New America School
Request For Proposal
New America School
925 South Niagara Street, Suite 140
Denver, Colorado
Craig Cook, Chief of Business Operations
Contact: David Rein, Director of Development
303-894-3160
drein@newamericaschool.org
Issuance Date: 11/5/2013
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Table of Contents
PROPOSAL COVER SHEET………………………………….
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General…………………………………………….……………..
4
Data Requirements…………………………………………..
7
Voice Requirements………………………………………….
8
Internet Requirements………………………………………
9
Award Information and Timeline…………………………
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Award Matrix……………………………………………………
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PROPOSAL COVER SHEET
I. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
FIRM NAME:
ADDRESS:
CONTACT PHONE:
FAX:
E-MAIL AND WEBSITE:
CONTACT:
II. STATEMENT OF MINIMUM QUALIFICATION
I, __________________ (printed name) hereby declare that I am the _____________________ (title) of
_______________________ (name of firm) submitting this profile and declaration, and that I am duly
authorized to sign this profile and declaration on behalf of the above named firm. All information set forth
in this profile and declaration and all attachments hereto are, to the best of my knowledge, true, accurate,
and complete as of the submission date.
The signer further certifies that (please initial):
a. _______ The Company has carefully examined all instructions, requirements, specifications, and terms
and conditions of the RFP for which this proposal is submitted. The company understands all
instructions, requirements, specifications, and terms and conditions of the RFP, and hereby offers and
proposes to furnish the goods and services described herein at the prices, fees, and/or rates identified in
this proposal, in accordance with the instructions, requirements, specifications, and terms and conditions
of the RFP.
b. _______ This proposal is a valid and irrevocable offer that will not be revoked and shall remain open for
New America School’s acceptance for a period of ninety (90) calendar days from the proposal due date.
c. _______ The Company is in full compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, rules,
regulations, and ordinances governing business practices. Specifically, The Schools and Libraries
Corporation, E-Rate.
d. _______ All statements, information, and representations prepared and submitted in this proposal are
current, complete, true, and accurate.
e. _______ Submission of this proposal indicates the signer’s acceptance of the evaluation technique and
that some subjective judgments may be made by the PPLD as part of the evaluation.
f. _______ Evidence of worker compensation insurance, general liability insurance (minimum
$1,000,000.00) and fidelity bonding insurance (minimum $100,000.00). This requirement may be waived
at New America School’s discretion.
g. _______ There have been no claims, litigation, or other issues filed or pending against our company in
the past 5 years except as listed below. Specifically by The Schools and Libraries Corporation.
h. Vendor SPIN number is:__________________________________. Required for proposal acceptance.
___________________________________
Company Name
____________________________________
Signature
____________________________________
Printed Name and Date
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General:

New America School is seeking proposals to develop a stable platform to ensure that the
voice and data services required by New America School to meet its needs and
obligations to the students within New America School both today and tomorrow are
met. New America School currently operates a wide area network comprised of a
Windstream MPLS WAN connecting all of the four buildings (three schools and
headquarters) into a single virtual network (diagram supplied on request). The schools
are currently located in Denver (NAS-Denver), Lakewood, and Aurora (NAS-Lowry). The
three school locations each have a single 1.5 Mb T-1; the administration building on
South Niagara has a bonded (two 1.5 Mb) 3 megabit connection. The dial tone to all of
New America School offices is currently provided via Windstream SIP trunks, and is
part of the data network. Each location has CenturyLink or Windstream pots lines for
fax and disaster backup purposes. The Windstream telecommunication equipment
consists of Windstream-managed routers, Allworx PBXs and phones at each location.
The network also provides data connectivity from each school back to the central
administration office as well as providing backup Internet access. It is used for intercampus Active Directory, file sharing, server remote desktop, PBX administration,
among other applications. All inbound traffic from the Internet passes through a
managed firewall on the MPLS network. This includes email (SMTP, pop3, imap and
webmail from mobile devices and off-campus email users), remote desktop to specific
servers, a virtual private network server and other servers. In addition, each location
has a second, high-speed “internet-only” connection, currently provided by Comcast
and Mile High Online. This second circuit is used primarily for web access for each
location, with the MPLS circuit reserved primarily for the SIP services, in addition to the
internal services noted above.
Certifications

