Tri-Creek School Corporation – Student Information System
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
The Board of School Trustees of Tri-Creek School Corporation is receiving proposals on its Student Management System for five schools. Proposals will be accepted until
December 20th, 2013 at 10:00 am at 195 West Oakley Avenue, Lowell, IN 46356, at which time they will be opened. Submit two copies of the proposal. An additional digital copy in searchable PDF format should be emailed to Jay Blackman () prior to December 20th, 2013.
Proposal specifications can be obtained from Jay Blackman, Director of Information and Educational Technology, at 195 West Oakley Avenue, Lowell, IN 46356, online at www.tricreek.k12.in.us or by calling the Tri-Creek School Corporation Administration Office at 219-750-1293.
Board of School Trustees
Tri-Creek School Corporation
Douglas Ward, President
Michelle Dumbsky, Vice President
Robert Martinez, Secretary
Timothy Cottingham, Member
David Stanton, Member
Tri-Creek School Corporation Request for Proposal for Student Information System
Brief Overview of Tri-Creek School Corporation
Tri-Creek School Corporation (TCSC) is located in Lowell, Indiana. There are five main school locations;
● Lowell Senior High School (grades 9-12 with approximately 1,200 students)
● Lowell Middle School (grades 6-8 with approximately 850 students)
● Lake Prairie Elementary School (grades K-5 with approximately 400 students)
● Oak Hill Elementary School (grades K-5 with approximately 525 students)
● Three Creeks Elementary School (grades K-5 with approximately 475 students).
All five of the main schools and the Central Office are all connected by a fiber optic and wireless WAN. Tri-Creek School Corporation (TCSC) has additional student facilities and satellite classroom locations that would require real-time access to the Student Information System (SIS) for staff and administrators at those locations through Internet connections since those locations are not on the district’s WAN.
Basic Software/Hardware Requirements
● The SIS should be based on a true web-based architecture not a client-server or “web-enabled” system.
● The SIS must be School Interoperability Framework (SIF) Compliant
● The SIS must use a single district-wide database with real-time online access for all users.
● The SIS must have complete solutions for all mandated Indiana state reports.
● The SIS must provide a student/parent portal to view assignments, grades and attendance.
● The SIS must provide a user-friendly method of online registration, customizable by district staff.
● The SIS must provide customizable grade books and seating charts with little to no setup required on the staff side
● The SIS must meet the operational needs of TCSC as outlined in the Operational Details section.
● The SIS must allow TCSC to add and define new data fields and sections to maintain unique data requirements and organization.
● The SIS must allow all building-level office staff to be able to both import and export data in various formats including XML, CSV and text.
● The SIS should include the ability to export any/all data maintained in the SIS to user-defined reports.
● The SIS must allow for the design and development of customized reports and form letters that can be shared with all users in all school locations.
● A clear and complete listing of all hardware/server requirements, operating system(s) requirements, as well as any additional software requirements (such as database software) needed for the purpose of running the SIS system shall be part of the bid.
● The proposal shall include the itemized costs of licensing, conversion, training and annual support and/or maintenance and all other related costs of purchase and implementation.
Training Plan - Please include a breakdown of the amount of time required to provide training for all users including teachers, administrators, counselors, clerical staff, and system administrators for a Summer 2014 start date for the 2014-2015 school year. Provide a list of sample curriculum items that would be covered for each category of users and a sample training plan that includes expectations for annual refresher training. Also include any state or local user groups or conferences that provide additional support for staff seeking training.
Support Services - Please outline how your organization provides support and maintenance services to your customers. Include the process by which TCSC staff contact the vendor for support, an expectation of timeframes for resolution of minor and major issues, availability of services for both on and off-hours support, including weekends/holidays, and tracking of status of issues.
References - The Customer may, with full cooperation of the Vendors, visit client installations to observe system operations and consult with references. The vendor must provide a complete list of ALL Indiana school districts currently using their SIS along with total student count and years as customer. If requested, specified visits and discussion shall be arranged through the Vendors; however, the Vendor personnel shall not be present during discussions with references. The Vendor must provide a minimum of three (3) Indiana reference accounts at which the Vendor provided services within the last two (2) years.
Right to Reject - The Customer reserves the right to reject all bids. The Vendor's proposal should reflect their most favorable terms. Price will be a major consideration. However the Customer reserves the right to select the Vendor who, in The Customer's determination, will best meet their needs on a long-term basis regardless of price. Other factors taken in consideration include, but are not limited to, prior experience and performance of the vendor, personnel qualifications, service quality, and management capability.
Value Added Incentives - List and explain voluntary alternatives, additions or services to the bid specifications that would come at no additional charge to Tri-Creek School Corporation.
Evaluation
As part of the review process, a demonstration of the SIS may be required of those vendors who appear to meet the specifications outlined in Operational Details Section listed in this RFP. The demonstration will take place in a TCSC facility and will include teachers, administrators, guidance, front office personnel and TCSC technology support personnel. Evaluations are required to be on current generation software in a live environment with a considerable number of students in the database. Additional requirements for live software demonstrations will be shared with vendors selected to present.
The following are the criteria by which Tri-Creek School Corporation will evaluate the SIS:
● SIS meets the operational needs of TCSC as defined in the Operational Details Section
● SIS has a competitive price, including yearly maintenance cost
● Vendor can easily export and convert all data in our current SIS, LogicKey Harmony 2
● Quality and completeness of response to this RFP provided by Vendor
● Reputation, capacity, experience and financial stability of the Vendor
Specifications
Tri-Creek School Corporation has created a technical survey for the Vendor to fill out that will identify the operational capabilities of the SIS being proposed. Tri-Creek School Corporation has titled the SIS technical survey the Operational Details Section. The Operational Details Section provides specifics on the operational needs for a student information system for Tri-Creek School Corporation. The Vendor will need to print out the Operational Details Section and identify if the SIS that is being proposed provides the operational capability described in each section by placing a check mark in either the Yes or NO column.
