13-5410-002 RFP 26-0627E4-042 IT Staff Augmentation Services.pdf

BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PROCUREMENT OFFERING

26-0627E4-042 I.T. STAFF AUGMENTATION SERVICES

Offering Instructions

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SUMMARY:

Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) serves the educational needs of the City of Buffalo, New York, and is the second-largest public-school district in New York State, educating more than 30,000 students across approximately 75 instructional and administrative sites with approximately 7,500 teachers, administrators, and support staff.

This RFP is requesting staffing services to support the following three categories:

1. Complete Network & Data Center Infrastructure support - telecommunications, operations, hardware and connections to the network from various departments along with diagnostic help for related key team interactions. Network support will be supplemented with manufacturer warranty maintenance and support contracts for the actual hardware. This includes firewalls, servers, content filtering services, applications, backups, data centers, internet, and connections to vendor providers (including fiber and telecommunications) and all district departments including support of Plant Facilities Division services

(security and video/camera initiatives) and more (see appendices).

2. Enterprise Device Management includes imaging for all device operating systems (Windows, iOS, macOS, chromeOS if expansion warrants), design/customization of device packages and deployments, programming/scripting, app blocking, rules and overall program parameters for successful best in practice device deployments. Works hand-in-hand with vendor who touches/prepares devices with the deployment package.

3. Security Services includes managing and setting-up/servicing the various components of MS Defender deployment, vulnerability management, cybersecurity integration and coordination/support with vCISO and overseeing/main point of contact for 24x7 SOC services vendor. Must work with and train internal

BPS security support staff as well as vendors to achieve best practices in risk assessment and testing based on the NIST standards.

Responding to this RFP means that you will be staffing any reasonable IT-related request that any IT department would be expected to do.

DESIGNATED CONTACTS:

Owner (Primary): Julianna Sciolino, CTO BPS

Buyer (Copy To): John Palamara, 26-0627E4-042 I.T. STAFF AUGEMENTATION SERVICES

Offering Summary

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The dates specified on the timeline of this offering are subject to change via addendum

TIMELINE:

Release Date: 12/2/2025 8:00 AM Advertise Dates:

Questions Due*: 12/9/2025 3:00 PM - Website/BONFIRE 12/2/2025

Answers Posted: 12/16/2025 3:00 PM - Buffalo News 11/30/2025

Offering Closed: 1/5/2026 4:00 PM - Contract Reporter 12/1/2025

Presentations: TBD - Rocket 12/4/2025

Tentative Award: 02/25/2026 - Criterion 12/6/2025

Public Opening Time and Location: N/A

*Questions regarding this offering must be submitted via the online offering portal @ https://buffaloschools.bonfirehub.com/portal/?tab=openOpportunities

PROCUREMENT DATA:

Requisition: N/A

BPS Commodity Code: 028

Prior Offering: N/A Prior Awardee: Zayo Education Inc.

Prior Award Period: 5 years Current Year Award: $2,043,360.00

OFFERING DATA:

Dates are approximate and dependent upon the award date.

Initial Award & Contract Term: 06/01/2026 to 06/30/2027

Extensions: Four one-year extensions

Maximum Term End: 06/30/31

OTHER OFFERING PARAMETERS:

Type of Offering: RFP Basis of Award: Best Value Award may be split among respondents: No Award may be consolidated: No

Subcontractors may be used: Yes

Insurance is required: Yes

NYS DOL Prevailing Reference: N/A Response Surety Required (“Bid Bond”) No

Performance Bond Required: Yes

Formal contract required: Yes Proposals valid for: 90 days past closing minimum

26-0627E4-042 I.T. STAFF AUGEMENTATION SERVICES

Offering Summary

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SUBMITTAL OPTIONS:

Please refer to the “Standard Terms, Conditions, and Disclaimers” document for more detailed instructions. Only one method of submittal should be used; mailed responses will be entered into the electronic portal by the BPS Purchase Department for evaluation/scoring purposes.

Submittals may be mailed OR submitted electronically per the instructions below:

Mailed or delivered responses must include two (2) printed copies and one (1) electronic copy.

