LOCAL

How one company's trademarked term ended up on an official Newport Public Schools RFP

Savana Dunning
Newport Daily News

NEWPORT — City governments like Newport’s dole out millions of tax dollars each year on contracts for specialized services, and the School Department alone spends 12% of its $44.8 million budget for purchased services annually. 

It purchases these services through a bidding process designed to be competitive and open for any agency to submit proposals. That's why, when the school district’s request for proposals for “Therapeutic Services” listed the sole bidder’s trademarked service among the desired scope of services, The Daily News sought answers as to how that was possible and whether it was in line with state law.

“I absolutely try my best never to give someone a contract without adhering to state law. Never.” Newport Public Schools Finance Director Ronald Gonsalves Jr. said. “There will never be prices talked, if it’s over five grand and they’re not on the statewide (Master Purchasing Agreement) we cannot do business until an RFP is posted. Would I accept some assistance from outside vendors to give me a quote ahead of time? Sure, and then I Newport-ize what I like about quotes and modify.”

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The RFP for “Therapeutic Services” at Thompson Middle School was awarded to the sole respondent, Effective School Solutions, by the School Committee during its meeting on Sept. 13. The document that requested proposals included a long “scope of services” section, in which the School Department referenced its desire for the service provider to utilize the “Trauma-Attuned Model (TAM ™)."

That's a proprietary approach to trauma-informed education for teachers developed by Effective School Solutions itself, in its professional development section.

How does the bidding process for services work in Newport?

Rhode Island municipalities use a Request for Proposals model to purchase services over $5,000. Newport posts a listing, called an “RFP,” for the service it requires to its bid procurement website, BidNetDirect.com, and waits a certain amount of time for responses from agencies that provide those services.

Unlike when purchasing goods, which requires the city to award the bid to the lowest offer presented, Newport is allowed to choose a higher bid offer for services if the agency chosen is more qualified. 

Each department in the city writes its own RFP, which are passed along to the Finance Department to ensure the request complies with state law before it goes out to bid. Newport’s Director of Finance, Laura Sitrin, said this is because the Finance Department does not know the specific needs each department might have for the services they require.

More:Staff are being added at Thompson Middle School to address mental health. Here's why

In the School Department, the person tasked with writing these proposals is Gonsalves. But because the needs within the schools are also varied, even he cannot know what services might be best for a certain request, such as ones for services to aid with student mental health.

That’s why Gonsalves sometimes uses information from third-party vendors, like Effective School Solutions, to draw up the RFP.

“It’s often challenging to write an RFP, so we do lean on vendors that provide services in areas that we’re looking to explore and we obtain outlines for those services,” Gonsalves said. “We ‘Newport-ize’ it, though.” 

Gonsalves said the department can “Newport-ize” its RFPs by removing sections of the vendor’s outline of services that don’t align with the school district’s current need.

A scope of services section does not count as a qualifications section, but is factored into how the School Department evaluates multiple respondents to determine the best choice. Gonsalves said the caveat “or equivalent,” included throughout the scope of services section should be efficient to not bar other service providers from submitting their own proposals.

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“It wasn’t targeted for (Effective School Solutions) only. It was targeted for the needs of our district,” Gonsalves said. “We always put ‘or equivalent,’ so nothing is specific to any vendor.”

Additionally, the city’s purchasing agent, Erin Mulligan, is the point of contact for all RFPs, so Gonsalves is not directly involved in responding to submissions or questions.

Gonsalves also said the department does not reach out to the third-party companies they use as the template for their scope of services section to inform them the RFP is going out to bid.

However, if he is asked by the third party directly, he will send them the information. Effective School Solutions was not among the 11 parties who had downloaded the RFP on BidNetDirect before it closed on Aug. 3.

The Daily News reached out to several parties that had downloaded the document to inquire their reasons for not placing a bid. Only one responded to requests for comment, and said the reason the company had not submitted a response was because the request only needed one counselor.