2008-2009 NSLP Data Available on PA E-rate Website
Message Posted January 9, 2009
The PDE Bureau of Food and Nutrition has just released the raw National School Lunch Data that was submitted by schools to PDE in the fall of 2008. The data can be found on the PA E-rate website under the Discount Calculations tab or directly at:
http://www.e-ratepa.org/discount_calc.htm
NOTE: There are 11 entities whose data is not yet available (and identified as such on the spreadsheet). Their information will be updated in the spreadsheet when it becomes available.
As in previous years, the data is in an Excel spreadsheet, listed in county order, then alpha order. To find the entity you want, I suggest you just do a 'save as' to a file on your hard drive. Then open with Excel and do a 'find.'
I also took the first district in the file and calculated their District's Shared E-rate Discount as an example. When you file the Form 471 online, however, Block 4 automatically does these calculations for you.
A few important notes:
1) When the SLD's PIA staff reviews your applications, particularly your Block 4 discount calculations, they use this data. Therefore you may want to double check that the data that you submit in your E-rate application matches the data listed on this spreadsheet. Certainly, if you have other data, you can use it (such as from an income survey or more recent NSLP data), but you should expect a call from the PIA staff requesting thorough documentation as to why the figures do not match what was submitted to the State.
2) This spreadsheet only contains buildings that have students participating in the NSLP program. Your individual Form 471, Block 4's should contain all of the buildings that are receiving E-rate discounted services, including your non-instructional facilities (NIFs), such as bus barns, administration buildings, etc. And in order to list these buildings on the Block 4, they must have an E-rate entity number assigned to them. If they don't, call the SLD at 888-203-8100 and obtain entity numbers for these NIFs. Then in Block 4, you will list that they have 0 students enrolled, and 0 students eligible for NSLP. The discount for these buildings will be the district's shared E-rate discount.
3) Don't forget that the easiest way to complete a Block 4 is to use the "Copy Block 4" feature from a previous 471. Just don't forget to update the NSLP data and make sure the entities receiving the service described in Block 5 are all listed in that particular Block 4 worksheet. If you have only a few buildings that are receiving a particular service, add a separate Block 4 worksheet only listing those entities (and then refer to that specific worksheet in Item 23J of the Block 5).
4) The information related to Low Income Enrollment from the PDE PIMS System is not the same as the NSLP data. Be careful to use the correct data.
5) If you have any questions about your NSLP information, contact Sandy Souder in the Bureau of Food and Nutrition 800-331-0129, Ext. 76833.
6) If you have any questions about calculating your E-rate discounts, please don't hesitate to contact me at jtschell@comcast.net.
Julie Tritt Schell
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