Electronic submittal is ALLOWED (and encouraged) via BPS BONFIRE portal at:

https://buffaloschools.bonfirehub.com/portal/?tab=openOpportunities.

Technical assistance with submitting your response electronically is available by contacting the Buyer at the contact information listed on the previous page.

THIS PAGE RESERVED FOR OFFERING

SUMMARY

Offering Specification

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1) GENERAL INFORMATION

GENERAL DEFINITIONS: Please refer to “Standard Terms, Conditions, & Disclaimers”.

OFFERING SPECIFIC DEFINITIONS:

vCISO - Virtual Chief Information Security Officer

NAC – network access control

DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

VENDOR INFORMATION:

Qualified vendors are encouraged to submit a response for providing the goods and / or services described. If the vendor plans to subcontract any of the work described in the

Scope of Work the vendor must complete all response requirements for the subcontractor.

If a vendor plans a joint venture with another company and/or utilizes subcontractors, the vendor shall specify accordingly and complete all response requirements for each company involved in the offering response.

RESPONSES:

Any and all contracts awarded as a result of this offering are subject to the Terms &

Conditions stated in the offering. The submission of any other terms or conditions by a respondent may be cause for rejection of the response.

All responses should clearly state/include the following:

STANDARD REQUIREMENTS:

1. Completion of “Offering Questionnaire”, Question Set 1 “Standard Response

Requirements”.

2. Current W-9.

3. Current Certificate of Liability Insurance.

4. Completed “Equal Employment Opportunity Employee Information Report”; form provided.

5. Signed “Non-Collusive Bidding Certification”; form provided.

6. Respondent must provide a list of at least three (3) client references and their contact information. References will be contacted at the sole discretion of the District.

7. Cost proposal in the requested format.

8. Optional items as required by responses to the “Offering Questionnaire”, including but not limited to:

a. “Disclosure Narrative”, any format.

b. “Debarment Narrative”, any format.

c. “Certifications” such as MBE/WBE/SDVOB

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d. “Policy 5414 Compliance Narrative”, any format.

e. “Subcontractor Documentation”, any format.

f. “Anti-Lobbying Narrative”, any format.

9. Respondents may submit any other information they consider relevant to their response to this offering by using the “Other Vendor Information” document upload.

2) SCOPE OF WORK

2 | Current Infrastructure Overview

BPS operates a modern, redundant, and self-healing infrastructure validated through disaster-recovery testing in October 2025.

This environment is the baseline for all Network Services deliverables.

2.1 Data Centers and Connectivity, Compute and Storage

• Two independent data centers (Sites 94 and 97) act as a single logical system with redundant power and cooling.

• A private dark-fiber ring (40 Gbps aggregate) uses Shortest Path Bridging (IEEE 802.1aq) for sub-second failover.

• Dual 10 Gbps internet circuits on separate physical paths are managed by FortiGate SD-WAN for instant rerouting.

• VMware vSphere 8.5 Stretched Cluster across six Dell R6625 servers (96 cores, 1.5 TB RAM each).

• Pure Storage C50 ActiveCluster arrays with synchronous replication (RPO = 0, instant failover).

• 25 Gb iSCSI with MPIO provides redundant data paths.

2.2 Core Network and Building Fabric

• FortiGate 901G Clusters: Active/Passive pairs secure perimeter and internal segments with state-synchronized failover.

• Extreme 7720, 7254, 7432 Hub and Building Cores and 4950 and 5420 Edge Switches:

Configured with Split Multi-Link Trunking (SMLT) for full redundancy.

• Aruba 9240 Gateways + 5,000 APs: Wi-Fi 6/6E, centrally managed in redundant pairs.

• Network Access Control: Aruba ClearPass (6-node cluster) and Extreme XIQ-SE Control for resilient NAC authentication.

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2.3 Resiliency and Recovery

Failure Scenario Automated Recovery Observed RTO Impact

Internet Circuit Loss SD-WAN Reroute < 1 sec None

Core Switch Failure SMLT Redundancy 0 sec None

Firewall Failure Cluster Failover < 30 sec None

Storage Array Failure ActiveCluster 0 sec None

Server Failure VMware HA 2–5 min Minimal

Site Failure Multi-Layer Redundancy 0–5 min Limited restart

2.4 Security and District/SOC

• FortiGate segmentation VDOMs and intrusion prevention.

