A school administrative unit may select contractors for these professional services on the basis of a request for qualifications or a request for proposals and it is not required to use a competitive method set forth in this chapter and Title 5, section 1743-A and Private and Special Law 1999, chapter 79. The selection process must include at a minimum a request for qualifications or a request for proposals that is advertised in a newspaper of general circulation in the school administrative unit and a newspaper of general circulation in the City of Augusta. The school administrative unit shall interview not fewer than 3 service providers unless a smaller number of service providers responds to the request for qualifications or requests for proposals. The performance criteria in the agreement is subject to approval by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of General Services. A request for qualifications or proposals may not contain terms that require service providers to have more than 3 years of experience in the energy conservation field or the use of equipment that is not generally available to service providers or terms that are otherwise included for the purpose of bias or favoritism toward a particular service provider. Objections to the terms of a request for qualifications or proposals under this subsection are deemed waived if not delivered in writing to the office of the superintendent of schools in that school administrative unit within 21 days of the last publication of the newspaper advertisement.