**DB CONSULTING GROUP INC**

**Moderator: Karen Dorsey**

**January 22, 2009**

**2:30 pm CT**

Operator: Good afternoon my name is (Wendy). And I will be your
conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone
to the Safe School Healthy Student 2009 Application Technical Assistance
conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any
background noise.

After the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session.
If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star
then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to
withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. Mr. Michael
Wells, you may begin your conference.

Michael Wells: Thank you (Wendy). Good afternoon everyone and welcome to
the Safe Schools Health Students Technical Assistance call for the
fiscal year 2009 application process. My name is Michael Wells.

And I'm with the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S.
Department of Education. Also participating in today's calls are members
from the Federal Safe Schools Healthy Students team and they will
introduce themselves at this time.

Karen Dorsey: Good afternoon this is Karen Dorsey from the U.S.
Department of Education.

(Kelly Cosby): Good afternoon this is (Kelly Cosby) from the Health and
Human Services - Department of Health and Human Services.

Michael Wells: Before we begin the question and answer portion of the
call shortly I'd like to review a few items related to this call. First
the purpose of this call and all subsequent calls is to provide
technical assistance by responding to questions related to eligibility
requirements, the absolute priority, grant application submission
process, selection criteria and the application review process.

Technical assistance does not include providing recommendations or
feedback on your approach or proposed project design. We have scheduled
weekly calls on several Thursdays following today's call at 1:30 pm
Eastern Standard Time. Many of you were on the webinar earlier today and
may have questions relating to that webinar.

Those of you who were not on the webinar please be aware that the
webinar is available or will be available next week on the Safe Schools
Healthy Students web site for your viewing. Every call will be recorded
and transcribed.

Our goal is to have the written transcript posted on the Safe Schools
Healthy Students web site the Monday following the call. In addition a
digital recording of today's conference will be available for replay two
hours after the call's completion.

The dial in number will be posted on the Safe Schools Healthy Students
web site and it will be available to you until the completion of the
competition March 4. Additionally we recommend that you have your 2009
application available during these calls for making notes.

And particularly since we will be referencing page numbers in the
application when we respond to the questions frequently. During the
question and answer session we ask that you state your name, and the
city and state from which you're calling.

And we anticipate being able to answer most of your questions but there
may be some that require our discussion before we can provide a
response. In these cases we'll place the call on mute briefly while we
discuss this internally.

There may be some questions that we are unable to answer however during
the call. In such cases we'll be consulting with the necessary federal
staff and include the response to the transcript that's posted on the
web site. The fiscal year 2009 Safe Schools Healthy Students application
is very similar to the fiscal year 2008 application.

As appropriate information has been updated and there are minor
editorial revisions. However the absolute priority requirements,
selection criteria, and definitions have not changed. They're the same
for the fiscal year 2009 as they were for fiscal year 2008.

If you're not familiar with the Safe Schools Healthy Students grant
application I recommend that you review the application packet with all
accompanying documents thoroughly. Finally I want to talk briefly about
electronic submission.

Applicants may choose to submit applications electronically. Electronic
submissions must be received before 4:30 exactly on March 4. We strongly
recommend that you do not wait until the last day to submit your
applications to grants.gov since it has a two step validation process.

You will not hear back whether or not your application has been fully
accepted until after the deadline if you wait too long to download that.
The first email will confirm receipt of your application by grants.gov.
The second email will indicate whether your application has been
successfully validated by the system or it has been rejected due to
errors or to late submission.

So if you submit within the last two days you may not receive your
validation or rejection notification until, as I mentioned well after
the closing date. If you choose to submit electronically please review
carefully the instructions related to electronic submission, which are
on page three through five of your application packet.

And there are also related frequently asked questions and answers that
begin on page 49 in your application packet. This concludes my opening
remarks. And at this time we'd like to open the line for questions.
(Wendy).

Operator: At this time I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a
question press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll
pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question
comes from the line of Terry Chanceler from Houston, Texas.