• Comprehensive Microsoft Defender Suite deployed district-wide.

• Zabbix and Intermapper monitoring integrated with Team Dynamix ITSM.

• 24×7x365 SOC partnership coordinated through the District vCISO.

SERVICE LEVEL REQUIREMENTS

Service Requirements and Deliverables

1. 24×7×365 operations, monitoring, and response.

2. Incident response per defined SLAs.

3. Weekly status reports (uptime, tickets, trends).

4. Bi-weekly review meetings with BPS IT leadership.

5. Adherence to change-control and security policies.

6. Appropriate current staff certifications per respective area for all indicated platforms (Such as, MCSE, VMware VCP, Fortinet NSE, Aruba ACMA, Extreme ECS).

7. Provide all documentation at contract conclusion.

8. The vender must have a strong staff presence in the district, however not all staff are required to be on site 5 days a week. Enterprise Device management staff must be located within daily driving distance to Buffalo. See Appendix G for specific requests.

9. BPS must be included at any new staff application reviews and interviews and have a voice in hiring and or recommendations to remove any staff that is not deemed satisfactory.

10. Augmented staff will consider the Board to be the dedicated client, take assignments/report to assigned BPS leadership staff, follow national holiday calendar, and request PTO from BPS staff.

11. Augmented staff must work in accordance with all Board policies, follow all common practices adherence to project timelines, regular documentation, data privacy agreements, BPS compliance and AUPs, and be available for emergency IT situations at any needed time.

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12. Provide replacement staff within a four-week time from resignation or leave of absence due to voluntary or involuntary removal at no cost to client. If replacement staff isn’t provided within four weeks, then a service credit is due to the district, based on the monthly billing for that staff title.

TRAINING, SUPPORT, and IMPLEMENTATION REQUIREMENTS

3 | Scope of Work

The IT Staffing Vendor will provide end-to-end operational support for all networked systems and infrastructure described herein. Buffalo expects a complete service operation for any requests related to the IT Systems and Operations. To be clear, this means that any reasonable IT related request that any IT department would be expected to do will be done by the staff contracted under this RFP.

3.1 Network Operations

Non-BPS assigned staff will be responsible for the configuration, operation, monitoring, security, and performance tuning of the District's entire network infrastructure across approximately 70 sites and two data centers. Responsibilities include:

• Wired LAN/WAN Management:

Design, engineer, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot Extreme Networks switches and XIQ-SE management platform (VSP core/aggregation, ERS/Universal edge/access switches) or equivalent including Fabric Connect (SPB), SMLT, VLANs, routing, and QoS, including maintaining exisiting and/or building new device connection maps.

Manage and monitor the dark fiber WAN and the Internet infrastructure, coordinating with the fiber provider (e.g., Crown Castle) as needed for circuit issues.

Manage and optimize FortiGate firewalls network configuration, routing, access policies and SD-WAN for redundant internal and internet access, ensuring sub-second failover and optimal path selection.

Manage wired authentication and access control through Extreme XIQ-SE Control NAC, using various methods including 802.1x certificates.

• Wireless LAN Management:

Design, engineer, configure, maintain, optimize, and troubleshoot the Aruba wireless infrastructure, including Aruba Central management, wireless gateways, access points (AP-325, AP-635, AP-655), RF profiles, and SSIDs.

Maintain existing and/or build new building diagram/maps with AP location placement.

Perform Access Point radio frequency analysis and tuning with tools such as Ekahau site survey and Aruba Central heat mapping

Manage wireless authentication and access control through Aruba ClearPass NAC using various methods including 802.1x certificates.

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• Network Monitoring/ Response & Performance:

Utilize and maintain District monitoring tools (eg. Icinga, Intermapper, Prometheus/Grafana, XIQ-SE, Aruba Central, FortiAnalyzer) for 24x7x365 infrastructure monitoring, alerting, and performance analysis.

