2026-2027 preschool classroom kits & movement materials

School District U-46, located in Illinois's northwest suburbs across Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties, is soliciting competitive bids for Preschool Classroom Supply Kits and Preschool Movement Materials to serve nine preschool buildings within the district. The procurement encompasses two primary deliverables: organized preschool classroom supply kits provided per classroom (71 complete kits) containing comprehensive art, writing, and classroom materials such as pencils, erasers, crayons, markers, glue sticks, watercolor paints, tempera paint sticks, modeling dough, therapy sand, kinetic sand, storage bags, drawing paper, cardstock, chart paper pads, paper towels, and baby wipes with specified preferred manufacturers including Crayola, Elmer's, Expo, Do-A-Dot, Kwik Stix, Play-Doh, Sandtastik, and Kinetic; and preschool movement materials for gross motor activities including athletic equipment such as school trikes, balance beams, playground balls, soccer equipment, exercise-related materials, play food baskets, construction vehicles, binoculars, bean bags, building blocks, paint, activity scarves, play dishes, and gardening tools. All orders must be delivered to the District's Distribution Center at 1474 Sheldon Dr., Elgin, IL 60120 by Thursday, July 2, 2026. Vendor questions must be submitted by March 16, 2026 at 10:00 AM CST with district responses issued by March 18, 2026; all bid submissions are due March 20, 2026 at 10:00 AM CST through the Euna Procurement system with virtual bid opening conducted via Zoom on the same date. The Preschool Classroom Supply Kits contract term is three years (2026-2027, 2027-2028, and 2028-2029) with potential for up to two additional one-year extensions by mutual agreement, while Preschool Movement Materials represents a one-time purchase with a one-year term and no automatic renewal. Successful bidders must furnish three references with similar projects, provide acknowledgement of any litigation, meet specific insurance requirements including Commercial General Liability ($1,000,000 per occurrence), Business Automobile Liability ($1,000,000 per occurrence), Workers Compensation ($500,000), and Umbrella Liability ($10,000,000), confirm ability to furnish items meeting exact make and model specifications, provide free returns for damaged or non-conforming products, submit itemized packing lists with purchase order numbers, acknowledge orders within 48 business hours, and coordinate with district warehouse staff prior to delivery. Award will be made to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder on an item-by-item basis to a sole provider or multiple providers at the district's discretion, with Board of Education review scheduled for April 13, 2026 and anticipated approval by April 27, 2026.

School District U-46 welcomes participation from minority-owned and women-owned businesses and values diversity in the bidding process, though no specific set-aside designations or restrictions on organizational types are identified in the procurement documents. Bidders may submit bids for individual base bids without bidding on all offerings; however, the District will not consider partial bids and requires all base bid items to be submitted in full to be deemed responsive, with the option to award the contract in whole or in part at the district's discretion. Pricing must be all-inclusive with delivery, freight, packaging, and handling costs included in the bid total, exclusive of taxes as school districts are tax-exempt, though no specific budget range or award value is disclosed in the solicitation documents. All bid submissions must be uploaded exclusively to the Euna Procurement portal with no alternative formats accepted, and contractors are required to sign and return the completed addendum as part of the bid submittal package with failure to do so resulting in potential disqualification. The District reserves the right to return nonconforming merchandise or reject services at the supplier's expense, to terminate the contract for late delivery with thirty days' written notice, and to award the contract subject to potential price increases not exceeding the Consumer Price Index based on the most recent tax levy for contract extensions.