DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O.
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 014
April 20, 2007
ADMINISTRATIVE
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Billy K. Cannaday,
Jr. Superintendent
of Public Instruction |
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SUBJECT: |
|
The Virginia Public School Authority (VPSA) is conducting
the seventh sale of equipment notes, Series
VII. The proceeds from these notes
provide the next installment of funds in the educational technology grant
program, which provides support for school divisions to develop and implement
the Standards of Learning (SOL) Web-based Technology Initiative. Funding for this program is targeted to
achieve the following four goals:
The VPSA is planning
to sell the spring 2007 Educational Technology Notes, Series VII, on May 2, 2007,
and to close on the notes deal on May 24, 2007. Proceeds of the Series VII
notes will be made available for reimbursement of qualifying expenditures to
localities following the scheduled closing on May 24, 2007.
There are a limited
number of business days between the notes issuance date and the end of fiscal
year 2007. Therefore, to ensure
sufficient time to process the requests for payment, reimbursements that need
to be received by school divisions by June 30, 2007, must be received by the
Department of Education electronically and the original signature page sent to
the department by June 15, 2007. Please
note that no requests for reimbursement may be processed until the note
proceeds have officially been issued.
Attachment A to this
memorandum lists the local grant allocations for the Series VII VPSA note
issue. Grants to school divisions for
the Series VII notes are based on $26,000 per eligible school and $50,000 per
school division. Eligible schools
include those reporting fall membership as of September 30, 2006, as well as
division and regional vocational, special education, and alternative education
centers, academic year Governor’s Schools, and the two
Consistent with
previous VPSA notes, payments to school divisions and regional centers will be
on a reimbursement basis only. School
divisions and regional centers must first complete payments for the qualifying
equipment purchased and then file a Series VII reimbursement request with the
Department of Education. School
divisions and regional centers that adopted a reimbursement resolution and made
expenditures prior to the issuance of the Series VII notes are required to
certify that all reimbursements are qualifying reimbursements. School divisions and regional centers may not
be reimbursed for qualifying expenditures incurred more than 60 days prior to
the adoption of a reimbursement resolution.
Please note that reimbursements for the Series VII issue for regional
vocational, regional special education, Governor’s Schools, and regional
alternative education centers may be made directly to the regional
centers. School divisions will not be
required to deposit the regional centers’ share of the note proceeds in their
account and then pass those proceeds on to the regional center.
The Series VII
reimbursement request form is a downloadable Excel template. This file is available on the Department of
Education’s Web site at:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/soltech/docs/ReimburseSpr07Series7.xls.
The
Series VII reimbursement form includes certification provisions that
incorporate federal and state requirements regarding capital expenditures that
qualify for reimbursement. School
divisions are primarily responsible for determining whether requests for reimbursement
are permissible under federal and state requirements. School division officials should carefully
read and initial the certification provisions to ensure that none of their
reimbursement requests violates any of the stated provisions.
Divisions
are not required to submit copies of supporting reimbursement documentation to
the Department of Education because the reimbursement request form incorporates
the certification provisions. However,
copies of all supporting documents (invoices, work orders, statements, etc.)
for which reimbursement is to be made must be retained by the school division
for at least five years in the event an audit is required. All reimbursement requests for the VPSA
Series VII notes issue must be made using the above-referenced Series VII
form. The Department of Education will
review the reimbursement request and, when approved, file the request on behalf
of the school division with the Virginia State Non-Arbitrage Program (SNAP),
which serves as the investment and account manager for the note proceeds.
Please note that no reimbursement requests for the Series VII notes will be
approved until all of the division’s grant allocations from notes Series V and
VI (Spring 2005 and Spring 2006) are spent.
Please see Attachments B and C to this memorandum that provides the
Series V and VI allocation balances for each school division and regional
program.
To improve
information security, the department changed the reimbursement process for the
VPSA Technology Notes beginning with the spring 2005 issuance. Earlier versions of the VPSA Technology
reimbursement form provided a section for localities to enter their bank
routing number and account number each time they requested a reimbursement. This section has been removed and all school
divisions and regional programs will need to provide their bank routing number
and account number directly to the State Non-Arbitrage Program (SNAP) before
SNAP executes the actual payment of Notes proceeds to the school division or
regional program.
Attachment F to this
memo provides the SNAP VPSA Technology Notes Withdrawal Instructions form. If you need to make changes to wire
instructions previously submitted to SNAP, please complete and sign Attachment
F and return the form to SNAP prior to requesting any further reimbursements.
The completed form should be faxed to Nelson Bush or Stacy Lutz, SNAP
representatives, at 1-800-252-9551. If
you have not completed this form, the Department of Education will hold all
requests for reimbursements until SNAP confirms receipt of your certified bank
account information. SNAP will maintain all bank information and, if needed,
will assist divisions who need to amend such information. If you have any
questions regarding Attachment F, please contact Nelson Bush or Stacy Lutz of
SNAP at 1-800-570-SNAP.
Proceeds from the
Series V, VI, and VII issues may not be used for middle schools until all high
schools in your division have achieved Stage 2 High School Readiness
Certification. See Administrative
Supts. Memo No. 27, dated May 17, 2002, for additional information on
certification procedures. Also, the proceeds of the Series V, VI, and VII notes
may not be used for elementary schools until all middle schools in your
division have achieved Stage 2 Middle School Readiness Certification.
Procedures for achieving all levels of school readiness certification are
explained in the following document:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/soltech/docs/School_Readiness_Doc.pdf.
