window. As noted above, multi-year contracts for some products or services, for some locations, may already be in effect as a result of prior year competitive bidding.
Each LPS school campus typically requires voice services with capacity equivalent to at least 7-8 1MB telephone lines (or about half a T1) to provide voice service for an average of 18-24 extension telephones (smallest currently uses 12, system should allow up to 60), as well as two dedicated 1MB alarm lines (or equivalent T1 channels). Currently an eFax solution is used for facsimile; this approach will probably continue. Discounts for local toll, long-distance, and similar charges eligible under the general heading of telephone services are also sought. Usage patterns are typical for comparably sized schools. In the case of Richmond, voicemail is provided by an in-house switch, and so is not required. Richmond uses a T1 channel instead of dedicated alarm lines; this approach could work well for other sites such as Hayward. Sometimes, during the first year or two of operation, facilities may end up being shared with another school; uncertainties in this regard result in a need for the flexibility to rescind orders for duplicated services; "authorization to order" types of contracts tend to work best for this applicant. A separate table further details the telecommunications needs for each LPS site.
Cellular telephone services are also required. We seek a shared minutes plan, not less than 400 minutes average per user. Some phones also require Internet Access service (as detailed in that section).
Bids offering WAN solutions with leased lines between the Headquarters and certain school sites, in a star topology, are welcome, in order to weigh the cost/benefit, versus separate ISP connections to each school site. However, due to distance, WAN needs will most likely be met more cost-effectively using VPN technology, going forward. Bids using either approach are welcome.
Voice, data, and Internet Access services may be combined into a single proposal from a single vendor, or may be provided by separate vendors. Month-to-month, tariffed, single-year, or multi-year contracts (including voluntary extensions) will all be considered. In some cases, multi-year contracts are already in place, but bids may be necessary to expand the scope of services or to provide services to new sites.
Internet Access service is sought from an established Internet Service Provider [ISP] with adequate peering arrangements, capable of providing at least 8 (5 usable) public IP addresses per site. Highly available, reliable, broadband, preferably symmetric, ISP service is needed. Email access and occasional web access services are also sought for mobile phones, to the extent eligible under program rules. Outsourced hosting for up to 1850 student email accounts is also sought (consortium-wide). A separate table provides details.
Proposals including on-premise equipment (such as routers and firewalls), offering turnkey, end-to-end service, are generally eligible for discount as Priority 1 services, and can therefore sometimes provide the most cost-effective total solution, or at least a more timely solution during the first year of operation at a given school, due to inevitable SLD delays in approving Internal Connections requests. Please ensure that your proposal meets SLD eligibility requirements; clearly specify any elements of your solution which might be ruled ineligible, and provide an itemized cost breakdown. Contracts for any required ineligible items should be entirely separate from contracts for eligible items. Domain registration, public DNS (domain name service -- both forward and reverse), DHCP service, network address translation service, and firewall service may be included in proposals, and will be compared to solutions based on using in-house servers. Probably a combination of in-house solutions and some outsourced services will be chosen, to best meet the unique circumstances of each site.
Please refer to the discussion above relating to pending Internal Connections requests from prior years.
A separate table describes the specific items needed for Y10 (2007-2008), by school. Specifications for wiring should match local site standards, as described in prior year applications. Typically CAT5e or CAT6 is used for data and CAT3 is used for analog voice; for new wiring including possible VoIP usage, CAT6 is preferred. EIA/TIA T568B color code, with labelling, toning, and testing is expected, with major brand RJ45 connectors, no runs over 100 meters, and attention to cable management, radius of curvature, amount of twist at termination points, meeting all appropriate standards. Plenum wiring should be used if trajectories include use of hot air returns. Either flush mounting or surface mounted raceway may be acceptable.
Please refer to the table for a list of items for which maintenance contracts are sought. Annual maintenance agreements including regular preventive maintenance and next-business-day repair or replacement are anticipated.
Please send all inquiries and responses regarding this RFP, via email only, to:
Answers to questions of general interest from qualified vendors may be posted as addenda to this web page from time to time during the bidding period; please be sure to check back periodically during the proposal preparation period. Telephone, facsimile, or snail mail contacts are discouraged, and are apt to be overlooked during proposal evaluation. (Except in case of extended technical difficulties, proposals not submitted via email to the above address shall be deemed non-responsive.) This applicant is a school or school district and does not have the resources to respond to generalized inquiries or blanket advertising (such as for desktop computers or desktop filtering software) broadly targeting E-Rate applicants. Such materials shall be deemed "Unsolicited Commercial Email" [UCE] (commonly known as "spam") and are apt to cause your information to be discarded, your email address to become blocked by our email filtering system, or (at a minimum) to divert reviewer attention from any materials intended as legitimate responses to this RFP. Therefore, please clearly indicate to which one or more of the above requirements your proposal is a valid response. Proposals should be in electronic form, delivered via email. Your proposal should refer to the above Form 470 Number and Billed Entity Number, and should clearly indicate your currently valid SPIN number and FCC Registration Number [FCC RN]. Descriptions of products and services should provide sufficient detail and be submitted in a form suitable for use as Form 471, Item 21 attachments, without the need for subsequent modification by the applicant.
Telecommunications providers must also be eligible telecomm providers (common carriers), offer the California Teleconnect Fund [CTF] 50% discount on the non-E-Rate portion of CTF-eligible services, and assume responsibility for "stacking" of discounts. Bidders must also have a current Service Provider Annual Certification [SPAC] on file with the SLD. Bids from entities not meeting these criteria will automatically be considered non-responsive.