Chanceler Terry: Yes hi I'm Chanceler Terry calling from Houston, Texas.
And my question is in regards to the local evaluation. Is it required
that we do an outside evaluator? Or did you define local evaluation in
what you're looking for there?

Michael Wells: It's not a requirement that you hire someone from outside
the school district to do the evaluation although in order to get a
complete and full as well as an objective evaluation it usually requires
an outside source. The main requirement that the application has is that
you spend 7% of your budget to cover your application activity.

And there's quite a bit of good information about what makes a strong
evaluation in the in the application. I'll see if I can find that page
for you. Someone else may have that handy on our team. It's on page 25.

Chanceler Terry: Okay.

Michael Wells: On the application there are the kinds of things that we
look for in local evaluation and the kinds of things that you'll
probably want to look for in your local evaluator. However let me point
out that in hiring a local evaluator you'll want to wait until after the
award has been made. And you must use a process of fair and open bidding
in order to choose your evaluator.

Chanceler Terry: So is it safe to budget a 7% and then say that we will
look to hire one? Is that safe to say something or that sort or do you
need to be more specific?

Michael Wells: That's fine in terms of identifying who will be doing the
evaluation. You'll need to be more specific about what you expect your
evaluation to look like. But in terms of who's going to be doing it that
will come afterwards.

Chanceler Terry: And that's a 7% per year or for the total grant?

Michael Wells: Seven percent each year of the four years.

Chanceler Terry: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Maria Flanagan from
Arlington.

Maria Flanagan: Hi I was wondering as far as the number of students that
funding level that puts you at. I know we're required to include private
schools in the process of planning and to the extent that they choose to
be involved in the execution of the grant activities. Do we add in their
population to our total population in order to figure out the funding
level?

Michael Wells: No ma'am you must use the number that's listed on the
NCES designation for your particular district or the districts involved.
And since private schools aren't on that that means that their numbers
will not be included.

Maria Flanagan: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Martin Jack from
Westland, Mississippi.

Jack Martin: Actually it's Jack Martin from Westland, Michigan. But you
were close. Anyway I had a couple of questions. One is for the six GPRA
required measures, you know, truant for safety reasons, fighting in
school you have to use the YRBS survey or can you use another that has
similar identical questions on it?

Michael Wells: You may use another one. YRBS is not required. It's just
the one that's most widely used so that's why we use that as an example.
But you can use others certainly.

Jack Martin: So if we already have one that asks those questions we can
just continue those.

Michael Wells: Yes. It's important to realize that you have to do it on
a yearly basis. And a lot of the districts do those surveys bi-annually.
So you may have to make arrangements to do one in the intervening years
to collect your data. But it's allowable to use one you already have
certainly.

Jack Martin: Okay good. Can I ask another question?

Michael Wells: Well before you go to it let me also add for you that the
questions on your survey must match directly. So for instance if you're
looking at percentages of students who report current 30 days marijuana
use, it would not be okay to use the question that asks for illicit drug
use or other drug use or something like that. It must be specific to the
GPRA for you to be able to use it.

Jack Martin: Okay. So I have to make sure we match exactly marijuana,
alcohol or whatever fighting.

Michael Wells: Fighting, not going to school because of feeling unsafe
you couldn't substitute for instance bullying for that.

Jack Martin: Okay so use those words.

Michael Wells: Yes. You've got another question.

Jack Martin: Yes I do. It's on the forms actually. The memorandum of
agreement, can you write a general statement in terms of the partner
agreements and identify each one of them? And then have them all sign
one page at the end or do they have to each do their own separate
section and then sign their section?

Michael Wells: In fact it should not be individual. It should be one in
which you have a general one that covers the entire project and all of
the partners are signing the agreement so that they're committing to the
entire project not just the particular part of it.

Jack Martin: All right so I can use all signatures on one page.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jack Martin: All right another question about forms.

Michael Wells: Okay.