The RFP is broken down into three distinct yet inter-related components. The
component parts are: a. Private Network WAN connectivity, i.e., “DATA Requirements”,
b. School system wide voice, i.e., “Voice Requirements”, c. School system wide Internet
service, i.e., “Internet Requirements.” Vendors will be allowed to bid on any and all of
the requirements. All bids will be weighed and measured as standalone and be
awarded accordingly, with the following caveats.
1. Since the solutions and their method of delivery could be inter-related, New
America School will review and determine the successful vendor for the DATA
Requirement initially.
2. New America School will then review and determine the successful vendor for
the Voice Requirement and award to the successful vendor ONLY if the
submitted solution will operate on the DATA Network as awarded. New America
School’s technical representatives will make that determination after reviewing
the responses and querying both the vendors, if different, and determine the
feasibility for the voice solution to function on the DATA Network solution. If it is
determined by New America School that the solutions are such that they
represent an incompatibility and cannot be resolved with a minimum expense
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and time (New America School technical team will make that decision), then the
award will go to the vendor who scores the highest and is compatible with the
DATA Network solution.
3. New America School will then review and determine the successful vendor for
the Internet Requirement and award to the successful vendor ONLY if the
submitted solution will operate on the DATA Network as awarded. New America
School technical representatives will make that determination after reviewing the
responses and querying both the vendors, if different, and determine the
feasibility for the Internet solution to function with the DATA Network and Voice
solutions. If it is determined by New America School that the solutions are such
that they represent an incompatibility and cannot be resolved with a minimum
expense and time (New America School technical team will make that decision),
then the award will go to the vendor who scores the highest and is compatible
with the DATA Network solution.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)

The following sections will define the technical goals and minimum specifications, as
well as key functions that will be required in order to consider any offer to this
solicitation. New America School encourages all prospective vendors to offer options and
or ALTERNATIVES TO SPECIFIC POINTS DEFINED WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT. Under
no circumstances will New America School consider an alternative proposal that does
not initially meet the stated specifications and functions. The evaluation matrix will
take into consideration any additional features and benefits defined by a vendor in his
or her response, but only if the evaluators deem the additional functionality or
specifications germane to New America School’s identified needs. This will be a
judgment call on the evaluator’s part and will not be subject to review as to the decision
to award or not award points to a proposal. The award for additional value added to the
response will be a fixed number of points, applied on a yes or no decision by the
evaluators.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)

New America School hopes to use funds provided by the Schools and Libraries
Corporation, E-Rate, to offset the costs incurred. Any vendor responding to this RFP
must certify that they are currently listed as a vendor by the SLC, have a current SPIN
number and provide it with their response and are in good standing with the program
and its rules and regulations. If during the course of the service contract, a vendor loses
its standing with the SLC and is barred from working with schools or receiving
reimbursements from the SLC, New America School will have the right to cancel any
and all services currently under contract with the vendor at no cost to New America
School. This requirement is a defined policy within New America School and any vendor
responding to this requirement will be awarded business only under the complete
understanding of this clause. This point will remain intact regardless of the terms and
conditions contained within a vendor’s contract or contrary language within a vendor’s
agreement. Your acknowledgement of the terms and conditions specifically expressed
and defined within this RFP will be incorporated into any actual contract signed by New
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America School with your company, regardless of the actual inclusion of these points in
the agreement. As a service provided by a vendor under E-Rate rules and regulations,
price will be the primary factor in the award of this contract. A “points” matrix and the
calculation methodology to be used in the proposal review is incorporated within this
document.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)

Any vendor responding to this RFP must certify that they will provide a minimum of
three customer references, preferably in a similar industry and using a similar proposed
solution.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Contractor shall protect, indemnify, save,
defend and hold harmless the New America School, including its officers, officials,
volunteers, employees and agents, from and against any and all liabilities, obligations,
claims, damages, penalties, causes of action, costs and expenses, including reasonable
attorney and paralegal fees, which New America School and/or its officers, officials,
volunteers, employees and agents may become obligated by reason of any accident,
bodily injury, personal injury, death of person, or loss of or damage to property, arising
indirectly or directly in connection with or under, or as a result of this agreement, but
only to the extent caused in whole or in part by any negligent or wrongful act or
omission of Contractor and/or its officers, members, directors, volunteers, employees,
subcontractors and/or agents.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)

New America School fully intends to implement a solution provided by a vendor on a
competitive basis, but we require language within the agreement that acknowledges the
existence and accepts our position on: economic downturn, population shifts and nonappropriations of funding for the project in whole or in part. New America School
requires language within the agreement that insures New America School’s ability to
modify, add or delete services as required.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)

CONFIDENTIALITY
All material submitted to New America School must be treated as confidential and
cannot be used for any other response to this RFP. Information submitted by any
contractor will be considered confidential to New America School and will not be used
for any other purpose than evaluating contractor responses.
_____ I have read and agree to comply with this stipulation (please initial)
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DATA Requirements:
For Vendors responding to the DATA portion of the RFP, please fill in the following. If
not, please circle “NOT PART OF OUR PROPOSAL”
New America School wishes to deploy a high speed leased line data network to all of its
currently listed buildings. Because of New America School’s desire to not have to upgrade the
core infrastructure anytime in the near future, all vendors are required to provide a solution
defined on existing facility based delivery methodology. Thus we are restricting the responses
and only accepting solutions based on existing facilities whether they be copper, coax or fiber
deployment. Our basic requirements are as follows. Please state your compliance with all of the
required specifications.

