Engineering Consultant Services

Orleans Parish School Board is requesting qualifications for engineering consultant services to establish a pool of qualified firms for capital projects at OPSB-owned school properties, with statements of qualifications due August 27, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. CDT. A DBE participation goal of 35 percent of design fees applies.

The scope encompasses professional design services for replacement of critical building systems and components, and potential renovation and additions to existing schools. Work may include historic buildings constructed before 1968 in New Orleans, requiring compliance with the Secretary of Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Selected firms will provide existing conditions assessments, programming, project scoping, cost estimation, project design, bidding, construction administration, and project close-out. Firms must be capable of assembling sub-consultant teams including architects, environmental engineers, civil/site engineers, structural engineers, MEP engineers, kitchen consultants, acoustical consultants, LEED consultants, energy modelers, theatre consultants, landscape architects, surveyors, and roof consultants as required.

The contract term is three years with two optional one-year renewal periods, not to exceed five years total. Funding comes from the School Facilities Preservation Program, utilizing dedicated property tax revenue and redirected local sales tax. OPSB oversees 66 public schools and does not guarantee awards of specific projects to selected firms, reserving the right to reject all responses or select multiple firms for the pool.

Evaluation is conducted on a qualifications-based selection process with maximum 100 points across nine criteria: professional qualifications of the firm (20 points), assigned key personnel qualifications and availability (10 points), sub-consultant qualifications and experience (15 points), recent firm experience with K-12 school projects (20 points), office location (5 points), responsiveness to problems (5 points), ability to meet schedules and budgets (5 points), current workload capacity (5 points), and DBE participation (15 points).

All firms must be registered in Louisiana, maintain professional liability insurance scaled to project construction costs ranging from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000, and comply with 2 CFR 200 (EDGAR) when utilizing federal grant funds. A virtual pre-qualifications meeting was held August 13. Written questions were due August 18, with final addendum issued August 20. The evaluation committee meeting is anticipated for September 3, 2026, with award notification and contract execution dates to be determined.