Jack Martin: Under the General Provisions Act, Section 427 you have to
ensure no barriers for Special Ed, race those kinds of things.

Michael Wells: Yes the GEPA.

Jack Martin: Right. Do we have to have the separate sheet doing that or
do we add that to the narrative section each part where in the narrative
where we'd say we're doing English second language or something. We'll
make sure we have an interpreter.

Michael Wells: Oh that should be a separate sheet that's attached so
that would not be a part of your narrative or a part of your plan. It
would be an attachment that comes at the end of the application.

Jack Martin: An appendix F or so.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jack Martin: All right and a question about the Health and Human Service
form about confidentiality and participant protection.

Michael Wells: Same thing.

Jack Martin: If you're doing interviews and surveys of students do you
say that this is yes that you're doing research that's involving human
subjects? Or do you not - and the other thing is participation in all
the surveys voluntary or is it not?

Michael Wells: That's something that would be sorted out with your
evaluator and your federal project officer should you be funded after
the application is actually reviewed. So you should talk about what your
efforts to address that would be. But it's not necessary to commit
yourself to one particular type of action or the other.

Jack Martin: All right so we can say that we let people not participate
in this survey. That means they wouldn't participate in the federal
surveys on marijuana use, alcohol use, those things. Would that be
allowable under the grant that the - people can opt not to do that?

Michael Wells: It would - well it's certainly allowable if it meets the
criteria that the FERPA regulations state. But in terms of the
application itself I think simply talking about how you're planning to
collect the data would be fine. And whether or not there are active or
passive consent allowed that can be dealt with after the award is made.

Jack Martin: Okay good. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Kristy Ostergard
from Rockford, Illinois.

Kristy Ostergard: Hello. I have a couple of questions. One pertains to
the frequently asked questions page 41 we're having a little bit of a
problem interpreting where it says should other members of our
preexisting school community partnership also sign the preliminary MOA.

We're not exactly sure and I can read and I'm very clear on what it
says. It says they may sign the preliminary MOA. But we don't have to
have them sign above those - beyond those four that are required.
However it says for example and you use this specific incidence where it
talks about local substance abuse prevention.

We're not sure at this point who we're going to be able to commit to for
those services even though we want, you know, that's a very integral
part of our plan. So basically what this says is we can list perhaps the
two or three that we're talking with and have partnered before in the
past. But we don't actually have to say they're all going to be included
or have any of those signatures at this time.

Karen Dorsey: Hi, this is Karen Dorsey. I think what you're talking
about are two separate things. I think any community agency that you are
partnering with can sign as a partner which is different from an entity
that might provide services through a contractual agreement.

In some cases your - they will be a partner as well as provide services
through a contractual agreement. In other cases for example like a Head
Start organization they will be a partner and help with planning and
project implementation.

And you will be maybe coordinating and serving their population. So
PARTNERS is different from service providers and some cases partners can
be service providers. But for the purposes of the memorandum or
agreement we're talking about those people that you're going to be
collaborating with and partnering with in creating and implementing the
project.

Kristy Ostergard: So it could be either way that it could be a service
provider and a contractual partner actually. But we can have both on the
MOA.

Karen Dorsey: That's correct but you also need to understand that just
because you include a potential service provider in the application does
not necessarily mean that they will be awarded a contract. Because you
would need to meet the requirements of the department to have a fair and
open competition for any contractual work that is supported by grant
dollars.

Kristy Ostergard: Okay I understand then. That answers that question if
I can move on to the next one then that'd be great.

Michael Wells: Certainly go ahead.

Kristy Ostergard: Okay. The other one it was brought up just a couple of
questions ago and I think I understood it but I want to make sure on the
evaluation. Where they said about hiring the evaluator, you know, I know
we're not supposed to say, you know, we're going to hire so and so.

But I know the last time we submitted this grant we had put in there
that we anticipated and actually worked with an evaluator prior to. And
I think we actually submitted the person's resume even though we did
not, you know, hire the person. That's not what we should do then? We
should not list any evaluator as a possible evaluator or send in their
resume.

