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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRes 02-01 Ratifying a Contract with Kaleidoscope Information ServicesTOWN OF WESTLAKE RESOLUTION 02-01 A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE TOWN OF WESTLAKE, TEXAS, RATIFYING A CONTRACT WITH KALEIDOSCOPE INFORMATION SERVICES, INC. CONCERNING TECHNOLOGY AND FACILITY PLANNING. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE TOWN OF WESTLAKE, TEXAS: SECTION 1: That the Board of Aldermen of the Town of Westlake, Texas, hereby ratify a contract with Kaleidoscope Information Services, Inc. concerning technology and facility planning in regard to the Westlake Academy. PASSED AND APPROVED ON THIS 14t" DAY OF JANUARY, 2002. Scott Brad cy, Mayor ATTEST: Ginge Crosswy, Town S _ retary Trent O. Petty, To ager APPROVED AS TO FORM: Kaleidoscope Information Services, Inc. November 15, 2001 Trent Petty Town of Westlake 3 Village Circle Suite 207 Solana Westlake, TX 76262. Re: Enclosed Proposal for technology consulting for the Westlake Academy and Town Hall facilities Dear Mr. Petty: It has certainly been my pleasure meeting with you and Mary Midgette to discuss the technology needs of the Town of Westlake and specifically the administration and curriculum delivery needs of the Academy. I believe I clearly understand the goals and objectives you have established for Westlake from our conversations and from the documents you have given to me for review. I share your vision that Westlake has a unique opportunity to build a town where education—both the physical school and the process—is tightly integrated with the community at large. The choice of adopting the International Baccalaureate program with its interdisciplinary approach will undoubtedly influence the architectural direction of your new facility. Technology will necessarily play a critical role in your success not only in the traditional administrative and curriculum delivery modes but also importantly as a communication medium for all citizens of Westlake as they participate in the activities of school and community life. Kaleidoscope is pleased to offer our resources to help the Town of Westlake realize timely and optimal implementation of technology to meet your objectives. For seven years, Kaleidoscope has helped schools, local governments and small businesses achieve measurable results from apl;lied technology. We have the resources to help Westlake define the technology and facility requirements necessary to ensure success of the Academy and its integration with the Westlake community. Kaleidoscope is prepared to begin work on this project immediately should the Town of Westlake elect to retain our services within the next 30 days. Stated completion timeframes are assumed to begin upon receipt of an executed copy of the proposal. I appreciate the opportunity to work with the Town of Westlake at this very exciting time in your community's history. I have discussed the defining components of the project with my associates who agree that Westlake is positioned to become an educational leader as the goals and objectives of the Academy become reality. We truly want to be a part of that process. Sincerely, Brett Barron President P© Box 224928 Dallas, Texas 75222 972-893-1547 fax 214--853-5257 Kaleidoscope Information Services, Inc. Proposal Westlake Academy Information Technology Functional Design Fall, 2001 Kaleidoscope proposes to work with Westlake to establish} educational technology goals and guidelines and to help identify current `best practices' of interdisciplinary educational facilities design prior to the architectural process. Subsequently we will draft a detailed Educational Technology Plan to define goals, guidelines and preliminary budgets. We acknowledge that on-going refinements to this plan will be necessary to adjust for advancement and changes in educational technology and to include input from the Headmaster and teachers when available. We propose work to be conducted in three phases as described below. Phase 1. Definition of H functions and information flows appropriate for the Academy and its integration with the community. (Completed within 30 days.) Kaleidoscope will examine currently available educational technologies from both curriculum and administrative perspectives to enumerate the information services and functions appropriate in the proposed educational setting. The tight integration with civic IT structures will be considered as we build a functional diagram to depict information flows. This phase of work will be preliminary in nature, as the outcome of the following phase will Likely result in a refinement of the schematic. We project 50 — 100 hours work to complete this phase. Deliverable: An educational technology funetional diagram, similar to the one provided for civic functions by Turner C.F.C. Phase 2. A Review of current hest Practices in education related to facilities designed especially for an interdisciplinary, technology focused approach with recommendations for consideration by the Town of Westlake. (Completed within 90 days) Kaleidoscope will conduct a review, as thorough as possible in the allotted time, of current best practices and pedagogical trends related to technology and physical site