Proactively identify and resolve network bottlenecks, performance degradation, and potential points of failure.

• Network Services and Support network needs of other BPS stakeholders

Maintain and manage load balancers.

Manage and troubleshoot network aspects of unified communications platforms (e.g., Teams, Zoom, legacy video conferencing issues).

Support network connectivity requirements for various departmental systems, such as Plant Facilities (building and HVAC controls, security cameras, card readers, etc.), BPS Network team for Alcatel VoIP systems (hosted via Advance 2000), video conferencing, and emergency responder systems.

Coordinate with BPS and contracted cable installers for network drop activation and troubleshooting.

Build district capacity through guidance, mentorship, and network knowledge transfer to BPS technicians, including support for advanced diagnostics.

3.2 Server and Infrastructure Support

The successful bidder (“Vendor”) is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and optimization of the District's data center compute, storage, virtualization, and core server operating system infrastructure. Responsibilities include:

• Virtualization & Storage Management:

Design, engineer, operate, maintain, patch, and troubleshoot the VMware vSphere 8.5 stretched cluster environment across both data centers, including ESXi hosts (Dell PowerEdge) and vCenter Server.

Manage and maintain the Pure Storage C50 ActiveCluster arrays, including volume provisioning, performance monitoring, snapshot management, replication, and firmware updates.

Manage storage connectivity (iSCSI/NVMe-oF).

• Operating System Management:

Install, configure, patch (including security updates, cumulative updates, service packs), maintain, and troubleshoot Windows Server and Linux (Ubuntu LTS) operating systems.

Install, configure, and manage Windows Server roles and features as required.

• MS Core Infrastructure Services:

Manage the hybrid Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and Entra ID environment, including domain controllers, AD replication, sites and services, FSMO roles, OU structure, user/computer/group object lifecycle management, and synchronization using Entra ID Connect.

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Manage Group Policy Objects (GPOs) for configuration and security settings of servers and domain-joined resources.

Manage DNS services (internal and external integration).

Manage DHCP services, including scope configuration, reservations, and failover.

Manage the internal Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for certificate issuance and lifecycle management (e.g., for 802.1x, LDAPS).

Integrate/Manage Aruba Clearpass and Extreme XIQ-SE Control NAC for RADIUS authentication.

Manage Windows Failover Clustering, where applicable.

• File and Print Services:

Manage Windows File Servers, including share creation, permissions (NTFS ACLs), Distributed File System (DFS), File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) for quotas/screening.

Manage Printers, including printer/driver installation deployment via Intune.

• Backup and Recovery:

Manage and monitor Office 365 and on-prem server backup operations using Druva, and Pure Storage snapshots.

Perform regular backup validation and restore testing according to the District DR plan.

• Automation:

Utilize, expand, maintain existing infrastructure automation using Ansible and PowerShell for server builds, configuration management, patching, and reporting.

• Future changes:

Integration and/or migration of server/services into MS Azure or AWS cloud platforms as needed.

3.3 Security and Compliance

The "Vendor” is responsible for implementing, managing, and monitoring security controls across the network, server, and endpoint infrastructure, coordinating closely with the District's vCISO and SOC partner. Responsibilities include:

• Design, engineer, configure, and maintain all FortiGate clusters, SD-WAN policies, segmentation VDOMs, VPNs, and security inspection profiles.

• Maintain FortiGate policies and logging using FortiManager, and provide security analyst recommendations based on findings using FortiAnalyzer.

• Leads quarterly rulebase reviews and ensures high-availability design resilience across both data centers.

• Works with vCISO and SOC on architecture, threat mitigation, and compliance alignment.

• Coordinate with vCISO and SOC for incident response.

• Support annual security audits and risk reviews.

• Enforce endpoint security via Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and network access with Extreme XIQ-SE Control and Aruba Clearpass NAC.

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• Managing and set-up/servicing MS Defender XDR and suite of products deployment

• Daily Security Analysis, communication and capacity building with internal BPS device management staff

• Vulnerability Management, cybersecurity integration and coordination/support with vCISO

• Overseeing/main point of contact for outside vender for 24x7x365 SOC services for severity 1 and 2 incidents/events as identified by contracted SOC.