Ethernet signaling implementing a layer two connection service to each site.
Response:

A fully meshed solution for site to site traffic as required by any application New
America School implements.
Response:

The ability to increase bandwidth without any change to the termination equipment.
Response:

The ability to provide QOS on the vendor provided network.
Response:

The ability to provide virtual circuits, VLANS, provided by the vendor from a single
physical port.
Response:

Minimum of four 9’s of guaranteed uptime, with five 9’s preferred and scored higher in
the evaluation.
Response:

SLA’s covering outages and the reimbursement from the vendor to New America School
for the outages. As with the uptime requirement, higher compensation for outages will
be scored higher.
Response:
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Voice Requirements
For Vendors responding to the Voice portion of the RFP, please fill in the following. If
not, please circle “NOT PART OF OUR PROPOSAL”
New America School wishes to make use of IP delivered voice technology in order to provide
financial savings on a monthly basis and flexibility for delivering voice services. The use of IP
delivered voice for New America School must be reliable and fully redundant to insure
continuous operation and uptime. Currently New America School has an IP PBX in each
school, configured as a multi-site system, and the existing hardware will not be replaced at this
time. The basic operational requirements and capabilities of the IP delivered voice service is
described below.

The proposed solution must support four-digit dialing system-wide.
Response:

The proposed solution must include a “911” solution by the carrier, with locations
determined by the originating private branch exchange.
Response:

No switching and or phone instruments will be replaced at this time.
Response:

Deliver SIP Trunking and pricing for Trunking to New America School on an enterprise
level, with pricing itemized for each location.
Response:

Allow for the addition or deletion of IP trunks as needed to support New America
School’s call requirements.
Response:

Provide a disaster recovery plan for auto re-routing calls on a DID level. This is a
mandatory requirement and must be met in order for your response to be compliant.
Response:

Support industry standard voice compression algorithms.
Response:

Provide a voice quality greater than a MOS score of four, even if compressed.
Response:

Certify the support of “high fidelity” voice to be available for any VOIP deployment by
New America School.
Response
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Internet Requirements
For Vendors responding to the Internet portion of the RFP, please fill in the following. If
not, please circle “NOT PART OF OUR PROPOSAL”
New America School plans to incorporate a separate connection from the Internet into New
America School’s private network. Our goal is to increase the availability to the Internet by
using a diverse path and preferably a different Tier One Internet Service provider. New America
School will entertain bids from the same vendor to provide Internet connectivity using a diverse
path option for different sites but a multi-vendor solution to the Internet will carry a higher
weighting (more points) in that category. New America School reserves the right to award
multiple contracts to different vendors for the services. New America School will determine the
primary and secondary vendors and use vendor provided IP numbers defined by the primary
vendor with the secondary vendor advertising the primary’s information. Basic requirements:

Internet connectivity is to be delivered via a microwave, copper-, coax- or fiber-based
solution at each site.
Response:

The internet solution shall be bid-based on a base price for the initial bandwidth of 20
megabits per second.
Response:

New America School will assume that the base bandwidth can be increased to a higher
level once a utilization level has been determined.
Response:
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AWARD INFORMATION AND TIMELINE
The New America School timeline for evaluation and decision-making is as follows:
Milestone
Date
RFP distributed to vendors
Vendors Meeting
November 5, 2013
December 10, 2013 (10:00 a.m. MST)
RFP responses due from respondents
December 27, 2013 (5:00 PM MST)
Selection of vendor/contract negotiation
January 24, 2013
SUBMITTING RESPONSES
RFP responses, including all supporting documentation, are due no later than 5:00 PM MST,
December 27, 2013
Responses must include:
•One hard copy of RFP responses and detailed cost estimate
•One electronic copy of RFP responses and detailed cost estimate
Submit responses to:
Mr. David Rein, Director of Development
New America School
925 South Niagara Street, Suite 140
Denver, CO 80224
Phone: 303-894-3160
E-mail: drein@newamericaschool.org

Vendors Meeting will take place at 925 South Niagara Street, Suite 140, Denver, Colorado
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AWARD MATRIX
Bidders Name
Lowest Bid as
calculated (rank)
Points
Category
Bid Amount if
Applicable
Points
Available
Points
Awarded
Award
Based on
yes or no,
or up to
Price Point
25
Up to
Compliance with
Specifications
20
Up to
Past positive
relationship with NAS
15
Y or N
15
Up to
5
Y or N
5
Y or N
5
Y or N
Strength of NAS
specific solution
Local Denver Area
Presence
In-state facilities and
personnel
Added Functionality
Total
90
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