All contracts formally or informally bid will be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, taking into consideration quality, performance, reliability, and the time specified in the bids for performance of the contract. Contracts will contain a provision stating that the contractor and contractor’s subcontractors, if any, must comply with the requirements of G.S. Chapter 64, Article 2. Prior to bidding, contractors may be required to prequalify if the Board of Education has elected to use this process. For all contracts valued at $1,000 or more, the Board of Education will require each bidder or vendor to certify that it is not listed on the state treasurer’s Final Divestment List or Iran Parent and Subsidiary Guidance list, as required by G.S. 147, Article 6E, and that it will not engage subcontractors who are on either list.
The Board of Education prohibits discrimination against any person or business on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, sex, disability or religion. In addition, in accordance with G.S. 143-133.5, the Board of Education prohibits discrimination against a bidder or contractor for being party to, refusing to be party to, adhering to, or refusing to adhere to an agreement with a labor organization. The superintendent is required to conduct contracting and purchasing programs so as to prevent such discrimination.
The superintendent, on behalf of the Board of Education, must certify that good faith efforts to increase the participation in construction contracts by minority-owned and female-owned businesses, as required by policy 9125, Participation by Women and Minority-Owned Businesses.
The Board of Education will grant a North Carolina resident firm providing architectural, engineering, surveying, construction management at-risk service, design-build services, or public-private construction services a preference over a nonresident firm, if the home state of the nonresident firm has a practice of granting a preference to its resident firms over North Carolina resident firms. Any preference granted to a resident firm will be in the same manner, on the same basis, and to the same extent as the preference granted by the nonresident firm’s home state. The school system’s bid documents will require that nonresident firms disclose and describe any construction contract preferences granted by the firm’s home state.