To All Public School E-rate Contacts: In November 2004, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 183 which created an annual $10 million E-Fund to assist schools with purchasing telecommunications services, hardware, technical assistance and distance education.  The Pennsylvania Department of Education has just released the E-Fund Grant Guidelines for 2008-2009 and the application will be available July 21 (please see message below).  The deadline to submit proposals is October 24, 2008 and the anticipated announcement date of E-Fund grant awards will be December 15, 2008.  Several webinars will be scheduled in the future to assist applicants.Because many of the services eligible for E-Fund reimbursement are also E-rate eligible, you will see that the grant guidelines are written in a manner which will satisfy the requirements of both programs.  Please read the E-Fund grant guidelines closely and if you have any E-rate-specific questions, please feel free to e-mail me at jtschell@comcast.net.  If you have E-Fund-specific questions, please submit those questions to RA-Act183@state.pa.us. -- Julie

From: Beeghley, James [mailto:jbeeghley@state.pa.us]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 10:09 AM
Subject: Act183 E-Fund Guidelines Available

PDE is pleased to announce that the guidelines for year 4 of Act 183 E-Fund competitive grants are now available for you to view and download at <http://www.pde.state.pa.us/Act183>

 This year's guidelines have once again been designed to improve the application process.  The guidelines include a copy of the actual grant application, the communications plan section has been expanded and a budget narrative section has been created.  Also, each of the sections are more structured and the questions within the application are more explicit.   As a reminder, no uploads will be permitted in the application.  Applicants will be required to submit two CDs postmarked by October 24, 2008, and mailed with return receipt to: E-Fund Attachments
James Beeghley
PDE - Bureau of Educational Technology
333 Market Street 14th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333 The CD will contain the following information at a minimum: a copy of each RFP submitted, including any addenda, in PDF format, a network security diagram in PDF format, a network diagram in PDF format, and the E-Fund Grant Technology Survey in an Excel spreadsheet.  Please be sure to label the CDs with the name of the lead applicant. The actual on-line E-Fund grant application is expected to be available on July 21 and will close on October 24th at 2pm EST.  Application proposals will be reviewed and scored in November and we anticipate announcing the grant awards on December 15th. We will be holding informational webinars in the coming months in order to review the new guidelines and application process.  Until then, should you have any questions, please contact us at: RA-Act183@state.pa.us.