Also identify if an additional module or component would need to be purchased to add to the base system for any item that is marked with a YES. To identify if an additional module is needed, just put a check mark in the Additional Module column for that item. The Vendor may create codes to place in the Additional Module column to identify different or specific modules. The Vendor would need to provide a list to define the codes.
The final installation price quoted must include any and all modules/components to provide the operational capabilities that are marked as YES in the Operational Details section that is submitted with your proposal. Feel free to add notes to any section to clarify any issue in the Operational Details Section. The completed technical survey is required with each proposal submitted.
Web Browser – Platform Independent - The SIS must be based on a true web-based architecture and not a client-server or “web-enabled” system. The SIS must use a single district-wide database with real-time online access through a web browser for all users in all locations. The SIS should be platform independent for the end user and work if the end-user is using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome web browsers for both Microsoft Windows and Macintosh OSX. Additional consideration will be given to vendors who demonstrate a mobile interface compatible with Apple iOS and Android operating systems.
If there are limitations, compatibility issues or differences in functionality with any of the current releases of the four browsers listed above, the Vendor needs to provide documentation on the issues in the appropriate section in the Operational Details Section. If the SIS is able to provide full access utilizing other operating system platforms, please provide that information as well.
Software Integration - The SIS needs to integrate our new Student Information System with other existing student databases. It is critical for Tri-Creek School Corporation to develop a system where student data is shared and transferred across a wide range of systems with minimal user interaction. We have listed the main student databases that we currently use that we would need to integrate with our new SIS.
School Fiscal Accounting System - Tri-Creek School Corporation is investigating different options where the SIS is able to share data in an automated manner with a school fiscal accounting system. Please provide all information on what school fiscal accounting systems that the SIS can integrate with, including online payment portals. Tri-Creek School Corporation may request the Vendor to provide a list of school districts where the Vendor has successfully integrated the SIS with a school fiscal accounting system within the last two years. The list does not need to be provided with the submitted proposal but may be requested during the review process.
Master Schedule Builder and Online Course Registration - The SIS must provide an integrated Master Schedule Builder as well as options for Online Course Requests and Online Registration. Please provide information on the Master Schedule Builder for the SIS being proposed as well as details on what options are available for Online Course Requests and Online Registration for our middle and high school students.
Please provide the additional costs that would be associated with the Master Schedule Builder and Online Course Registration, including information on any additional modules that would need to be purchased for the SIS, additional hardware/software that would need to be purchased above and beyond what is needed for the operation of the SIS as well as contact information for the individual who can provide more details regarding the Master Schedule Builder and Online Course Registration options.
Email Lists – The SIS must provide the capability for office personnel or individual teachers to send out email notifications to specific groups of parents or students. As an example, the elementary office would have the capability to send out an email through the SIS to all email addresses listed in the student contact section for all students in the entire building or just one grade level. The classroom teacher would have the ability to send out an email to all email addresses listed in the student contact section for all students listed in one specific class through the SIS. Furthermore, individual athletic/extracurricular coaches and sponsors would be able to email groups of students based off of sports or activities. Staff members should be able to create user-defined groups.
Please provide a general overview of how email messaging works with the SIS and the additional costs that would be associated with providing that capability to all staff, including information on any additional modules that would need to be purchased for the SIS, additional hardware/software that would need to be purchased above and beyond what is needed for the operation of the SIS as well as contact information for the individual who can provide more details regarding the email messaging options.
Emergency Alert System – An Emergency Alert System will be a critical communication component for Tri-Creek School Corporation. Please provide clear documentation on which Emergency Alert Systems the SIS can integrate with and the steps needed for contact information entered in the SIS to be transferred to the Emergency Alert System. The preference for Tri-Creek School Corporation is if there an automated process which will automatically update contact information in the Emergency Alert System when contact data is updated in the SIS. If an option for parents and guardians to add other contact information to the Emergency Alert System is available, please provide information for that option.
Automated Exports – The SIS must provide a method by which TCSC staff can develop user-defined automated exports without submitting a request for support to the vendor. Please provide an explanation of the process by which TCSC staff members are able to develop a user-defined export, schedule the automation of the export (including options for time, date and frequency) and the location of exports within the system. Exports should be able to be exported to a local server for upload by client programs defined in the next section.
Tri-Creek School Corporation utilizes other systems with student databases. If there are options to integrate/share data with our other systems, please provide any information on how the proposed SIS can integrate with the following systems:
● Acuity - Tri-Creek School Corporation utilizes Acuity as our testing/evaluation software for our students. Please provide some documentation on how data that is exported out of the SIS and entered in the Acuity system.
● Edulog – Tri-Creek School Corporation utilizes Edulog as our transportation software. Please provide some documentation on if or how data can be shared between the SIS and Edulog. If additional hardware/software would be needed (such as some form of a SIF Zone Integration Server) please provide some documentation on what would be needed.
● Lightspeed TTC - Tri-Creek School Corporation utilizes Lightspeed TTC as our Internet filter/content management system. Please provide data on import of student demographic information into Lightspeed for user and group management.
● Renaissance Learning STAR Reading - Tri-Creek School Corporation utilizes Renaissance Learning products for all schools. Please provide documentation on automation of export of demographic and course scheduling data to the Renaissance Learning RDI process for automatic uploads.