The District, in the discretion of the Purchasing Director, the Chief Financial Officer, the Superintendent, or the District’s governing body, the elected School Board, may cancel a ITB/RFP at any time before the District awards a contract to any Bidder(s). The District may decline to purchase the goods and/or services solicited in the ITB/RFP at all, or it may decide to purchase some or all of the same goods and/or services through a similar or different procurement process.
The District, in the discretion of the Purchasing Director, the Chief Financial Officer, the Superintendent, or the District’s governing body, the elected School Board, reserves the right to amend the ITB/RFP and all attachments in any way and at any time (without cancelling it in its entirety) before the deadline for the submission of bids/proposals. Any addenda amending the ITB/RFP will be made available to all Bidders on the District’s website.
The District further reserves the right to amend the ITB/RFP in any way after the deadline for the submission of bids (without cancelling the ITB/RFP in its entirety), except the District will not amend the original ITB/RFP formatting or submission requirements or the criteria for determining whether the Bidder is a “responsive” or “responsible” Bidder.
The District further reserves the right to redo any stage of the ITB/RFP (without cancelling it in its entirety) if the District, in the discretion of the Purchasing Director, the Chief Financial Officer, the Superintendent, or the District’s governing body, the elected School Board, has concerns that a stage of the ITB/RFP should be redone to eliminate any question of whether it was conducted properly.
The District reserves the right to reject any and all bids/proposals submitted in response to the ITB/RFP, and to waive any irregularities or technicalities in bids/proposals received whenever such rejection or waiver is in the best interest of the District.
The District has the right to disqualify a bid/proposal of any Bidder on the basis that the bid is “nonresponsive” or the Bidder is “not responsible.”
A bid/proposal shall be deemed “nonresponsive” if it fails to include all of the information or documents required by the ITB/RFP.
Bidders represent that, to the best of their knowledge, all information that they submit to the District in response to the ITB/RFP, whether through a bid/proposal submittal or otherwise, is true and correct. If the District determines that information submitted by the Bidder is incorrect, the District may disqualify a bid/proposal as “non-responsive.” If the District determines that a Bidder intentionally misrepresented information submitted in response to the ITB/RFP, the District may disqualify the Bidder on the basis that it is “not responsible” for this solicitation and in future solicitations.
Protests
Any actual Bidder or bona fide prospective Bidder who is aggrieved in connection with the ITB/RFP may protest to the Purchasing Director. By submitting a bid/proposal in response to the ITB/RFP without filing a protest observing the deadlines set forth below, the Bidder waives any objection to the content of the ITB/RFP (including any attachment or addenda) issued prior to as well as any objection to any procedure outlined therein. Protests filed after the deadline for submissions shall only concern the implementation of the ITB/RFP as applied to the Bidder or addenda issued after the submission date.
Any protest to the content of the ITB/RFP (including any attachment or addenda) as well as any objection to any procedure or evaluation criteria outlined therein shall be filed no later than five (5) business days prior to the deadline for submissions of bids, unless the objection concerns an addenda issued fewer than five (5) business days prior to the deadline for submissions of bids/proposals, in which case, an objection may be filed to that addenda only at any time before the submission deadline.
Any protest filed after the submission deadline shall be submitted within five business (5) days after the action by the District on which the grievance is based, but in no case later than five business (5) days after the date of the District’s notice of intent to award a contract for the provision of goods and/or services requested in the ITB/RFP, which will be transmitted by fax or email to all Bidders.
The District shall not intentionally withhold information that is stated in the ITB/RFP to be forthcoming at certain intervals, but failure of the District to notify a Bidder who might be aggrieved by the content of such notification shall not give rise to any claim or rights resulting from said failure. Only formal protests will be considered, and in order for a protest to be considered as formal, it must be presented in written form, and must contain a minimum of the following:
- A specific identification of the statutory or regulatory provision(s) that the District’s purchasing staff member or department is alleged to have violated,
- A specific description of each act alleged to have violated the statutory or regulatory provision(s) identified above,
- A precise statement of the relevant facts that include timelines and all involved parties, and
- An identification of the issue(s) that needs to be resolved that support the protest.
The letter of protest shall be taken under consideration by the Chief Financial Officer and/or the Superintendent, who shall respond to the protesting Bidder within ten (10) business days of receipt of the letter of protest. The initial written response may explain that the Chief Financial Officer and/or the Superintendent need additional time to review the Protest. In any event, a final decision will be issued on the Protest by the Chief Financial Officer and/or the Superintendent before the execution of a final contract with the successful Bidder. This written decision shall be final and conclusive.
