Bus Radios

Rockwood School District (R-VI) in Missouri issued Request for Proposal 26-14203 on April 1, 2026, seeking qualified vendors to supply digital bus and portable radios, related equipment, programming, maintenance, repair services, and installation of bus radios for the District's transportation fleet serving approximately 19,000 students across the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The procurement requires approximately 150 mobile radios with 130 units for initial installation and 20 held as replacement stock, plus pricing for one new repeater and antenna for a building in the Eureka quadrant. The District operates approximately 130 buses and maintains existing infrastructure consisting of two consoles and six repeaters across multiple locations. Proposed equipment must meet FCC ultranarrowband requirements, comply with DMR Tier 2 standards, achieve 90 percent mobile coverage district-wide, and support a minimum AVL/GPS polling frequency of 90 per minute. Vendors must provide detailed unit pricing and total costs on the attached bid sheet covering mobile radios, portable radios, repeaters, dispatch consoles, transmit combiners, receiver multicouplers, antenna cable, connectors, duplexers, microphones, power supplies, and hourly rates for maintenance and installation services across three fiscal year periods: July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. Clarification questions must be submitted electronically by April 15, 2026, with proposals due by 2:00 p.m. CST on April 29, 2026. Award recommendations will be submitted to the Board of Education by May 20, 2026, with Board approval anticipated by June 4, 2026, and services commencing July 1, 2026, with the contract term extending through the manufacturer's warranty plus two optional 12-month renewal periods.

Bidders must demonstrate a minimum of five years in business, employ at least six full-time technicians with Tier 2 DMR deployment experience, maintain a fully authorized factory sales and service location within one hour of District facilities staffed by at least four factory-trained technicians, and possess an established dealer relationship with the equipment manufacturer prior to January 1, 2021. All contractors must comply with Missouri work authorization requirements and complete either E-Verify enrollment documentation or provide affidavits confirming prior E-Verify submission and current status with state agencies. The successful proposer must provide a Certificate of Insurance with comprehensive general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence, manage all FCC licensing aspects, provide training to District staff at no additional cost, and submit pricing that excludes federal excise tax, transportation tax, and state retail sales tax. The District reserves the right to split awards, make multiple awards, reject any or all proposals, and request interviews with selected proposers. No specific budget range or award value is identified in the procurement documents, though the scope encompasses equipment and services for a district-wide transportation fleet modernization over three fiscal years.