Are you planning to submit a proposal for the School District of Philadelphia's Afterschool Enrichment/Tutoring Services RFQ? Read some of our notes for assistance in the process! Any additional questions can be sent directly to Kelly Earl, the RFQ's primary contact - kearl@philasd.org
August 16, 2021
Bidders’ Meeting for School District of Philadelphia RFQ
1:00 PM
The primary contact for this RFQ is Kelly Earl - kearl@philasd.org
The meeting was recorded. The recording and slide, along with the written question/answer list, are expected to be made available in the SDP’s Oracle Portal. As a reminder, in order to submit a proposal or view supplemental materials, you must register for the portal. If you are not yet registered, you may register here.
SDP representatives at the meeting:
Joy Lesnick- SDP Office of Evaluation
Dave Zega- Strategic Planning in the Superintendent's Office
Shannon Ellis - School Climate and Culture
Paula Don - Gifted Office
Notes from RFQ Meeting
Anti-Discrimination Policy (pg.18)
For any contract greater than $100k, 5-10% of the proposed budget must go to a certified Woman and Minority Owned Business.
You will need to fill out the Good Faith Efforts Form demonstrating this requirement.
Reach out to Richard Brown (rkbrown@philasd.org) in Small Business Office with
questions. Register with the SDP Small Business office as a non-profit and they can
approve you based on board make-up.
Once providers are “qualified” through the RFQ process, 440 will then work with principals to identify who will be at what schools and what students they will serve
There is no set process yet to determine how provider school placements will be made and how providers and SDP will work together in this process. The Federal Grants Program office in SDP will work with providers to assure that hopefully none end up in a random school.
While existing school partnerships do not guarantee that you will offer your program there, the program office will work with providers on school assignments.
Existing school-based providers can supplement current programs, though it is not clear how that will work - applicants just indicate what region of city can work for their programming.
Students will be referred for programming by the school/SDP, with joint efforts between SDP and provider to identify participants. The Academic Services Office is tasked with clarifying whether this is for both tutoring and enrichment models. There may be additional information provided once the question/answer list is provided.
No guidelines for what is a “non-allowable expense.” If it is in the budget and reasonably explained in the program description anything could be approved
3rd party evaluators are an allowable expense.
Payment of funds will be Net 45 payments.
Invoices will be created and sent to finance contact at agency or agency can create their own invoice
You do not need to serve the same students every day through your programming. You must be prepared to offer programming 5 days a week but may be fewer days per week depending on individual school needs.
One possibility is operating different “clubs” different days a week serving different students.
Providers can apply for multiple program models through the same application. The portal is designed to be able to accept large files.
Each program model will require a distinct proposal, though the narratives can be uploaded in the same attachment.
Other required documentation, including financial information, only needs to be submitted once.
Oral presentations will be part of the selection process
Oral presentations will be one hour total: 45mins for provider to present, 15 mins for questions.
Non-collusion affidavit needs to be notarized before submission. This is the “seal” referred to. Only that affidavit needs to be notarized.
If providers hire teachers from the school, they will need to determine PFT-approved rate – hopefully additional information will be included in the written answers.
Enrichment program staff do not need to be certified teachers, but must pass all required background checks, etc.
Pre and post assessment of tutoring models will be a collaborative effort between the program office and suppliers.
There is currently no set number of students who are eligible to take part in programming.
Any student who hopes to participate must have permission to stay after school.
For the tutoring model, it is currently unclear if specific subjects will be targeted.
General homework help may also be desired.
Multiple providers will most likely be selected for funding – it is not clear whether this will be one provider for each program model or multiple providers for each category of support.
It is possible that multiple providers will be in the same school. This may or may not be based on different program models.
Ensure that you are up to date on owed taxes in order to get a tax clearance certificate from the City’s tax compliance office.
Digital signatures are accepted for the application.
The portal will close at exactly 11 AM on September 9th. You must ensure that all of your materials are in the portal by that time.
Written questions/answer are expected to be posted in the Oracle website for this RFQ shortly. Once in the portal, go to the bid document, then to the messages tab, where an addendum will be posted with all questions and answers. Written questions that were submitted by Sunrise are as follows:
Is there a page or character limit for this RFQ?
Is there an anticipated award amount per contract?
Is there a targeted cost per student served range? Per learning block of each group of 15 students/1 staff?
Is there a limit to the amount that can be assigned to administrative costs?
Will there be additional slots awarded in schools that already have Office of Children and Families Out of School Time or PA Department of Education 21st CCLC funded programs already operating in them?
Schools that already have OCF/21C will be available for “supplemental funding” to expand slots
Will there be a process to ensure that there is not deleterious overlap of SDP-funded OST programs at schools that already have Office of Children and Families Out of School Time or PA Department of Education 21st CCLC funded programs operating in them?
What is the invoicing process and payment timeline for services rendered?
a. Providers will submit invoices within 15 days of the end of the month and
then payment is expected within 30 days of that (Net 45 payment goal)
What are the attendance tracking and benchmarks guidelines for this program?
What is the intended first date of service?
a. Hoping to work with approved suppliers ahead of the Oct. School Board
Meeting to start contracting process so services can begin as close to Nov.
1 as possible
What is the process and criteria by which providers will be matched with schools? Can providers accept some but not all of the schools selected for them during the matching process?
a. Suppliers will be approved as “qualified” and then from that list SDP will work
with providers and principals to match suppliers to schools