The School Readiness
Certification workbook is a downloadable Excel template. This file is available on the Department of
Education’s Web site at:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/soltech/docs/School_Readiness_Cert.xls.
If expenditures for
middle or elementary schools are submitted prior to achieving the appropriate
certifications, those expenditures cannot be reimbursed until after the
readiness certifications have been achieved.
Please submit all
Series VII requests for reimbursement using the Series VII reimbursement
request form referenced above. E-mail your completed request to Richard Schley
at ISSUE7@doe.virginia.gov. In addition, please mail a signed copy of the
reimbursement form to the following address:
Richard Schley
Office of Instructional Technology
No
requests for reimbursement will be processed until the Department of Education
has received both the electronic Series VII form and your signed hardcopy
Series VII form with each certification initialed.
Educational Technology Notes,
Series VI (Spring 2006):
As
initially announced in Administrative
Supts. Memo No. 18, dated May 12, 2006, the Series VI notes were sold by
the VPSA in May 2006. Proceeds of the
Series VI notes were available to school divisions for reimbursement of
qualifying expenditures on and after the closing date of May 25, 2006. For
grant allocations of Series VI VPSA notes, see Attachment
A to Administrative Supts. Memo No. 18, dated May 12, 2006. These proceeds
continue to be available to divisions for reimbursement of qualifying
expenditures for 18 months from the Series VI closing date. All reimbursement forms for the Series VI
issue must be submitted to the department no later than September 15,
2007. No reimbursement requests for the
Series VII notes will be approved until the division’s Educational Technology
Notes Series V and Series VI note proceeds are spent. Attachment C to this memorandum provides a
status of the Series VI grant balances.
For divisions
and regional programs that have not completed reimbursement of expenditures
from the Series VI VPSA notes, the procedures outlined in Administrative
Supts. Memo No. 18, dated May 12, 2006, should be followed, and the Series
VI reimbursement request form should be used.
The Series VI reimbursement request form is a downloadable Excel
template available on the Department of Education’s Web site located at:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/soltech/docs/ReimburseSpr06Series6.xls.
Educational Technology Notes, Series V (Spring 2005):
As
initially announced in Administrative
Supts. Memo No. 15, dated April 1, 2005, the Series V notes were sold by
the VPSA in May 2005. Proceeds of the Series V notes were available to school
divisions for reimbursement of qualifying expenditures on and after the closing
date of May 25, 2005. For grant allocations of Series V VPSA notes, see Attachment A
to Administrative Supts. Memo No. 15, dated April 1, 2005. Attachment B to this memorandum provides a
status of the Series V grant balances.
For
divisions and regional programs that have not completed reimbursement of
expenditures from the Series V VPSA notes, the procedures outlined in Administrative
Supts. Memo No. 15, dated April 1, 2005, should be followed, and the Series
V reimbursement request form should be used.
The Series V reimbursement request form is a downloadable Excel template
available on the Department of Education’s Web site located at:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/soltech/docs/ReimburseSpr05Series5.xls.
Educational
Technology Notes, Series VIII (Spring 2008):
The current
2006-2008 biennial budget (Chapter 847, 2007 Appropriation Act) includes
funding to continue the educational technology notes program in fiscal year
2008 with debt service paid through the Literary Fund. The current budget includes Virginia Public
Schools Authority (VPSA) equipment notes totaling approximately $59.0 million
in fiscal year 2008 to be issued in the spring of 2008.
The
fiscal year 2008 budget maintains grant amounts at $26,000 per eligible school
(for K-12 schools reporting fall membership and for various division and
regional programs) and $50,000 per school division. A required local match is maintained at 20
percent of the state grant amount, and 25 percent of the required local match
must be used for teacher training. The
continuation of the VPSA initiative is intended to increase school divisions’
capability for Web-based instruction, remediation, and testing of the Standards
of Learning.
The fiscal year 2008
budget also updates the number of schools eligible for funding under the VPSA
technology grants. Funding to school
divisions for the VPSA technology grant program was increased by $312,000 in
fiscal year 2008 based on an anticipated increase in the number of reported
schools in fiscal year 2007. Attachment D to this memorandum lists the
estimated local grant allocations for the Series VIII note issue.
School divisions that have spent all of their Series V, VI and Series
VII note proceeds and that have adopted a reimbursement resolution for the
Series VIII (Spring 2008) notes issue may make purchases in support of the
Web-based SOL Technology Initiative to be reimbursed from Series VIII proceeds;
however, please be aware that the note proceeds will not be available for
reimbursement until after the closing of the notes sale, which will likely be
in late spring 2008. Please be aware
that, prior to incurring any costs, the local school board must state its
intention to use the proceeds of the equipment notes to reimburse qualifying
expenditures. This must be done through a reimbursement resolution adopted by
the local school board. A sample resolution is provided as Attachment E to this
memorandum. Please note that divisions may not reimburse themselves for
project-related expenditures incurred more than 60 days prior to the adoption
of the resolution.
If you have
questions relating to the financing or determination of qualifying
reimbursements, please call the budget staff at (804) 225-2025. If you have questions relating to qualifying
equipment that may be purchased from the VPSA note proceeds (i.e., hardware,
software), please call Richard Schley in the Office of Instructional Technology
at (804) 371-6882.
BKCjr/bkl
Attachments
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2007/adm014a.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2007/adm014b.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2007/adm014c.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2007/adm014d.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2007/adm014e.pdf
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2007/adm014f.pdf