Hillsborough County Public Schools Information and Technology
Action Item

DATE: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
TO: School Board Members
FROM: MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent

SUBJECT / RECOMMENDATIONS

Approve the Consulting Services Agreement with Convergence Consulting Group for Development of the Data Management System Required to Support the District’s Federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) Grant (Information and Technology Division)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant, totaling $15,402,538 over five years, focuses on providing teachers and principals serving in high-need schools with differentiated levels of compensation based primarily on student achievement gains at the school and classroom levels. To attain this required project goal and ensure data accuracy, it is necessary for the District to design and construct an integrated data-management system to support the differentiated compensation system. The cost of this project as described on the attached agreement is $348,120. During the development phase of the grant application, it was determined that the use of consultants rather than existing Information Technology staff would best meet this objective. To that end we pursued consulting firms who were both certified with Business Objects software, the software chosen as most appropriate for the development of the TIF data management system, and employed sufficient experienced staff to serve as the single source of consultants to work on this project. In order to ensure that the consultants selected met these criteria, we requested Business Objects to provide the District with company names and contacts of their best certified business partners as a short list of firms we would solicit for submitting proposals. As a result, no Request For Proposal or Bid process was used. An overview of the system requirements was presented on October 25, 2007, with three of four firms present. Working to get a qualified consulting firm on site, proposals were due on November 8, 2007; all four firms responded. A committee reviewed and ranked the firms on several criteria. This resulted in a final decision and notification to all participants on November 15, 2007, of the selection of Convergence as the best qualified company. They were selected over the other firms based on factors including the development of a clear proposal, customer references relative to the requirement, experience, and estimated costs. The attached Consulting Agreement and Scope of Work (SOW) documents have been reviewed by the School Board attorney.

ANNUAL DISTRICT GOAL(S) AND CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S)

This recommendation meets Division Key Objective Areas of Data Accuracy and Financial Performance in support of the District Plan of Work.

FINANCIAL IMPACT (Budgeted: Yes)

Funding for this project is provided by the federal TIF grant award. Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) is the grant’s fiscal agent and project funds reside with the District. The total grant for five years is $15,402,538. This agreement represents $348,120 for consulting services included in Year One of the grant.

EVALUATION

Under the terms of the grant, a third party evaluator evaluates all aspects of the HCPS project, with oversight from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant Technical Assistance team. Copies of the grant’s Quarterly Reports, Annual Reports and Final Evaluation will be provided to the District’s Office of Assessment and Accountability. The anticipated date for the first Annual Report is September 30, 2008.

SUBMITTED BY: Daniel Schultz, Applications Manager

Jack E. Davis
Chief Information and Technology Officer
(813) 272-4600
Gretchen Saunders
Chief Business Officer
(813) 272-4270
A 5.07
Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20071211_271 * Section A Item# 5.07