With respect to the above products and services, for which competitive bids are sought, the applicant will evaluate proposals from qualified vendors, taking into consideration the following factors, to the extent allowed by regulations of the California Department of Education [CDE] and the Schools and Libraries Division [SLD]:
Proposals may be submitted in response to all, or any portion, of this RFP. Products or services that are ineligible for E-Rate funding or not required to achieve the above functionality, should not be included in any bid. Pursuant to Universal Service Fund regulations, any contracts resulting from this Request for Proposals will be executed by authorized school officials, according to the contract execution window shown above. Therefore, schedule of proposal submission and timely completion of negotiations could become a signficant factor in vendor selection. Any contracts awarded as a result of this RFP would be binding upon both parties, contingent upon SLD approval of Forms 471 at no less than the anticipated E-Rate discount for this billed entity. Contracts signed during the execution window would not be Purchase Orders; no products or services should be provided until funding is approved by the SLD, or July 1, 2006, whichever is later (except in the case of existing services at current levels).
To respond to this RFP, vendors must be qualified E-Rate service providers, prepared to submit separate invoices to the appropriate agency of the U.S. government; this is necessary to recoup government-approved discounts to this applicant. The Service Provider Invoicing mode will be required, whereby an invoice for the undiscounted portion of each bill is presented to and paid for by the billed entity applicant, with the service provider then directly invoicing the SLD for the government-discounted portion, using Form 474 or current equivalent.
The applicant reserves the right to consider or to ignore bids which do not fully comply with the response requirements of this RFP. Depending upon the responses received, and information available at the time of filing (including late-breaking SLD decisions on prior year Funding Requests) it is possible that contract awards might be limited to only a subset of the products and services sought here. The applicant specifically reserves the right to select none of the bids, and decline to apply for various services, if that is deemed to be in its best interest after reviewing all responsive bids.
To the extent that products and services requested correspond to prior year requests, for which a Funding Commitment Decision Letter has not yet been received from the SLD, it is sufficient for winning bidders to provide documentation that they will continue to honor their bid and agree to an appropriate contract time extension. Substitution of comparable or higher-functionality products at the same or lower prices is acceptable but should be noted in the response. If a prior year winning bid would be honored, then the prior year Form 470 and competitive process would prevail; but if not, then new bids from other vendors will be considered for submission.
This section provides answers to questions posed to us by bidders, so that all bidders have the same information, and a fair chance to compete for the business.
Please double-check the URL (web address), and try again in a little while. Perhaps there is an outage. If you continue to experience difficulties, please fax a screenshot illustrating the problem, along with your contact information, to 866-801-8667. If necessary, we can send a copy of the RFP by fax, or email a PDF file to you. However, accessing the online information is best, since there are hyperlinks and since we might update it with clarifications (such as answers to questions from other bidders).
Similar answer to previous question. If you experience repeated difficulties submitting your bid electronically, we can arrange for you to interact with us by facsimile instead; but this is discouraged unless there is an extended outage. Sometimes your email might be rejected because your email server has been "blacklisted" as a source of spam. If this has occurred and, if you think this classification is erroneous, please fax us the IP address of your email server, and we will consider manually whitelisting you, so that our mail server will accept your messages. Or, please contact us via a different email service, or revert to facsimile, since we are unwilling to accept email from known spam sites. If you need to fax us information about an email problem, please be sure to include "full headers" along with any "bounce message" you may have received.
Funding for Internal Connections, a.k.a. Priority 2 Services, is limited to schools with higher discount levels. The cutoff for this is only determined much later in the E-Rate process, after the SLD ascertains budget availability. Normally, it is unlikely to receive an award for Internal Connections unless the applicant´s discount level is around 80% or higher. Therefore, applicants with discount levels below 75% generally opt not to invest the additional effort required to apply for Internal Connections.
We welcome bids that provide the connectivity we require at no less than the speeds and reliability associated with T1 and related technologies, provided that the solution is cost-competitive and meets other criteria such as high availability and minimization of service disruptions. Cost is required to be the primary consideration in selection of E-Rate vendors. Any technology that meets our technical and cost requirements is acceptable.
There is a two-part answer. First, regarding future requirements, any time after the Form 471 deadline has passed, it would be fine to give us a call. Naturally, this cannot impact our decisions on vendor selection for the upcoming funding year. Regarding our current requirements, it could be inappropriate to call, since that might lend an unfair advantage to one vendor versus others. However, if you need clarification about the requirements from our online posting, we will be pleased to answer email inquiries, so that we may share our answers with all bidders, in this Questions and Answers section, to ensure a level playing field. Depending on the nature of your email, we might contact you by telephone to seek clarification; also, if your bid is "in the running," you will probably be contacted for final negotiations and/or additional documentation.
Applicant bandwidth requirements are as stated. Usually the minimum for usable WAN or Internet service to any school location is 1.0 Mbs symmetrical data communications. In some cases, higher speeds may be required. For most sites, we typically require one or more full T1 lines at nominal 1.5 Mbs speed.
The list of sites to be served is always included in the Form 470, if not also shown in the RFP itself. A link to a PDF file containing the Form 470 appears at the top of this web page. Any sites not mentioned in the Form 470 would not be eligible to participate in E-Rate during the upcoming funding year.
E-Rate and/or Technology Plan assistance provided by The Miller Institute for Learning with Technology.