Request for AE Qualifications for Onslow County Elementary School Project 2025.pdf

Page 1 of 7 August 13, 2025

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

FOR ARCHITECTURAL SERVICES

ONSLOW COUNTY SCHOOLS

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Background: Onslow County and the Onslow Board of Education have established a Joint Education Funding Policy that has identified several construction projects to be completed over the next ten years. One of the projects to be completed is the construction of an 800 plus student elementary school (grades K-5) at a location to be determined. Onslow County Board of Education is looking at using a prototypical school design to expedite the construction of the school and reduce overall costs associated with the design of the project. It is anticipated that the new school will be operational at the beginning of the 2028-2029 school year. It should be noted that the new elementary school is the only project that may be awarded as part of this RFQ.

Onslow County Schools Operations & Facilities Administration is seeking qualified architectural firms to provide services from schematic design through construction administration for the construction of one elementary school housing 800 plus students at a location to be determined. Due to the needs of the community, the school system will be considering prototypical designs to reduce costs and expedite the delivery of the project. This project is contingent upon funding being made available from the Onslow County Local Government. Onslow County School System requires the services of an architectural firm which includes schematic design through construction administration for the construction of one new elementary school to accommodate continued growth within Onslow County School district.

Name of Project: Onslow County Schools Construction Project 2025-002

Description: The Onslow County School System hereby solicits and is inviting interested and qualified architectural firms (vendors) to submit the following:

Letters of interest Form SF254s Prototypical floor plans to accommodate 800 plus elementary grade students based on the following class sizes: Kindergarten 18 students per classroom, 1st grade 16 students per classroom, 2nd/3rd grade 18 students per classroom, 4th/5th grade 26 students per classroom. Enhanced classrooms, Exceptional Children, and all other spaces will be in accordance with NCDPI Elementary School PK-5 Typical Space Profiles located on NCDPI Prototype School Design website School Planning | NC DPI

Project and Designer Information Data sheet. A form for the information required can be found at sf254-word | NC DOA

Any statements of qualifications as they wish to provide for professional architectural/engineering services.

Please Note: Vendors submitting RFQ packages to be reviewed and have a prototype design registered with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction School Prototype School Design website, Prototype Designs | NC DPI may reference their design published on the website instead of providing a Floor Plan and/or a Project and Designer Information Data Sheet. However, all interested parties must submit the floor plan and Project and Designer Information Data sheet if their prototype has not been submitted to the School Prototype School Design website.

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Submittals shall only be from architectural firms licensed to practice architectural services in North Carolina and experienced in the construction of school facilities.

The services solicited by this Request for Qualification (RFQ) will include only those basic and specialty professional services as outlined in the scope of services.

1. GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1.1 Submittals: Submit two (2) sealed copies, marked “Architectural Services for the Onslow County Schools Construction Project 2025-002”. Submittals will be received no later than 5:00 PM EST, on August 27, 2025 at Onslow County Schools Operations & Facilities Administration Offices, 200 Broadhurst Road, Jacksonville, NC.

1.2 Proposals will not be accepted via fax machine or Internet E-mail.

1.3 Time is of the essence and any proposal or addenda pertaining thereto received after the announced time and date for submittal, whether by mail or otherwise, will be rejected. It is the sole responsibility of the offeror for ensuring that the Operations & Facilities Administration personnel receive their documents before the deadline indicated above in Section 1.1. There is nothing in this RFQ that precludes the System from requesting additional information at any time during the procurement process from any offeror.

1.4 Nothing herein is intended to exclude any responsibilities or in any way restrain or restrict competition. On the contrary, all responsible firms/individuals are encouraged to submit proposals. The System reserves the right to waive any formalities, to reject any and/or all proposals, and to accept any proposal, which in its opinion may be in the best interest of the System.

1.5 Any proposal submitted MUST include the signature sheet that has been signed by an individual authorized to bind the offeror. All proposals submitted without such signature may be deemed non-responsive.

1.6 RFQ Process: Offerors are to submit written proposals that present the offeror’s qualifications and understanding of the work to be performed. The offeror’s proposal should be prepared simply and economically and should provide all the information that it considers pertinent to its qualifications for the project and which respond to the Scope of Services and Evaluation Criteria contained herein. Emphasis should be placed on completeness of services offered and clarity of content. The response should be limited to a maximum of thirty (35) pages, not including the Form SF254, or the Proposer’s Certification Form.