• Actively perform regular vulnerability scans using Tenable Nessus Scanner and MS

Defender Vulnerability Management system.

• In addition to managing the MS Defender for Endpoint and MS Defender Vulnerability

Management systems, the provider/staff also will need to act upon security consultant and

SOC recommendations to enact changes in the MS Defender XDR suite of products, including items such as user conditional access policies, MS Sentinel review and be the primary interface for our SOC vendor and their ticketing system.

• Manage the content filtering infrastructure and agents for LightSpeed or alternates.

• Must work with and train internal BPS security support staff as well as vendors to achieve best practices in risk assessment and testing.

3.4 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

The “Vendor” is responsible for providing continuous IT operations, ensuring availability and operations in failure situations.

• Validate replication and failover per District Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plan.

• Conduct annual failover tests and submit reports.

• Maintain 99.9999 % availability.

3.5 Enterprise Device and Application Management

The "Vendor” shall assume full operational responsibility for the lifecycle management, configuration, security, and support of all District-owned endpoint devices and associated applications. This includes, but is not limited to:

3.5.1 MDM Platform Administration:

• Manage, configure, troubleshoot, and maintain the Microsoft Intune (or other equivalent software) environment for managing Windows devices (laptops, desktops, interactive flat panels).

• Manage, configure, troubleshoot, and maintain the Jamf/Jamf Pro (or other equivalent software) environment for managing macOS and iPadOS devices.

• Administer Azure Active Directory (Entra ID) device objects and groups (static and dynamic) used for targeting MDM policies, configurations, and application deployments.

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• Manage the deployment, configuration, and health monitoring of the Senturo agent (or other equivalent software) for asset security and tracking.

• Perform regular audits and cleanup of device inventories across all MDM platforms to ensure accuracy and remove stale or retired assets, working closely with field device deployment team and Incident IQ inventory management system.

• Manage device and user-based licensing assignments related to endpoint management and security (e.g., Microsoft A3/A5, Intune Suite components, etc.).

• If the district determines there is a need to add/transition to chrome OS management, then this will be included in future projects and staff will be expected to work with BPS on this transition at that time.

3.5.2 Device Lifecycle Management:

• Develop, maintain, optimize, and execute the modern provisioning process for Windows devices using Windows Autopilot (or other equivalent software), including driver management, Enrollment Status Page (ESP) configuration, and application pre-provisioning.

• Create, maintain, and update deployment media (e.g., USB-based Full Flash Updates - FFU, recovery images) and methods for efficient device imaging, re-imaging, and break/fix scenarios, coordinating closely with the District's device preparation vendor.

• Develop, deploy, and manage specialized configuration profiles for various use cases, including shared/cart devices, single-app and multi-app Kiosk modes, lab environments, and accessibility configurations.

• Manage and enforce BIOS/UEFI password policies and settings via MDM scripts and configuration profiles.

3.5.3 Application Lifecycle Management:

• Package, test, deploy, update, and troubleshoot a wide range of applications (including

Microsoft 365 Apps, Adobe Creative Cloud, Autodesk suite, curriculum software, browsers, utilities) using Intune (Win32, MSIX, Store apps) and Jamf Pro (PKG, scripts, App Store).

• Manage application availability and deployment strategies through the Intune Company

Portal and Jamf Self Service (or other equivalent software).

• Implement and manage OS update policies for Windows (e.g., Windows Autopatch, Update

Rings), macOS, and iPadOS, ensuring timely patching and minimal disruption.

• Manage the patching and updating lifecycle for third-party applications deployed via MDM.

• Develop and implement application control policies using AppLocker and/or Windows

Defender Application Control (WDAC) (or other equivalent software) to prevent unauthorized software execution, including proactive identification and blocking of unapproved

VPNs, proxy tools, browsers, and other applications violating District policy.