Michael Wells: That's our recommendation but the fact is just by listing
them doesn't commit you to contracting with them first of all. And if
you involve them in the planning and writing process it's important to
make sure that when you do have your competition to hire your evaluator.

That other potential bidders or potential contractors have access to the
same information and same material that that individual or that group
had. So that they don't have any proprietary information that other
bidders wouldn't have.

Kristy Ostergard: Right that I understood already. I just wanted to
clarify on whether or not we should actually send in a resume or any of
that. Because we're taking a different approach this time and I wanted
to get that cleared up so. Okay thank you very much. That's all I have
right now.

Michael Wells: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of (Eugene) Lewis from
Redondo, California.

Jeanie Lewis: Hi this is Jeanie Lewis. I had a question about evidence
based programs. If you are - if you have a program that's not on the
list but there's evidence that it is effective from local evaluations is
that appropriate to include as an evidence-based program?

Michael Wells: It doesn't have to be on a particular list to be
included. The main thing we want to make sure is as you say there's
evidence that it's effective with the group and with the behaviors that
you're trying to address in using it.

Just be certain in your application not to assume that any one knows
something is evidence based even if it's pretty widely known. And talk
about why you've chosen that program and what the evidence based
background is that suggests it's appropriate.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. So I mean but is there a - any bias towards programs
that are on the list you think? Or is it\...

Michael Wells: No.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. I had - let's see I wanted to ask a question about
the private school participation. Can you clarify how you see that the
private school participation what would be an example of that?

Michael Wells: One of the Department of Education expectations for any
grant is that when private schools are in your catchment area that they
be offered the opportunity to participate in whatever the grant
activities are.

Folks have done that in a variety of ways publishing a notice in the
local newspaper or sending letters to all private schools asking if they
would like to be involved in the planning and discussion of the grant
proposal and so forth.

If those schools choose not to be involved then you would simply tell us
that in the application that they were asked and opted out. If they want
to be involved however it's important for the private school and for the
district to recognize that a private school can't be a part of this and
just cherry pick the parts of the program that they want to use.

They must participate fully and be a full partner in all the activities
that are being offered. So you would essentially give us information in
the narrative that says how you contacted those private schools and what
they have chosen to do in terms of being involved or not.

Jeanie Lewis: So in other words the grant would be if there were private
schools and they fully participated then you would allocate resources to
that school as part of your grant.

Michael Wells: That would be up to the individual grantees and the
partners that are talking about it in terms of how that would be. It
could be that those private students attend activities being offered at
the public school if that's the way you wanted to do it. It could be
done any numbers of ways. But that private school if they chose to
participate should be involved in all the activities that are being
offered in the proposal.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. And would that include private like preschools as
well or do you see that as mainly the K through 12 private schools? Or
are you also thinking preschools? Because I know there's a zero through
five element to this grant.

Michael Wells: And that's part - that some times involves even private
day care operators but the private school provision has to do with
schools that are essentially similar to or equivalent to the public
school.

Jeanie Lewis: So K through 12 then. Let's see. I wanted to ask about the
MOA the memorandum agreement the juvenile justice representation does
that - I noticed there were several different names of different types
of representation.

And if we're working with a local student attendance review board that
works closely with juvenile justice, can they represent that point of
view? Or does it have to be directly juvenile justice itself?

Michael Wells: It must be whoever the local authority is regarding
juvenile justice services and juvenile justice activity.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay so it needs to be official body.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jeanie Lewis: Or bodies.

Michael Wells: And that'll vary from community to community that's why
all the different possibilities or examples were offered.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. Can I just go back - I know I'm asking several
questions. But can I just go back to that local evaluation because I
just wanted to clarify that clearly. You prefer that we don't include
the name - like if we - if all a group in kind of working up the grant
in the evaluation like a university or something like that. You prefer
that we not identify them in the grant or is that favorable to identify
that you involved a group like that who\...