design taking into consideration the: Unique requirements of the International Baccalaureate directive of interdisciplinary instruction; Guiding concept of the school being a tightly integrated function of the town as a whole; and Requirements that must be met to continue to qualify the Academy as a Texas charter school. While a considerable volume of information is available regarding 1) educational technology, 2) the IB program, and 3) community centric school design as individual and separate initiatives, a comprehensive amalgam of the three paradigms will require a synthesis of available information. Kaleidoscope will examine information from a variety of sources to compile a written review of successful educational technology projects with implementation recommendations for the Westlake Academy. Traditional investigative means will be employed to gather information including the Internet, phone conferences, requesting printed materials for review from federal, state and private sector sources, as well as leveraging the expertise, experience, contact base and reference resources of the assembled consultants. Travel to existing locations where prevailing strategies have been successfully deployed is not deemed strictly necessary, but Westlake may consider sending a delegation of community members and/or Kaleidoscope consultants to a select and limited number of sites identified as offering particular insight into the directions Westlake wishes to take the Academy. Additional information may be gleaned from attending select upcoming conferences such as: Improving America's Schools conference, San Antonio, Texas, December 16-17, 2001; Texas Computer Educators Association annual conference, Austin, Texas, February 4-8, 2002; National Educational Computing Association convention, San Antonio, Texas June 17-19, 2002. Proposal: Westlake Academy Given the significant volume of available information to be reviewed, this phase is the most time consuming one. The projection is to spend between 250 and 400 hours compiling and reviewing available information and generating a document describing our recommendations for consideration by the Town of Westlake. The resulting document, and subsequent approval of recommended concepts, will become the guiding resource for the third phase of work, the Technology flan. Deliverable: A comprehensive review and recommendation document specifically tailored to the unique requirements of the Westlake Academy. Phase 3. Development ofguiding Technology Plan for Westlake Academy. (Initial draft completed within 180 days.) For over a decade, schools have constructed technology plans, typically five years in scope, to define the use of technology in education and to establish goals for the outcome of technology expenditures. Kaleidoscope will draft such a document for the Westlake Academy defining technology goals and implementation strategies for creating information flows within the school and the community at large. This document will be sufficiently detailed to describe architectural requirements. Some vendors and products may be outlined as possible solution options, but by design, the plan will be minimally detailed as to the identification of any particular computer hardware/software platform requirements to allow for technology advances in the two years that will pass before the school opens in the fall of 2003. Kaleidoscope projects 150 — 200 hours to create this document utilizing the findings of the previous two phases. Deliverable: A Five Year (2003-2008) Technology Plan describing the goals and unplementation guidelines for technology use in the Academy. In total, we project approximately 500 to 700 hours to complete the deliverables as defined. The work will be heavily weighted in November, and December of 2001 and January of 2002 in order to have defining documents prepared prior to the commencement of the architectural process. Kaleidoscope Team: Westlake Academy Each Kaleidoscope consulting project is unique, and so too are the skill and experience requirements of the consultants to be involved. Because I place a high level of importance on this project and because I have specific expertise appropriate to the project demands, I will personally be the Project Lead. I have identified three additional consultants who have unique skills and experience that will enrich -the process. Each of these individuals is ` presently available and has committed to work on this project; any necessary additions and/or substitutions to the team are the responsibility of the Project Lead. The following biographies of the proposed team members will clarify the strengths each consultant brings to this effort. Brett Barron, Project Lead Mr. Barron is a technology strategist, information systems architect, and Kaleidoscope principal. He has worked with organizations to evaluate and refine IS structures, and has led the development of automated solutions that resulted in measurable efficiency gains and significant net operational savings. His extensive knowledge of available solutions allows him to guide business, government and educational clients through the processes of technology selection, procurement and implementation. He has been responsible for the architecture and programming of over one