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Disclaimers and Notices
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Question #1
Who can be the fiscal agent for this grant?
Answer #1
Local Education Agencies (LEAs) can be the fiscal agent for this
grant. For the purposes of this grant, public school districts, charter schools
and BOCES are all considered LEAs.
Previously the RFP stated that the fiscal agent had to be a high-need LEA. The
RFP has been changed to allow all LEAs to be the fiscal agent.
However, in order to comply with Part 3e of the NYSED Consortium Policy included
in the RFP, the fiscal agent cannot act solely as the fiscal agent or
flow-through for grant funds to pass to other recipients. The fiscal agent needs
to provide direct services to be allowed to serve as fiscal agent.
Question #2
According to the poverty chart in the application, eligibility
starts with having 3,000 students in poverty to receive $125,000. If our school
district has less than 3,000 poverty students, is the district not eligible to
apply?
Answer #2
Your school district is not eligible to apply if it has fewer
than 3,000 students in poverty. However, your school district may partner with
other LEAs to meet this requirement.
Eligible applicants (a high-need local educational agency or an eligible local
partnership) must have at least 3,000 students in poverty to apply for this
grant. In addition, if an eligible local partnership has over 5,000 students in
poverty, the application will be given 20 extra preference points.
Question #3
I read over the information. Am I right that you need at least
3000 students in poverty to apply? This would mean that unless our BOCES teams
up with another, we are not eligible to apply?
Answer #3
Yes. See answer #2. In order for a BOCES to apply, it must
partner with at least one of the high-need LEAs listed on Attachment 1, and the
partnership must have at least 3,000 students in poverty.
Question #4
Can a single school be considered an LEA or for the purposes of
this grant?
Answer #4
Only if it is a charter school. An LEA is a public school
district, charter school or BOCES or, in New York City, a community school
district.
Question #5
Can an Eligible Local Partnership consist of a group of schools
and a University?
Answer #5
An Eligible Local Partnership can consist of a public school
district(s) and/or charter school(s) and a University as long as at least one of
the school districts or charter schools is a high-need local education agency
listed on Attachment 1 and at least one of the school districts or charter
schools can demonstrate that the teachers in the schools served by the grant are
effectively integrating technology and generating sustained progress and success
implementing evidence-based model program(s) into teaching and learning process
and improving student’s academic performance in core subject areas and
technology literacy and skills. Under this grant program, A University must be a
provider, not a recipient, of services.
Also, there must be at least 3,000 students in poverty in the participating
school district(s) and/or charter school(s).
Question #6
Must one of the schools in an Eligible Local Partnership be
performing well and integrating technology successfully? If so, how should this
performance status and successful integration be determined?
Answer #6
Yes. Applications must document the previous experiences and
success in technology integration initiatives.
Question #7
What are we supposed to put on the Form A? If I list all of the
schools and the number of students served it will add up to more than 3,209.
Please advise on how I should handle Form A as it will not reconcile with the
federal numbers.
Answer #7
On Form A, list each participating school district/school
building and charter school. In the “Total Number of Students” column, list the
total number of students enrolled in each building. In the “Number of Students
in Poverty” column, do not list the number of students in poverty for each
building. List only the number of students in poverty for each participating
district and charter school, using the numbers on Attachments 1 and 2.
Question #8
My district qualifies as a possible applicant for the EETT grant
due to the fact that one of our schools is a SINI school. However in reading the
criteria and grant amounts, we do not have enough students of poverty. That
would be the case even if we formed a consortium. We could not even begin to
approach a threshold of 3,000 students in poverty, unless we partnered with a
large city district. So I am wondering how SED plans to allocate funds for
upstate districts that are smaller. Are some funds "reserved" for smaller areas
or will all the funds go to large city districts? Please let me know as soon as
possible whether we should consider applying or not
Answer #8
This particular grant is being targeted to applicants with at
least 3,000 students in poverty.
Question #9
The RFP indicates an applicant with 3,000 to 3,999 children in
poverty can apply for up to $125,000, with grant awards increasing as the # of
children in poverty increases. Can a high need district listed on Attachment 1
that has less than 3,000 children in poverty apply on its own? Or do they need
to partner with another district to reach the minimum “3,000 children in
poverty” mark? And if they can apply on their own, can they apply for up to
$125,000? Lastly, is the grant amount per year or is it over the two years?
Answer #9
See the answer to question #2. The grant amount listed on the
chart is per year.
Question #10
Would you explain in detail the following statement under
Eligible Applicants, "Has a substantial need for assistance in acquiring and
using technology". We would like a definition of substantial need, citing
examples.
Answer #10
Due to the lack of data on “substantial need for assistance in
acquiring and using technology”, we are using only the high concentration of
students in poverty along with SINI and SRAP status to define which LEAs are
high-need LEAs.
Question #11
Will there be a meeting about the RFP?
Answer #11
No.
Question #12
Do the students enrolled in the non-public schools who
participate in our proposal count towards the total number of students?
Answer #12
They have already been included in the number of students in
poverty listed for each school district and charter school listed on Attachments
1 and 2. When you complete Form A, only list the number of students in poverty
for each participating school district and/or charter school using the numbers
on Attachments 1 and 2. Also list any participating nonpublic schools with the
total number of students enrolled in those schools.
Question #13
Do all students or just the number of students listed in “number
in poverty” defined in Attachments 1 and 2 count towards the minimum of 3000
students?
Answer #13
Only the number of students listed in “number in poverty”
defined in Attachments 1 and 2 count towards the minimum of 3000 students.
Question #14
We have two buildings in our district that are SRAP buildings.
Does our proposed program have to focus on those two buildings or can the
program be a district-wide, non-building restricted program?
Answer #14
Your program must focus on addressing the needs of those two
buildings but can also address the needs of other buildings.
Question #15
How do we exclude those students not in poverty from EETT funded
services?
Answer #15
Your program must focus on addressing the needs of school
buildings and districts identified as in need of improvement but can also
address the needs in other buildings. Students not in poverty do not need to be
excluded.
Question #16
If we partner with other school districts that have different
needs than ours - for example - one may be a SINI school in a partner district
because of ELA performance at their middle school; another might be a SRAP
school because of special ed. performance at a high school, etc. - then will the
program that we propose need to address all of the issues identified in each
partner school?
Answer #16
Your partnership must collaborate to decide what needs it wants
to address and how best to address them for the participating districts and/or
charter schools.
Question #17
The funding availability chart starts with: 3,000 to 3,999
children in poverty. If we decided to apply on our own (with the private schools
in our district) then the number of children in poverty might total around 700.
Is 3,000 the minimum or could we apply for funding for our 700 and what would be
the maximum amount that we could apply for?
Answer #17
See answer #2. The minimum is 3,000. You can not apply for
funding for your 700.
Question #18
Under Program Requirements numbers 6, 7, and 8, the percent of
funding to be used adds up to a total of 95%. For what is the other 5% to be
used?
Answer #18
The percentage requirements are not meant to total to 100%, and
they do not apply to every budget category or item that may be included in your
budget. Program requirements #6 and #7 describe minimum percentages that must be
used for professional development and evaluation, while #8 refers to the maximum
percentage requirements for equipment and administration. For instance, the
spending on equipment can be less than 40 percent while the expenditure for
professional development can be more than 40 percent.
Question #19
The funds will be allocated by four regional groups. Out of the
$11,700,000 available for the program, how much funding will be allocated to
each group?
Answer #19
New York City – 61%
Big 4 - 8%
Rural - 5%
Other - 26%
10/18/2007