RFP #26-09 ADDENDUM #1

Page 1 of 5

RESPONSE TO VENDORS’ QUESTIONS

QUESTION:

COMMITTEE: It has been our recent experience in Louisiana and across the United States that evaluations of Student Information Systems (SIS) requires input from all stakeholders in the school district. Could you share with us who the members of the Evaluation Committee are and their student information backgrounds?

  1. Does the committee have any principals?
  2. Does the committee have any school secretaries or registrar staff?
  3. The largest group of users of SIS systems today is teachers. They are the key users of the SIS system and, given the correct tools, can be the biggest benefactors of a robust student information system. Does the committee have any classroom teachers?
  4. Does the committee have any members with specific experience on school scheduling and master scheduling?
  5. Does the committee have any members with specific school and data base technology experience so as to ensure that the product chosen can both perform and be successfully managed and maintained by the current LPSB technology staff?

ANSWER:

The Evaluation Committee members have been designated by the Board President. Committee members and their credentials are not public record until the evaluation process is complete and a vendor has been selected for award.

QUESTION:

SCHEDULING: In today’s school environment, we see schools demanding much more from their SIS in areas of “instant scheduling” than years ago so as to create more choices for students and better utilization of a school’s resources (staff, rooms, class periods, etc.). All recent school district RFPs/Bids of 10,000 students or larger require sophisticated scheduling tools. Does the selected SIS require a Master Schedule Builder and Schedule Loader?

  1. Does the requested SIS require capabilities for block scheduling?
  2. Does the requested SIS require capabilities for team scheduling?
  3. Does the requested SIS require capabilities for A/B day scheduling?
  4. Does the requested SIS require capabilities for multi-campus student attendance and scheduling?
  5. Does the requested SIS require capabilities for nearly unlimited (more than 900) scheduling runs and scenarios to accommodate “what if” situations that a principal or counselor may need in utilizing staff and school resources?
  6. Does the requested SIS require that the Master Scheduling, Schedule Loader, Schedule Builder, and walk-in scheduler, etc., be an integrated component (embedded) of the SIS?

ANSWER:

LPSS does not require these capabilities from vendors. Vendors are encouraged to submit their best proposal with all information/products/capabilities that are available.

RFP #26-09 ADDENDUM #1

Page 1 of 5


QUESTION:

SPECIFICATIONS: The Bid specifications have a high level statement of work and the document is quite limited in actual specific SIS required functions. Does the Evaluation Committee have detailed product functionality and bid specifications that they will be using to compare SIS products so as to ensure that they have the necessary functionality to meet the needs of a district the size of Lafayette Parish Schools?

  1. Can this detailed list be shared with vendors?
  2. It must be noted that the requirements of Lafayette Parish Schools (30,000 students) should be significantly different and larger that those requirements for 5,000 students, or smaller, in a school district. How will the committee differentiate a product that has proven large school district SIS implementation from one that provides only small school district implementations?

ANSWER:

Proposals will be evaluated based on the criteria established in the Request for Proposal.

QUESTION:

REFERENCES: Our experience with bids across the United States require that we share specific customer references with equal or larger size of the requesting district so as to clearly demonstrate that our product can successfully perform for that district. Will you require that vendors provide you with school district references of 30,000 to 50,000 students to actually confirm that our SIS product is scalable to meet the needs of Lafayette Parish Schools?

  1. Also, most districts do not accept vendors “saying” or “claiming” that they can perform. School districts are doing on-site visits to evaluate how an SIS product performs at a district of similar or larger size. Will you be doing any on-site visits?

ANSWER:

As stated in the RFP, 8.1 Section 2, proposers should provide detailed examples of the team’s experience in other Louisiana school districts or in corporate/governmental entities of comparable size and diversity with references from entities, including names and telephone numbers of those references.

It is undetermined at this time if LPSS will conduct on-site visits.

QUESTION:

TECHNOLOGY: Not all products are created equal nor are they equal in their underlying technology. This is a critical issue when large school districts require commercial grade tools for backup/restore and enterprise class data base capabilities for performance and security. Do you require that the selected SIS provide enterprise class performance and data base abilities (hot backups, etc) and commercial grade security capabilities that can be managed by your existing technology staff?

ANSWER:

LPSS does not require these capabilities from vendors. Vendors are encouraged to submit their best proposal with all information/products/capabilities that are available.


