The Board of Education acknowledges its statutory duty to publicly announce anticipated contracts for professional design services and to select the most qualified firm, for professional design services estimated to cost over $25,000.00 and except where the Board makes a finding of emergency requiring immediate action. The Board of Education, based upon its experience, has determine that selection of the most qualified professional design firm may be identified through the use of consistent procedures that are designed to solicit interest from interested firms and assess qualifications for each design contract. The Board resolves that, where two (2) or more professional design services providers are determined to be equally qualified, the District will take into account the price of service of each professional design service firm when deciding which firm to select. Therefore, the Sylvania City School District Board of Education implements the following policy and procedures.
Section 1: Definitions
| | A. | "Professional design firm" means any person legally engaged in rendering professional design services.
|
B. "Professional design services" means services within the scope of practice of an architect or landscape architect registered under Chapter 4703. of the Revised Code or a professional engineer or surveyor registered under Chapter 4733. of the Revised Code.
| | C. | "Qualifications" means all of the following:
|
| | | 1. | competence of the professional design firm to perform the required professional design services as indicated by the technical training, education, and experience of the firm’s personnel, especially the technical training, education, and experience of the employees within the firm who would be assigned to perform the services;
|
| | | 2. | ability of the firm in terms of its workload and the availability of qualified personnel, equipment, and facilities to perform the required professional design services competently and expeditiously;
|
| | | 3. | past performance of the firm as reflected by the evaluation of previous clients with respect to such factors as control of costs, quality of work, and meeting of deadlines;
|
| | | 4. | other similar factors, such as (but not limited to):
|
| | | | a. | the firm’s prior experience and performance with the District;
|
| | | | b. | its proximity to the service site;
|
| | | | c. | continuity of the firm’s work force;
|
| | | | d. | participation in available trade-relevant Department of Labor or State of Ohio approved apprenticeship programs;
|
| | | | e. | provision of a health plan, retirement plan, and OSHA (and, if applicable, EPA) compliant safety plan for its employees;
|
| | | | f. | the location of the firm’s principal place of business;
|
| | | | g. | the locations where the firm’s employees are domiciled;
|
| | | | h. | the firm’s compliance with unemployment, Workers’ Compensation, and Federal and State prevailing wage laws; Federal and State wage and hour laws; local, State, and Federal taxation laws; other applicable laws; rules, and regulations.
|
Section 2: Prequalification Requirements
| | A. | The Board of Education encourages professional design firms to submit to the Treasurer’s Office a statement of qualifications and to update the statements at regular intervals.
|
| | B. | The Board of Education may require that professional design firms meet prequalification requirements for a particular professional design contract. Each prequalified firm must maintain a current statement of qualifications on file with the Treasurer. Any such prequalification requirements shall include the factors identified for qualification requirements.
|
Section 3: Announcement of Available Contracts
The Board shall publicly announce all contracts available from it for such services. The announcements shall:
| | A. | be made in a uniform and consistent manner and shall be made sufficiently in advance of the time that responses must be received from qualified professional design firms for the firms to have an adequate opportunity to submit a statement of interest in the project;
|
| | B. | include a general description of the project, a statement of the specific professional design services required, and a description of the qualifications required for the project;
|
| | C. | indicate how qualified professional design firms may submit statements of qualifications in order to be considered for a contract to design the project;
|
| | D. | be sent to either or both of the following:
|
| | | 1. | each professional design firm that has a current statement of qualifications on file with the public authority and is qualified to perform the required professional design services;
|
| | | 2. | architect, landscape architect, engineer, and surveyor trade associations, the news media, and any publications or other public media that the Board of Education considers appropriate.
|
Section 4: Evaluation and Selection; Negotiation of Contract
For every professional design services contract, the Board shall evaluate the statements of qualifications of professional design firms currently on file, together with those that are submitted by other professional design firms specifically regarding the project, and may hold discussions with individual firms to explore further the firms’ statements of qualifications, the scope and nature of the services the firms would provide, and the various technical approaches the firms may take toward the project. Following this evaluation, the Board shall:
| | A. | Select and rank no fewer than three (3) firms which it considers to be the most qualified to provide the required professional design services, except when the Board determines in writing that fewer than three (3) qualified firms are available in which case the Board shall select and rank those firms;
|
| | B. | Negotiate a contract with the firm ranked most qualified to perform the required services at a compensation determined in writing to be fair and reasonable to the Board. Contract negotiations shall be directed toward:
|
| | | 1. | ensuring that the professional design firm and the Board have a mutual understanding of the essential requirements involved in providing the required services;
|
| | | 2. | determining that the firm will make available the necessary personnel, equipment, and facilities to perform the services within the required time;
|
| | | 3. | agreeing upon compensation which is fair and reasonable, taking into account the estimated value, scope, complexity, and nature of the services.
|
| | C. | Where two (2) or more firms are deemed to be equally qualified, the Board will consider price of the services offered by each firm.
|
| | D. | Upon failure to negotiate a contract with the firm ranked most qualified, the Board shall inform the firm in writing of the termination of negotiations and enter into negotiations with the firm ranked next most qualified. If negotiations again fail, the same procedure shall be followed with each next most qualified firm selected and ranked, in order of ranking, until a contract is negotiated.
|
| | E. | Should the Board fail to negotiate a contract with any of its initially-selected firms, the Board shall select and rank additional firms, based on their qualifications, and negotiations shall continue as with the firms selected and ranked initially until a contract is negotiated.
|
Section 5: Insurance
| | A. | Except for any person providing professional design services of a research or training nature, any person rendering professional design services to the District shall have and maintain, or be covered by, during the period the services are rendered, a professional liability insurance policy or policies with a company or companies that are authorized to do business in this State and that afford professional liability coverage for the professional design services rendered. The insurance shall be an amount specified sufficient by the Board for each specific professional design services contract.
|
| | B. | The requirement for professional liability insurance may be waived by the Board for good cause, or the Board may allow the person providing the professional design services to provide other assurances of financial responsibility.
|
Section 6: The Board reserves the right to evaluate firms based on other criteria as the Board may deem appropriate on a case by case basis. The Board may delegate to District administrators or employees the authority to take actions required by this policy. This policy in no manner limits the Sylvania City School District Board of Education’s discretion in awarding contracts for professional design services.
Adopted 8/28/00