1.7 Propriety Information: Trade secrets or proprietary information submitted by a firm, offeror, or contractor in connection with a procurement transaction shall not be subject to the public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the firm, offeror, or contractor must invoke the protection of this section prior to or upon submission of the data or other materials and must identify the data on other materials to be protected and state the reasons why protection is necessary.

1.8 Minority Offerors: The Onslow County School System encourages all businesses, including minority and women owned businesses to respond to all RFQ’s if not already on the System’s

Page 3 of 7 August 13, 2025 mailing list, to request application for inclusion on the list. Should you be interested, please contact the Onslow County School System’s Operations & Facilities Administration.

1.9 Incurring Cost: The Onslow County School System is not liable for any cost incurred prior to the execution of the contract.

1.10 Termination: It shall be the sole right of the System to terminate any contract arising out of this Request for Qualifications upon a thirty (30) day written notice to the offeror(s).

1.11 Insurance: The offerors shall purchase and maintain in force, at his own expense, such insurance as will protect him and the school system, to include professional liability (E&O), from claims which may arise out of or result from the vendor’s execution of the work, whether such execution be by himself, his employees, agents, subcontractors, or by anyone for whose acts any of them may be liable. The insurance coverage shall be such as to fully protect the Owner, and the general public from any and all claims for injury and damage resulting by any actions on the part of the vendor or his forces as enumerated above.

1.12 At such time as the school system enters into contract negotiations the following applies:

Onslow County Schools Operations & Facilities Administration will negotiate a contract price for the Scope of Services to be performed. The contract shall be for either a lump sum amount which would include discrete costs for schematic design and design development, or a percentage of the bid price for all items designed. The owner’s preference for accounting purposes is for a lump sum fee inclusive of all reimbursable expenses. This would provide the Onslow County School System the flexibility to begin the design work, (schematic design and design development) as funding is made available. Necessary modifications to the project would result in corresponding negotiated modifications to the fee.

1.13 Interested parties are advised that the payment terms for services rendered are Net 30 days from the date on which the invoice is received from the vendor(s). Every reasonable effort shall be made by the Onslow County School System to expedite this process.

1.14 Such terms as vendor, firm, and offeror are used interchangeably in this document.

1.15 Interested offerors are advised that construction management services to some extent, may or may not be independently obtained within one or more phases of the project(s).

2.0 SCOPE OF SERVICES

The general scope of architectural services includes:

Programming

The architectural firm shall complete programming for the project using data from the school system “2021 Long Range Facility Needs Assessment”, Onslow County Schools Capacity Charts, current state mandated class size requirements, the architectural firms typical space profiles for the prototype submitted, and interviews with school system personnel. When programming each space, special attention shall be paid to ensure that facilities are functional, yet economical to construct and maintain. Items which do not add value to the function of the instructional environment should be eliminated. The Onslow County community is

Page 4 of 7 August 13, 2025 facing a period of unprecedented population growth. Therefore, all efforts shall be directed toward maximizing the square footage to be constructed.

Standard Architectural Design Services

All architectural services from schematic design through construction administration should be provided.

The owner reserves the right to modify the scope of work through negotiations with the successful firm(s).

PROJECT SCHEDULE

All proposals must be received by the date and time indicated in this RFQ. A notice of contract award is anticipated by the beginning of September 2025. The detailed scope of work and schedule of deliverables shall be negotiated with the successful firm. The final target period for completion of the project is on or before May 2028, allowing for occupancy in the beginning of the 2028-2029 school year. Rapid completion of the project is desirable due to projected student population increases.

3.0 EVALUATION CRITERIA

These criteria are to be utilized in the evaluation of qualifications for development of firm(s) to be considered for interviews and/or potential negotiations. Individual criteria may, in all probability, be assigned varying weights at the school system’s discretion to reflect relative importance. Firms are required to address each evaluation criteria in the order listed and to be specific in presenting their qualifications.

1. Specific experience in the design and construction of public school facilities including local and state permitting processes

2. Capacity to take on large scale school construction project(s)

3. Experience providing detail budget projections

4. Specific experience using prototypes to reduce costs and expedite construction

5. Prototype review

i. Floor Plan

ii. Prototype Design & Information Form

iii. Typical Space Profile Form

6. Construction Management capabilities such as:

i. Demonstrated ability to work with local and state permitting authorities

ii. Demonstrated systematic approach to quality assurance

iii. Demonstrated ability to deliver projects on schedule

iv. Demonstrated ability to work alongside school staff during design and construction phases

4.0 SELECTION PROCEDURE:

A committee shall review and critique all responses. The System may engage in individual discussions with one or more offerors deemed fully qualified, responsible, and suitable on the basis of initial responses and with emphasis on professional competence, to provide the required services. Informal interviews may be permissible. Such offerors shall be encouraged to elaborate on their qualifications and performance data or staff expertise pertinent to the proposed project, as well as alternative concepts.