QUESTION:

TECHNOLOGY: In today’s environment, personal computers and laptop computers change routinely. We have seen recently a requirement that school districts not be restricted in their computer choice by their software vendor. Do you as a large school district require that the selected SIS have the ability to run on PC or MAC devices for any and all users?

  1. Will you require that web-based hand held devices be available for use with your new SIS?

ANSWER:

LPSS does not require these capabilities from vendors. Vendors are encouraged to submit their best proposal with all information/products/capabilities that are available.

QUESTION:

FLEXIBILITY: In today’s environment, districts demand that they have the capability that their own staff can create queries and reports for their end users. Do you require a report writer/ query tool embedded (integrated) into the product for the users of the selected SIS?

ANSWER:

LPSS does not require these capabilities from vendors. Vendors are encouraged to submit their best proposal with all information/products/capabilities that are available.

QUESTION:

FLEXIBILITY: In today’s environment, school districts demand that they have the capability to add data to the data base that immediately (real time) becomes available for use in the SIS application (views, queries, reports, etc). Do you require that this capability be in the selected SIS product?

ANSWER:

LPSS does not require these capabilities from vendors. Vendors are encouraged to submit their best proposal with all information/products/capabilities that are available.

QUESTION:

SIF: A growing momentum across the United States has demanded that SIS products be SIF compliant. We have seen no SIS RFP/Bids for school districts in the last year that have not required that the selected SIS be SIF certified. This requirement provides school districts with future flexibility in data and application integration. Do you require that the selected SIS have a demonstrated history of being SIF certified?

  1. Do you require that the selected SIS be SIF 2.0 certified?

ANSWER:

As stated in the RFP, 7.1, the SIS should have School Interoperability Framework (SIF) certification to facilitate data sharing with district software for bus routing, personnel, school board accounting, libraries, food service, curriculum applications, special education and others that are SIF compliant. The SIS should have the ability to export data for applications that may not be SIF compliant but can identify a fixed file structure for import.


QUESTION:

GRADE BOOK: In today’s school and SIS environment, classroom teachers, school site administrators, and district administrators demand much more from their electronic grade book. As we shared earlier, we view the teacher grade book, and the classroom teachers, as the corner stone of today’s SIS system.

  1. Do you require that the selected SIS teacher grade book be integrated directly into the SIS, and not be a separate product?
  2. Do you require that the selected SIS grade book have the capability to operate on either a PC or a MAC (many teachers have MACs at home)?
  3. Do you require that the selected SIS grade book have the capability to manage both historical grades and assignments AND curriculum standards to enable standards-based reporting for any grade level if required by the teacher or the principal or the administrator?
  4. Do you require that the selected SIS grade book be an integrated application (not a separate product where data must be synchronized or imported/exported to/from SIS core applications?

ANSWER:

LPSS does not require these capabilities from vendors. Vendors are encouraged to submit their best proposal with all information/products/capabilities that are available.

QUESTION:

FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS: If answers to these questions generate a need for a follow up questions or clarifications, what will be the process to ask additional or follow questions?

ANSWER:

All vendor questions must be submitted by date specified in the RFP, 2.4 Calendar of Events. No inquiries will be allowed after that date.

QUESTION:

7.1 Statement of Work…first sentence. “The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit a student information system from a qualified, experienced, and dependable school software provider with a local presence.” Please explain “local presence”.

ANSWER:

As stated in the RFP, 8.1 Section 2, proposers should provide detailed examples of the team’s experience in other Louisiana school districts or in corporate/governmental entities of comparable size and diversity with references from entities, including names and telephone numbers of those references.

QUESTION:

7.1 Statement of Work…paragraph two. “Hardware will be provided by LPSS and all hardware requirements should be included in your proposal.” Will you consider a proposal where the hardware is provided and maintained by the SIS vendor and would be located physically at LPSS?

ANSWER:

LPSS will consider a proposal with that option.

QUESTION:

Can we get a copy of the RFP in Microsoft Word or Excel? It is easier to reply to questions.

ANSWER:

The RFP is only available electronically in .pdf format.

ADDITIONS TO RFP

Section 5.4, Oral Presentations shall now read:

The LPSB will select the finalists for an oral presentation for final determination of contract award. Commitments made by the Proposer at the oral interview, if any, will be considered binding.

Upon completion of the oral presentations, the LPSB may choose to submit follow-up questions for additional information and/or clarification to vendors. All vendors will receive the same questions. Vendor responses will be used by the LPSB during the evaluation process.

Upon completion of the oral presentations, the LPSB may choose to select top finalists for an additional presentation.