3.5.4 Endpoint Security Configuration & Management:

• Configure, deploy, and manage endpoint security settings via Intune and Jamf, including

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and MS Defender Endpoint Vulnerability Management

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(or other equivalent software) policies (Antivirus, Attack Surface Reduction, Endpoint Detection

& Response, etc.).

• Manage and ensure compliance with full-disk encryption policies (BitLocker for Windows, FileVault for macOS).

• Deploy and manage the Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) (or other equivalent software) for Windows endpoints.

• Implement and enforce policies to restrict end-user local administrative privileges.

• Ensure endpoints meet compliance requirements for Conditional Access policies.

• Deploy and manage configurations for other security agents as required by the District's security partners (e.g., BlueVoyant, Senturo, or other equivalent software).

• Remediate endpoint-specific vulnerabilities identified through internal scans or third-party assessments (e.g., DeepSeas, BlueVoyant) by deploying patches, configuration changes, or remediation scripts.

3.5.5 Automation, Reporting & Support Integration:

• Develop and maintain PowerShell scripts and other automation tools to streamline endpoint management tasks, reporting, and remediation actions.

• Provide regular reports on device compliance, patch status, application deployment success rates, and endpoint security posture.

• Efficiently manage, open, reassign, update, and close service tickets using the TeamDynamix

(TDX) system or equivalent ticketing platform, acting as an escalation point for the BPS Help

Desk

3.6 Vendor/BPS Collaboration

• Demonstrate strong teamwork skills and the ability to work collaboratively with IT Help Desk supervisor, Help Desk, Operations staff, and technical teams.

• Act as a team player who communicates effectively, shares knowledge, and supports a positive and professional work environment.

• Act as a team player who communicates effectively, shares knowledge, and supports a positive and professional work environment.

• Take directions constructively from senior IT staff and management while providing consistent follow-up and feedback on assigned tasks.

• Prioritize, track, and resolve support requests.

• Follow up and communicate with users directly via ticket, phone, email.

• Ensure accurate documentation of troubleshooting steps, resolutions, and follow-up actions within the ticketing system. Create KB articles for users, Help Desk, or field technicians when applicable.

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3.7 Governance & Oversite, Transition & Knowledge Transfer from Current Provider

• Have a primary liaison to BPS who manages the contracted staffing, oversees SLA compliance, reporting, change control, and executive reviews.

• Maintains documentation, DR testing logs, SLA reports, and asset inventory using Incident IQ.

• Document a Service Entry plan including the transition from existing provider

• Develop and execute a structured knowledge transfer plan.

• Coordinates hand-off from incumbent provider, documentation migration, and cutover readiness.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

The district has an IT risk evaluation process, so vendors of District with access to certain types of information may be required to participate in assessments to discover the associated risk of doing business with your company. Results from this assessment may lead to the disqualification of certain vendors, or they may result in the development of requirements that will need to be addressed in the final agreement.

By responding to this RFP, you are acknowledging that you will participate in the IT risk evaluation process as needed.

Optional Site Visit

Vendors may request an optional site visit to review network facilities and data-center environments.Requests must be submitted in writing to the Technical Contact no later than ten (10) business days prior to the proposal submission deadline.

BPS may schedule group tours at its discretion.

IT Staff/Service Expectations

In general, staff will be expected to provide coverage and labor during normal district operational hours. Normal district operations are daily Monday through Friday, 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM x 12 months of the year regardless of school calendar breaks. “Vendor” staff is required to perform operations or remediations during weekly off-hour maintenance windows, typically Thursdays after 9:00 PM, during school breaks and most holidays even when the district is fully closed for BPS staff. Additionally, the start of school in early September is a critical time for IT operations, so all "vendor” staff are expected to be at work for the last week of August and the first 3 weeks of September of any year. This means no Paid Time Off (PTO) will be approved during that period, except in extreme situations. As certain IT infrastructure is essential for school operations, contracted staff will be required to work as necessary to remediate/resume critical services and/or be on call for critical security incidents 24x7x365.

