ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 8, Number 19 March 2, 1999 In this issue: [1] Upcoming Technical Training Workshops on Implementation of Reading Excellence Act and Class Size Reduction; School Library Media Specialists and Public Librarians Encouraged to Attend [2] ALA and CCSSO File Ex Parte on Universal Service with FCC [1] Upcoming Technical Training Workshops on Implementation of Reading Excellence Act and Class Size Reduction; School Library Media Specialists and Public Librarians Encouraged to Attend The U.S. Department of Education has announced a series of workshops to be held starting March 8 in Dallas, Texas and ending March 29, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to provide state educational agencies, state legislative officers, local educational agencies, community-based organizations, teachers and parents with an opportunity to develop plans for providing quality instruction and learning environments for America's children. Topics for the workshops (with grant deadline announcements to be published in the March 5 Federal Register), are implementation of the Reading Excellence Act and the Class Size Reduction Program. The Reading Excellence Program's objective is to support young children's learning so they learn to read once they enter school, help every child read well by the end of the 3rd grade, and improve the instructional practices of teachers and other instructional staff in elementary schools. The Class Size Reduction Program aims to help school districts hire and train 100,000 new teachers and reduce class size to a national average of 18 in grades 1-3. School library media specialists and public librarians are included in the language of the Reading Excellence Act, and should try to attend the workshops or encourage the attendance of representatives who will bring back information to be shared. The Department's intent is to provide the workshops at a central place where those from neighboring states can also attend. The Department has published a preliminary agenda and registration form which can be obtained by calling (202) 260-8228, or e-mail to reading_excellence@ed.gov. The agenda and registration form are also available online at http://www.ed.gov/inits/FY99/workshops.html. The locations and dates for the workshops are as follows: - Monday, March 8: Dallas TX, Sheraton Park Central 7750 LBJ Freeway - Thursday, March 11: San Francisco, CA, Holiday Inn Golden Gate, 1500 Van Ness Ave. - Monday, March 15: Washington, D.C., Washington Plaza, 10 Thomas Circle - Friday, March 19: New York, New York, Crowne Plaza Manhattan 1605 Broadway (between 48th and 49th Sts.) - Thursday, March 25: Chicago, Ill., Westin Hotel Chicago, 909 N. Michigan Ave. - Monday, March 29: Charlotte, North Carolina, Marriott Charlotte City Center, 100 West Trade St. [2] ALA and CCSSO File Ex Parte on Universal Service with FCC On February 22, the American Library Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) filed an Ex Parte document to encourage the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to re- think some of the positions they have taken on the Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries that interfere with state and local procurement practices. In the document, the ALA and CCSSO pointed out a series of discrepancies between the program's rules and the way many state and local governments do business. These rule discrepancies primarily affect large libraries, state library networks and libraries that are part of city and county governments. The suggestions made in the document included: (1) Allow applicants to file a Form 470 anytime before a funding year begins. (2) Allow applicants to file a Form 471 before a contract is signed but before the Schools and Libraries Division's (SLD) Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) review. (3) Allow voluntary extensions of existing contracts as long as the extension is within the terms of the RFP or the resulting contract. (4) Allow a change of vendor when state or local rules permit it after a funding commitment is made. In addition, to clarify and resolve some additional issues, ALA and CCSSO requested that the FCC clarify that changes of service within a Funding Request Number would be allowed as long as the changes are within the scope of the original bidding process or as a result of a master contract change. Finally, the filing requested that the FCC reconsider their current policy to deny any Funding Request Number (FRN) for which more than 50 percent of the services were ineligible. The ALA and CCSSO argued that because applicants were not advised that they needed to split services among the three categories, the appeals process should be used to appropriately classify services and approve the services that meet the standards. The FCC is expected to consider these suggestions as part of their current review of two additional items: (1) Extending the grace period for using E-rate funds for one- time expenditures to either September 1, 1999 for use or December 31, 1999 for payment; and (2) Allowing contracts that expired on dates other than December 31, 1998 to be eligible for remainder of Round I funding. If accepted, the FCC would allow contract extensions to fully utilize Round I E-rate funding. OITP will continue to follow this issue and keep ALAWON readers posted. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Editor: Lynne E. Bradley; Managing Editor: Deirdre Herman; Contributors: Phyllis Albritton, Mary Costabile, Adam Eisgrau, Carol Henderson, Peter Kaplan, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.