hundred software projects and sub -projects designed for desktop, LAN or Web deployment. Many of these projects involved teams of participants and spanned years in development. Mr. Barron led a 5 -year, nation wide technology implementation initiative for a national publishing company that involved upgrading equipment in approximately 100 remote field offices, establishing WAN connectivity via the Internet, defining and producing the inforination systems infrastructure, and providing on-going implementation assistance. This project required the development of a custom database driven software platform and the configuration and administration of more than a dozen Internet based Kaleidoscope Confidential Proposal_ Westlake Academy information servers. The system provided both an extranet (B2B) solution for inter -office communications and consumer Internet (B2C) component supporting hundreds of thousands of site visitors each month. Mr. Barron authored and led the presentation of national and regional educational seminars to support the deployment of the new technologies to non-technical middle managers and field staff. He has worked with school districts throughout the state of Texas in the strategic placement of curriculum and administrative solutions (for Kaleidoscope and as Vice President of Regency Educational Systems) and has a solid understanding of how technology has traditionally been applied in Texas schools. Based in Dallas, Texas, Mr. Barron is a graduate of Texas Tech University, a Certified IBM Education Specialist, an active participant in numerous Open Source software initiatives, and is or has been a registered developer for Sun Cobalt, Sharp Linux/JAVA PDA and ACI/4D. Donna Elmquist, Education Advisor With over 25 years of experience in education at all levels, Dr. Elmquist has been an educational researcher and a veteran public school and university educator. She has worked extensively in collaborative and supervisory relationships with administrators, teachers, parents and other professional, technical and support staff. Dr. Elmquist has consulted nationally and internationally and is the author of several articles and position papers as well as the book How to Shape Up Our Nation's Schools, co-authored with Dr. Terrel H. Bell, U. S. Secretary of Education in Ronald Reagan's cabinet, This book, in its sixth printing, was a response to the report A Nation at Risk that launched the school reform movement. She provided the vision and leadership in designing and building across the nation the National Academic LeagueT".a motivational program of Terrel Bell & Associates. Under her leadership and management, the NAL program has grown to include 40 school districts in 20 states, representing almost 200,000 students in 400 secondary schools across the nation. Dr. Elmquist co -designed and directed the Bell-Elmquist High - Tech Learning Center, giving her special insight for effectively implementing technology in the classroom. Salient examples of Dr. Elmquist's work include consulting as a team member to conduct an extensive performance review of a technology program and provide future recommendations for Richland School District Two, Columbia, South Carolina; consulting, as part of Terrel Bell & Associates, with the state of Idaho to write its statewide educational Strategic Plan; designing and advising the implementation of a model high-tech elementary school based on the Bell-Elmquist High -Tech school model; and researching, authoring, and presenting school reform issues to audiences across the U.S. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Dr. Donna L. Elmquist received her Ph.D. from Utah State University. She is President and CEO of Terrel Bell & Associates, a non-profit 501(c)(3) education corporation that she co- founded in 1991 with Terrel H. Bell. The company's mission is to serve as a change agent to reform and restructure education while working with states, school boards, and schools nationwide, Mark Schmidt, Educational Technology Solutions Specialist Mr. Schnaidt's 20 years of experience in Educational Technology Solutions include projects in K-12, Higher Education and Adult Learning sectors. Mr. Schmidt has served in key management positions with several educational technology companies (Corvus Systems, Control Data, Edunetics/ Steck-Vaughn, CNS/Knowledge Adventure, Chancery Software, MediaSeek/BigChalk and ITC Learning). He also acts as independent consultant to other Educational Technology companies, school districts, state and community education projects, and Fortune500 e -Learning clients. He has extensive experience in applying technology systems in compliance with 1) multiple local, state, and international curriculum standards, 2) student or employee competency models, and 3) workforce requirements. He has been either directly responsible for, or a key team member in, conceptualizing, designing, implementing or developing funding for over 1000 technology system projects, at both facility and enterprise levels, to serve needs of student instruction, adult learning, knowledge management, community training or administrative management. Funding pursuits in support of public sector clients has resulted in over $5M of direct funds from public and private -sectors, untold goods and services through leveraged partnerships, and the establishment of fee -participation revenue from supporting communities. In the Kaleidoscope Confidential Proposal: Westlake Academy private sector, his business plan writing and plan execution has generated in excess of $20M of either venture funding or company purchase value. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Schmidt pursued a combined Animal Ecology/Journalisrn/Education B.S. degree at Iowa State University and has graduated several industry -related training programs. He has been an active member in the Software Publisher's Association (SPA) and is a current member of the Association for Curriculum Development and Supervision (ASCD), the National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA), and Association for Training & Development (ASTD). He is active in several community and youth organizations. , • Brian Woods, Network Architect. Mr. Woods is an experienced Network Architect. His considerable background in Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) technologies using network equipment from Cisco Systems. Inc. has allowed Mr. Woods to build and integrate networking infrastructures using technologies from Cisco Systems as well as from other networking companies such as Juniper, Nortel, Extreme, 3Com, HP, Fujitsu. Lucent, and CAC. His experience includes Voice Over IP systems design for a major phone company; involvement with the migration of the entire Social Security Administration network from a bridged token -ring network located in over 2000 remote locations to a routed distribution and core layer network; design of the data center architecture for one of the largest construction/civil engineering corporations that spans 150 locations in 3_5 nations around the world; and design of Internet access options to local area residents, school districts and businesses for an ISP. From desktop LAN and VoIP telephony to MAN/WAN long-haul networks, Mr. Woods has built and integrated network infrastructure technologies to provide a manageable, affordable platform at installation while supporting inevitable future growth. Based in Frisco, Texas, Mr. Woods is a graduate of Texas Tech University, and has earned industry certifications from Cisco (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert, CCIE; Cisco Certified Network Associate, CCNA, Cisco Certified Design Associate, CODA) as well as from Microsoft (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, MCSE). Kaleidoscope consulting fees range from $125-$150 per hour plus reimbursement for all approved expenses. We understand that the Town of Westlake has a limited budget during the initial planning period_ We also understand that budgeting for a fixed monthly expense is desirable. Kaleidoscope acknowledges a benefit from projection of committed monthly revenue and resource demands over an extended period of time. Consequently, it is in our mutual best interest to establish a retainer contract under which Kaleidoscope will perform the requirements of this project. Kaleidoscope suggests an initial six (6) month, 500 hoar contract, paid in equal monthly installments of $9,167.00, representing a discounted hourly rate of $110/hr. This discounted rate structure is offered for this prcjec-� only. Approved expenses will be deducted from the retainer as incurred. Kaleidoscope will provide monthly reports of hours applied against the retainer and remaining hours,with each monthly invoice. Up to 20% of the initial hours, if unused at the end of the contract term, may be applied to a subsequent retainer as non-priority hours. Should the number of hours be exhausted prior to the completion of the deliverables, the retainer will be extended on a months% basis to finish the project as defined. The Kaleidoscope team will make extensive use of available Internet tools and telephone conferences as primary collaboration tools for this project. We feel that it is important for you—and others in Westlake you deem appropriate—to meet the consultants working on this project. Kaleidoscope requests, therefore, a separate travel budget be established to allow for an on-site meeting of all consultants early in the process, and potentially one or two additional meetings in Westlake during the course of this project as necessary. As only two consultants are based outside the Metroplex, a budget of $5,000 should be sufficient to cover actual expenses. Prudent planning is the initial requirement to secure the success of the Westlake Academy. The identification and solicitation of grants, technology evaluation, selection and -purchase, installation, classroom integration and appropriate in -services are equally critical ingredients. I recommend that Westlake continue to retain Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope Confidential Proposal: Westlake Academy to oversee these processes once the Technology Plan is complete. The objectives, duration and select participants of any follow-on retainer will best be determined once the plan is complete and the parameters of Kaleidoscope's involvement are defined. Acceptance I accept the scope and terms of work defined in this proposal and wish to retain Kaleidoscope: --Signature L� . Date Name and Position Kaleidoscope Confidential