At the discussion stage, the System may discuss non-binding estimates of total project costs.

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Proprietary information from competing offerors shall not be disclosed to the public or to competitors. At the conclusion of discussion, outlined in this RFQ above, on the basis of evaluation factors published in the RFQ and all information developed in the selection process to this point, the System shall select in the order of preference one or more offerors whose professional qualifications and proposed services are deemed most qualified and responsible.

Negotiations shall then be conducted for the project. If a contract satisfactory and advantageous to the System can be negotiated at a price considered fair and reasonable, the award may be made to that offeror by the Onslow County Board of Education. Otherwise, negotiations with the offeror ranked first shall become formally terminated and negotiations conducted with the offeror ranked second and so on until such a contract can be negotiated at a fair and reasonable price. Should the System determine and in its sole discretion that only one offeror is fully qualified, or that one offeror is clearly more highly qualified and suitable than the others under consideration, a contract may be negotiated and awarded to that offeror.

5.0 MINIMUM RESPONSES

All responses to this Request for Qualifications shall include the following minimum information.

A. Firm name, address, telephone, fax number and e-mail address.

B. Year established and former firm names C. Listing of all architects within the firm licensed in North Carolina to perform architectural services D. Listing of personnel to be assigned at each phase of the project(s) E. Related projects or areas of expertise on which the firm has performed work or had experience:

Include projects where architectural services relating to design and construction work were performed

Include projects that were completed within Onslow County, North Carolina F. Proposer’s Certification Form (copy attached) G. A list of a minimum of five (5) references.

H. Prototype design information for an 800 plus student elementary school including:

1. Floor plan(s)

2. Project and Designer Information (form included in the RFQ)

3. Typical Space Profile comparison based on NCDPI Elementary School PK-5 guidelines

(form included in the RFQ) I. You are invited to include a maximum of two (2) pages of information not covered above which you feel may be useful and applicable to the project(s).

6.0 BASIS FOR SELECTION

Information gathered during interviews, negotiations and reference checks, will be considered along with the evaluation stated in the RFQ. Any other information or factors deemed relevant by the System can also be considered in the final selection of a firm.

7.0 CONTACT POLICY

After the date and time established for receipt of proposals by the System, any contact initiated by any offeror with any System representatives, other than the Chief of Operations listed herein, concerning

Page 6 of 7 August 13, 2025 this request for proposals is prohibited. Any such unauthorized contact may cause the disqualification of the offeror from this procurement transaction.

8.0 FURTHER INFORMATION

Any question concerning this RFQ may be directed to Dr. Brendan Gartner at (910)455-2211, ext.

71500, Fax: (910)989-2130 or by e-mail brendan.gartner@onslow.k12.nc.us

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PROPOSERS CERTIFICATION FORM

I have carefully examined the Request for Qualifications, proposed agreement and any other documents accompanying or made a part of this Request for Qualification.

I hereby propose to furnish the goods or services specified in the Request for Qualification. I agree that my proposal will remain firm a period of up to 90 days in order to allow the System adequate time to evaluate the proposals.

I certify that all information contained in this proposal is truthful to the best of my knowledge and belief. I further certify that I am duly authorized to submit this proposal on behalf of the firm as its act and deed and that the firm is ready, willing and able to perform if awarded the contract.

I further certify, under oath, that this proposal is made without prior understanding, agreement, connection, discussion, or collusion with any other person, firm or corporation submitting a proposal for the same product or service; and with no agreement with an officer, employee or agent of the Onslow County School System or any other person interested in said proposal; and that the undersigned executed this Proposer’s Certification with full knowledge and understanding of the matters therein contained and was duly authorized to do so.

NAME OF FIRM

BY:

Sworn to and subscribed before me

_______________________________________ This ______day of __________________, _____

SIGNATURE

NAME & TITLE, TYPED OR PRINTED Notary Public

_______________________________________ State of ________________________________

MAILING ADDRESS

My Commissioner Expires: ________________

CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE+4

TELEPHONE NUMBER

FAX NUMBER