City schools Finance Committee rebids for telecom systems

North Ridgeville City Schools Finance Committee met April 24 at the North Ridgeville Education Center Conference Room, 5490 Mills Creek Lane, to review a bid put out for Voice Communication Systems for the district.

The committee received four vendors, but was not sure if it was ready to make a commitment because each one was missing at least one requirement, according to North Ridgeville City Schools Treasurer Mike Verlingo.

“We don’t have any vendor that is able to supply us with a quote that meets all our expectations,” Verlingo said. “Every vendor is missing some part of the expectations, which we feel that we can’t accept any one of these quotes.”

When deciding on a vendor, the transport capabilities of a phone system is highly important, he said.

“Currently, we have a 28 channel PRI, a digital analog trunk that’s supported by Windstream,” Verlingo said. “The other option is called SIP trunking. It’s digital and it goes out over fiber or some other sort of transport medium. That is a cost outside of the phone system.”

Both options are offered on the bid, but Board member Robb Lyons questioned how the transport capabilities play into the district.

“It gets the phone calls out of the building and into the phone system,” Verlingo said. “The 28 channel PRI we have is an appliance that our phone calls go through our phone systems. They go into this 28 channel Primary Rate Interface, PRI and it gets converted to analog line and handed off to Windstream.

“So, once you hit 28 phone calls, you can’t make another phone call because there are only 28 lines in that PRI.”

The district has never had a problem with its current transport system.

After the bid was closed, vendors began to have questions about the bid, which is another reason the committee is planning to rebid, Verlingo said.

“The proper way to do this is to decline the bids and open it back up,” he said.

Since the committee decided to rebid, members chose to have a vendor question-and-answer session so there could be clarification on what the bid entails.

The question-and-answer session takes place at 3 p.m., May 3, in the North Ridgeville Education Center Conference Room.