The Mississippi Public Procurement Review Board voted Wednesday to provide a waiver for six new contracts for the Mississippi Department of Education
The agency wants to use a request for procurement process for $25.3 million in contracts rather than the standard invitation for sealed bids. The MDE it needs to be able to openly compare the bidders because it must compare their personnel, capabilities and technical abilities.
The first contract would be $300,000 for virtual training with instructors and coaching for staff on the project management methodologies Agile and Scrum, which are used in software development.
The next contract exemption for MDE approved by the board was a $6.249 million contract to provide English Language Arts tutoring or small-group instruction for students in kindergarten through the second grade. This is aimed at closing gaps from the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is also a similar contract waiver, with the same amount for mathematics in kindergarten through second grade that was also approved. Two other exemptions that were passed by the board are worth $6.249 million for ELA tutoring services and mathematics for students in third through 12th grades.
These contracts would be for a four month, 11-day term, with two options for one-year renewals.
The board unanimously approved another one-year extension on MDE’s contract with the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. The renewal is worth more than $238,000 and the extension will make the contract ultimately worth $1.175 million. This would be the third extension granted for MDE as the original contract had four one-year contract options for renewal.
In other board moves, they approved:
The renewal of a more than $437,000 lease from the Mattiace Office Company for the Secretary of State’s office in Jackson.
A request from the Mississippi Department of Emergency Management for an RFP process for a $7 million contract to aid in securing federal grants and complying with federal regulations governing their use.
The board next meeting will be on December 1.