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Staff billing shall be on a monthly basis, at a monthly rate based on the annual rate given in the response (annual divided by 12 months). Partial monthly billing (ie. at startup or new placement) will be at a weekly rate based on the annual rate given in the response (annual divided by 52 weeks). The SLA for staffing will be a service credit of one (1) week for every week or partial week that a previously onboarded person is unavailable to BPS for more than 4 weeks for reasons other than approved PTO, such as, but not limited to resignation or long-term medical leave of absence. It is expected that billing for a particular staff position will not start until the employee’s first day dedicated to BPS.

It is the District’s intention to staff each position for a complete year; renewal determined on an annual basis. Staffing performance will be determined by BPS, and staffing will be “at will” per BPS direction.

In the performance of expected duties, staffing should

• P1 – Critical Impact: System-wide outage or major network segmentation risk affecting district-wide operations. Expected response within 30 minutes. Target resolution or workaround within 2 hours. Root-cause analysis required within 24 hours.

• P2 – High Impact: Major service degradation or security vulnerability with high operational risk. Expected response within 1 hour. Target resolution within 4 hours. Weekly trending report required.

• P3 – Moderate Impact: Localized outage or performance degradation affecting limited users or devices. Expected response within 2 hours. Target resolution within 8 hours.

• P4 – Routine/Request: Scheduled task, documentation update, or standard service request. Expected response within 4 hours. Completion within 1 business day.

• P5 – Planning / Project Work: Design, planning, or scheduled change implementation.

Resolution determined by agreed project milestones.

Submission Components Each proposal must include the following, presented in the order shown below with categories listed coordinating with responses as such:

Vendors shall provide a comprehensive staffing proposal that clearly demonstrates their ability to supply and retain qualified technical professionals who meet or exceed the requirements outlined in this RFP and Appendix G.

Because Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) retains ownership of all processes, tools (hardware, software, licenses), vendor relationships, and governance, vendor submissions must focus on personnel quality, recruitment capability, and commitment to continuity of service rather than managed-process methodologies.

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1. Executive Summary & Company Profile

Brief history, ownership, and organizational structure and your company's capabilities and unique skills for handling services defined in this RFP for large accounts.

Describe your customer service methodology as far as account management, client satisfaction, long term relationship building, giving-back or in-kind services to the client/community, overall customer appreciation.

Describe how your company measures quality and what metrics will be used to measure quality for the services supplied to District under this RFP.

does your company provide internal training to augmented staff to keep apprised of new IT standards or out of band technical experience?

Primary business focus (IT staffing, K-12 experience, etc.).

How many consecutive years has your company been providing the services defined in this RFP?

Is your company the subject of pending or current litigation? If so, describe all.

Provide your company's financial data (income statement, balance sheets).

What percentage will District represent of your overall revenue, based on the scope and dollar amount of this project?

List your projected growth rate for the current year and following year.

Provide your current customer retention percentage rate for your IT service customers.

Do you have at least 50% of the requested qualified staff currently available for the District as of July 1 2025?

Office location(s) or local ability in supporting Buffalo, NY.

Identification of the account manager and HR/staffing lead who will support BPS.

2. Staffing Plan and Candidate Qualifications

A completed Appendix G – Staffing Matrix showing approximate annual salary ranges for each required role.

For each role type, provide either:

a. a named candidate (resume + certifications), or

b. a representative sample resume showing a typical candidate who meets the stated qualifications.

Each resume must list education, years of experience, prior employers or placements, and all current certifications.

Describe how each role aligns to the BPS functional areas (Network, Server & Infrastructure, Endpoint & MDM, Security & Compliance, etc.).

3. Recruitment, Screening, and Retention Plan

Explain sourcing channels, screening and technical interview process, background-check procedure, and average time-to-fill.

Describe retention strategies, training or certification maintenance programs, and escalation plans if a staff member departs.

Confirm the ability to provide replacement staff within four (4) weeks at no additional cost.

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4. Transition & Onboarding Plan

Describe how vendor will coordinate with the incumbent provider during May–June 2026.

Include proposed onboarding, security clearance, and orientation timeline.

5. References and Past Performance

Provide three (3) references from K-12, higher-education, or public-sector clients of similar scale.

Each reference shall include contact name, title, organization, phone, email, number of staff provided, and duration of engagement.