Michael Wells: It's not a requirement either way. It's just important to
recognize that if you do include someone that should give them no
additional advantage in terms of receiving the award once the grant is
awarded to the district for them to receive the contract.

So it's important to make sure that they have a fair opportunity whether
they were part of the planning process or not. And that no particular
group has gotten an advantage.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it answering all
the questions.

Michael Wells: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Stephanie Mota from
San Antonio, Texas.

Stephanie Mota: Good afternoon. I actually have two questions. The first
is when we were awarded this grant initially in 1999/2000 we had about a
little over 70 schools. We've grown at about 20 schools since then and I
understand that if you were part of the program in the past those
schools would not be eligible. Would the 20 new schools now be eligible
as part of this program?

Michael Wells: It's not a matter of new school buildings per say it's a
matter of whether there's a particular region or catchment area that was
served or not. So if you replaced one school that was served with say
two new schools that's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about a group of students or an area in your catchment
area in the district that did not receive services previously. They
could be awarded a grant this time with an application. But it's not a
matter of new school buildings replacing old buildings.

Stephanie Mota: Okay thank you. As well the second question would be for
those schools and its sounding like it may be ineligible. If many of the
demographics of those schools have change for example whereas before
there may have been just a handful two or three students from different
countries that have settled here in San Antonio and now about 20% of the
student population are students that have resettled. Would that be
eligible since the demographics have changed that much?

Michael Wells: Well since we're talking about new children in every
school district from 1999 that's not the same issue that we're basically
talking about whether or not a district wide program which would not be
eligible or a large district that just served one particular sub region
of their district wants to serve a different sub region.

So it's more about your district's boundaries and whether it was a
district wide program before or not versus the individuals or individual
schools receiving services.

Stephanie Mota: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Angela Henry of
Iola, Kansas.

Angela Henry: Hi thank you. I was wondering about the MOA. As an example
I have a partner being a mental health provider. They could sign the
MOA. But would we need to include in the written statement that all the
partners were signing that said that even though they were a partner
they were not assured a contract if awarded, if approved?

Michael Wells: That would be okay to include. It's not a requirement.
But the fact is that by signing it we would not necessarily see that as
any kind of a guarantee of getting a contract. But including it would be
fine.

Angela Henry: Okay. Then secondly as far as credentialing and writing in
the narrative the credentials of the individuals that we were wanting to
hire within this grant. We would not want to identify specific
individuals but just talk about the credentialing of the position. Is
that true?

Michael Wells: That's correct.

Angela Henry: Okay. And then also if you have a private school that
chooses not to participate do you speak in the narrative of the fact
that you did contact them, how you went about that process of trying to
include them that they declined to participate? Do you want to know
that?

Michael Wells: Yes exactly.

Angela Henry: Okay. Thank you very much.

Michael Wells: You're welcome.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Annmaria Meraeger
from Cody, Wyoming.

Annmaria Meraeger: I'm sorry. I have another question going back to the
private schools. For clarification accredited private schools only?

Michael Wells: Private schools that actually are teaching students. It
could be a parochial school. It could even be, you know, some other
group that's decided to start a school as long as it's recognized and
meets the state's requirements for that mandatory attendance for minor
students then it would be considered a school.

Annmaria Meraeger: So our issue comes with a large number of home
schooled students and so we have an instance of a private school that
has been started. But they're not listed as accredited. And their
teachers are not accredited educators but and so I'm having a hard time
finding like documentation.

You know, I know they still fall under the local LEA for services. But I
don't even think their teachers are accredited yet they are wanting
participation. Does that make sense?

Michael Wells: If they're considered a home school that would not be
applicable. It's just those who are identified at school so if they're
still receiving technically receiving their educational services from
the LEA. Then it wouldn't be considered a private school.

Annmaria Meraeger: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Lori Brown of
Ashville, North Carolina.

