Communications systems (mass notification, website & mobile APP)

School District U-46, located in Illinois's northwest suburbs and serving over 34,000 students across 57 schools and programs in Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties, is soliciting proposals through a Request for Proposal for district-wide communications systems encompassing mass notification services, website content management systems, and mobile application platforms. The procurement seeks an integrated solution with three primary functional areas: a website content management system serving 56 schools and athletic sites plus district intranet; a mass notification system with multi-channel delivery and emergency alert capabilities; and a mobile application with district branding and data access features. Mandatory requirements include Active Directory/LDAPS integration with Infinite Campus, Skyward, and Google Workspace; single sign-on functionality; WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility compliance with VPAT documentation; SOPPA and FERPA compliance; mobile responsive design; automatic translation features; unlimited file storage and unlimited users; and customizable analytics dashboards. Additional required integrations include DocAccess by Streamline and Onflow (Let's Talk) for website CMS, and Smore integration for mass notifications. System reliability must achieve 99.999% uptime with multi-region redundancy, automated failover, and documented disaster recovery procedures. Vendor proposals are evaluated based on functional fit and features (25 points), pricing (25 points), reliability and infrastructure (20 points), security and privacy (15 points), and training and support (15 points). The vendor must provide comprehensive security documentation including encryption, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, and incident response procedures with 24-hour breach notification. Vendor questions are due March 2, 2026 at 11:00 AM CST with responses issued by March 5, 2026 at 11:00 AM CST; proposals must be submitted through the Euna Procurement electronic bidding portal by March 12, 2026 at 1:00 PM CST, with finalists notified by March 19, 2026, interviews scheduled as needed, Board review on May 4, 2026, and contract award on May 18, 2026.

All prospective vendors must be registered in the Euna Procurement system, and the District welcomes participation from minority-owned and women-owned businesses and enterprises with no stated set-asides or restrictions limiting bidder eligibility. Contractors must maintain commercial general liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and workers' compensation coverage of $500,000, with the district named as additional insured on a primary basis, and provide three references for evaluation. The District will retain full ownership of all data, which must be exportable in standard formats and returned or destroyed upon contract termination without additional extraction fees. Pricing must be submitted as all-inclusive bids incorporating installation and handling costs with taxes excluded due to the District's tax-exempt status, with pricing requested for one-year, three-year, and five-year contract periods. The District reserves the right to award to a sole provider or multiple providers and may request service expansion to additional schools during the contract period, which vendors may accept or decline. The RFP document does not specify funding amounts, budget ranges, or pricing terms, and the District will award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible proposer whose proposal is most advantageous to the District; contract extensions may be negotiated with increases not exceeding the Consumer Price Index based on the most recent tax levy.