6. Staff Guarantee & Service Commitment

Confirm that all assigned personnel will remain under continuous engagement unless replaced with BPS-approved equals or betters.

All individuals assigned to this contract must submit to background checks at the employer’s expense and may only perform service upon successful clearance.

Detail any warranty, probation, or performance guarantee period offered for new placements.

Vendor must sign Data Privacy Agreements for access to student information as per NYS ed-Law IID.

3) EVALUATION PROCEDURES

a. Review of Responses

Responses will be evaluated by a cross functional team consisting of subject matter experts and a Purchasing representative.

b. Respondent’s Presentations

Respondents may be required to present once, at the District’s discretion, which will include a question and answer session with the evaluation team. Questions and specific requests to be addressed during the presentation will be forwarded to the respondents.

c. Evaluation Criteria

Responses will be evaluated on a 100 point scale as defined in the table below. Cost will be calculated proportionally compared to lowest cost response. Minimum non-cost score is 60/75.

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Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated using the criteria below to determine the vendor that offers the best overall value to Buffalo Public Schools (BPS).Because this solicitation is for staff augmentation over a traditional managed services model, evaluations will focus on the quality, stability, and cost of personnel rather than on the vendor’s internal processes or toolsets.

All proposals will be reviewed by a multi-department evaluation committee consisting of representatives from the BPS IT Department, Purchasing Office, and other designated staff.

Evaluation Categories (100 Points Total)

Category Weight Evaluation Focus

Cost Proposal Points

Evaluation of Appendix G pricing for each position, including annual and five-year totals. Considers overall competitiveness, rate structure, and reasonableness relative to market averages.

Qualifications of Proposed Staff

Points

Review of resumes and certifications provided. Considers education, relevant technical experience, and credentials listed as required in Appendix G (e.g., NSE 5-7, VCP, ACMP, MCSE, etc.).

References / Past Performance

Points

Assessment of the vendor’s track record with K-12 or comparable public-sector clients. Scored on quality of service, reliability of staff supplied, and client satisfaction feedback.

Cultural Fit & Presentation Performance

Points

During finalist interviews, assessment of communication, professionalism, and cultural alignment of proposed account manager and key personnel and % of staff located in Buffalo. Incorporates value-added contributions to the culture/communities.

Onboarding, Recruitment & Retention Plan

Points

Evaluation of sourcing strategy, screening rigor, background-check procedures, average time-to-fill, staff turnover rates, and certification maintenance practices.

Total = 100 Points

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Scoring Methodology

• Each evaluator will independently score proposals based on the criteria above.

• Scores will be normalized and averaged to produce a final ranking.

• The committee may conduct interviews with top-ranked vendors to validate staff quality and cultural fit before final scoring.

• References may be verified at any stage; poor or unverifiable references may reduce the overall score.

• BPS reserves the right to negotiate rates or staffing configurations with the highest-scoring proposer before award.

Award Basis

The contract will be awarded to the vendor whose proposal achieves the highest combined technical and cost score and is determined to be in the best interest of Buffalo Public Schools.

BPS reserves the right to:

• Reject any or all proposals,

• Request additional information,

• Conduct site visits or interviews, and

• Award in whole or in part as deemed most advantageous.

Disqualifications

• Proposals may be deemed non-responsive if they:

• Omit required resumes or certifications

• Omits answers to all required questions.

• Fail to provide three (3) verifiable references, or

• Present managed-service process documentation without clearly addressing staffing capability.

Pricing Proposal (Appendix G only) – submitted in a separate sealed envelope clearly labeled “Appendix G – Pricing Proposal Form.” Must include costs per staff title as well as final costs. An additional line will be added to final costs of up to 10% for any annual contingencies that may arise for additional staffing requests/projects.

d. Final Selection The Board of Education and its representatives will select a firm based upon the recommendations of the evaluation team. It is anticipated that a firm will be selected by the date listed in the offering summary. Following notification of the firm selected, it is expected that a contract will be executed between both parties. The selected firm must be prepared to begin work upon execution of the BPS contract. The contract will not necessarily be awarded to the response with the lowest cost projection.