Lori Brown: Hi this is Lori from Ashville, North Carolina. A couple of
questions about the grants.gov if we're doing the electronic submission
which is actually a new process for me. Just to clarify, with the
attached logic model am I correct in stating that there is no page
limit?

(Kelly Cosby): This is (Kelly Cosby). Yes there's no page limit.

Lori Brown: Is the same true then of the detailed budgets which I'll
probably do in Excel when we do the attachment for Attachment D that
there's not a set number of pages in the detailed budgets?

(Kelly Cosby): That's correct.

Lori Brown: Okay. And am I understanding that any form that is requiring
a signature we're going to fax that in instead of an electronic
submission correct?

Michael Wells: You would send a copy of it in with your electronic
submission and then fax it in immediately thereafter with the original.

Lori Brown: So there's really two forms of it but the one we fax just
has the signatures.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Lori Brown: Okay. And one final question about in our narrative if we
are citing - well as we're citing all of the data how much of a citation
of sources do you want to see?

For example should we be assuming we might want to use APA format and do
an intact citation and then do a references list at the end of the
narrative? Or is it sufficient to say that, you know, this data comes
from 2006 census information and leave that as an intact thing without a
big references list?

Michael Wells: As long as you feel like you've provided enough
information to make the decision around whether or not its evidence
based and appropriate for that group its fine. It's not necessary to use
for instance something as formal or technical as APAs, style and that
sort of thing. But just be aware if you do that and also include a
reference or a bibliography page that would be then counted towards your
page limit for your narrative.

Lori Brown: Yes which would shorten what then I could write okay.

Michael Wells: Right.

Lori Brown: Thank you very much.

Michael Wells: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Nancy Buyle from
Clinton Township, Mississippi.

Nancy Buyle: Excuse me, Michigan. I have two questions. The first one is
I'm actually on grants.gov trying to search for this grant opportunity
and it keeps coming up as not found. And I'm not sure if I'm not doing
that I'm searching by the CFDA number on grant.

Karen Dorsey: This is Karen. Try using the funding opportunity number
which is 123008-001.

Michael Wells: Can you repeat that Karen?

Nancy Buyle: Okay. No results please rephrase your query but let me hit
back and make sure I got the right numbers 0 - I mean 123008-001.

Karen Dorsey: Correct.

Nancy Buyle: Okay. So I hit search no results found please rephrase your
query. And my second question well maybe some technical assistance can
look into that was in the webinar you mentioned not being able to
measure school physical fights using school records.

So are you saying that we must use a student survey or student's own
report on physical fights? So I can't go through our data source and
track how many fights the schools have reported in the past?

Michael Wells: You can report that as part of your evaluation process.
But in order to meet the requirement for the GRPA you must use a survey.

Nancy Buyle: Okay that's clear.

Michael Wells: And I would recommend - I tried the grants.gov site this
morning. It worked okay. They may be having some technical glitches as
things some times happen so to try a little bit later or get some of
your IT folks to help out. Also try the Safe Schools Healthy Students
web site and go from there to download your application if you can't get
it from grants.gov right now.

Nancy Buyle: Will do thank you.

Michael Wells: You're welcome.

Operator: You have a follow up question from Terry Chanceler of Houston,
Texas.

Chanceler Terry: Yes thank you. I have a couple of questions for you.
You just mentioned first of all the GRPA and you said we must use
surveys. So for each GRPA everything has to be proven as far as us
meeting our benchmark through student surveys only.

Michael Wells: No that was just the particular one about physical
fights. The way the GRPA is stated requires that a survey be used.

Chanceler Terry: Okay.

Michael Wells: So for instance if you're going to count the number of
students that are receiving school based mental health that would be
something that you could use records for instance to count.

Chanceler Terry: Okay. And in the GRPA can you reference where it says
that as far as being able to use only student surveys for that? Does
each GRPA state that?

Michael Wells: It doesn't say only a survey. If you'll look on page 11
at the number two it says percentage of grantees that experience a
decrease in students who have been in a physical fight on school
property in the 12 months prior to the survey. And since it says "the
survey" there must be a survey.

Chanceler Terry: Okay got it. Okay thank you. And I have a couple of
other questions for you not related to that.

Michael Wells: Okay.

Chanceler Terry: My first question in regards to the budget I know we
need to submit a separate detailed budget one for elements one, two,
three another for four through five. So are we asked to submit two
separate 524 forms one for elements one through three and then another
for four through five? And I'm submitting this through paper.

Michael Wells: No you can submit just one 524 that's for the total
amount and then do the two separate budgets as you mentioned one for
elements one, two, three and one for elements four and five that
provides all the detail and itemization on it.

Chanceler Terry: Okay. And my next question has to do with during the
webinar earlier you all spoke about a difference between the police
officers if we're paying for that. You said it can be counted within the
10% and then there's a certain one that cannot - that does not have to
be counted towards that 10%. Could you - I think Karen I believe you're
the one that mentioned that during the webinar.

Karen Dorsey: Yes hi. I did. The 10% limit refers to security,
equipment, and personnel. So if you have security personnel such an SRO
that will be performing strictly security, patrolling kinds of duties
and responsibilities then they fall within the 10% cap.

But if you are including them in other areas of your comprehensive plan
such as delivering curricula or mentoring students or other activities.
Then they would not be counted in the 10% cap because they are
performing duties in addition to those that are security related.

Chanceler Terry: Okay. And is there a certain amount as far as job
description? Say they're doing kind of 50/50 they're actually going into
the classrooms. But then they're also, you know, doing the regular I
guess you could say security duties. How do you want us to split that or
how does that work?

Karen Dorsey: We don't have a prescribed percentage.

Chanceler Terry: Okay perfect. Okay good. And the 10% is that for the
entire grant or just per year 10% per year.

Michael Wells: It's 10% per each year of the four years.

Chanceler Terry: All the four years okay. And my last\...

Michael Wells: Each individual year for each of those four budgeted.

Chanceler Terry: Okay so 10% per year for the cap. Okay and my last
question. I'm sorry one last question has to do with the MOA. You
mentioned that there should be one MOA. Where we're saying we're all
committing to this project.

Now if we have the same letter and we have say the police force to sign,
juvenile justice to sign, MHMR to sign is that okay? It's the same
letter but everyone may not sign one page. Is that acceptable?

Michael Wells: I mean if you're talking about more than one copy of the
same MOA and somebody signs on different copy because they're in a
different city and it was more convenient to do that for the preliminary
that's something that we're not concerned about. It's just that they all
are signing to the entire memorandum and that everybody is agreeing to
sign to the entire thing which includes the logic model as well.

Karen Dorsey: And this is Karen. I guess I would be careful when you say
letter that it's something more than a traditional support letter that
an entity in the past may have submitted with a grant. So make sure you
look at the pages in the application that talks about what should be in
the MOA. And we're here trying to\...

Chanceler Terry: Correct and I should have been a little bit more clear
on that. Correct I see what you're saying on that.

Michael Wells: It's on page 16.

Chanceler Terry: I'm sorry go ahead.

Michael Wells: I was just saying its on page 16 is where that
information is.

Chanceler Terry: Okay on page 16 perfect. And I think that's it. You
guys have been very helpful. Thank you so much.

Michael Wells: You're welcome.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Steven Goldsmith of
Hawthorne, California.

Steven Goldsmith: Yes thank you for taking my question. On the - we've
done a survey and we asked the question have you used alcohol within the
last year rather than 30 days. Is - should we go and redo that survey?

Michael Wells: That might be appropriate for your community assessment
but you would still be required to go back and ask the question about 30
day use as a part of your establishment of baseline and then for
subsequent measures for that.

So if you want to use that question and can go back and do it again it
may make sense to do that. It wouldn't be required for your community
assessment as I said. But you would be required to have a baseline on it
eventually.

Steven Goldsmith: On eventually and it is that we - was I correct
hearing is that you can't actually - if we were to be awarded we can't
start services till we send that baseline?

Michael Wells: That's correct.

Steven Goldsmith: Okay. And then do you - how many applications were
submitted last year?

Michael Wells: How many did you say? You're breaking up a little bit I'm
sorry. Did you say how many?

Steven Goldsmith: Yes.

Michael Wells: I think we had 380 that were eligible and reviewed last
year. And we funded 60.

Steven Goldsmith: Yes thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jack Martin of
Westland, Mississippi.

Jack Martin: Yes in the budget items there the mention about attending
meetings in Washington DC and the director attending some meetings
elsewhere for training. Are those included in our budget or your budget?
And do we have to put those in every year?

Michael Wells: Some of those meetings we would pay for the individual to
attend but you should put them in your budget every year for your
project director but some of those will be coming out of grant funds.
And the ones that are mentioned in the application that are required
should be in your budget.

Jack Martin: The ones that are required by the director to attend.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jack Martin: Which ones would you be paying for?

Michael Wells: There's some additional meetings that we would be having
folks attend in which we would cover part of those expenses. And you
would need to worry about that and including that in the budget.

Jack Martin: All right. I guess I'm not understanding. Which ones do we
have to pay for the three to five people going to an annual meeting do
we pay for that?

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jack Martin: And the ones that are the director going to another place
besides DC to be trained.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jack Martin: We pay for that also.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Jack Martin: But if you add in meetings then you would pay for them. Is
that what you're saying?

Michael Wells: That's correct.

Jack Martin: I got it now. Okay thank you. One other question, should we
have a continuum of interventions in each of the five elements going
from universal to intense interventions?

Karen Dorsey: Hi this is Karen. We talked about the continuum and
acknowledged it as a good practice. How you actually design your project
and whether you do a continuum and for each of the elements that's sort
of a decision you would have to make. And it wouldn't be appropriate for
us to sort of provide any advice or recommendation.

Jack Martin: All right thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Kathi Krablin of
Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Kathi Krablin: Yes thank you. Are there any regional priorities or rural
versus urban or number of grants per state?

(Kelly Cosby): This is (Kelly Cosby). No there are not.

Kathi Krablin: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Karla Sartim of
Round Rock, Texas.

Karla Sartim: Hi thanks for taking my question. On the surveys we were
thinking about doing this online. And because the response rate
typically is higher for those types of surveys just empirically that we
found so do you have a specific response rate you're looking for for
surveys?

Michael Wells: No that would be a part of your evaluation design and
what would best serve your particular project.

Karla Sartim: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Kristy
Ostergard of Rockford, Illinois.

Kristy Ostergard: I'm sorry. I think I'm going to beat this MOA and
private school thing to death. But on the - I want to go back to who's
signing the MOA the preliminary MOA. We have several community agencies
that are not really considered what we would call an integral part of
our plan.

However they have expressed interest as being supportive and showing
that they will do whatever possible as far as partnership and as part of
the community. For instance we have a judge that approached us that
wanted to sign.

And I just wasn't sure what was appropriate if we don't mention that
this judge in the 17th Judicial Court is going to actually be a part of
it other than, you know, her proceedings on a normal basis other than as
a support person. Is it appropriate to have somebody like that sign the
partnership?

Michael Wells: The required partners are only those four the LEA and the
others that we've mentioned the law enforcement, mental health, and
juvenile justice. Any additional partners that you think might be
appropriate to include you're certainly free to include them.

And since this is a preliminary MOA if you are awarded the grant you may
find later as you begin to implement your program that there other
people that you hadn't identified on the MOA but that want to partner
with you. You could add those in at a later date when we finalize the
MOA.

So it's a fairly open ended in terms of who you think is appropriate or
who you would like to include for signing that as long as you meet the
required four then that's going to be fine.

Kristy Ostergard: Okay thank you. And then my last one I hope for you
guys is on the private schools again. We have a situation here where we
have a private school that is a 9, grade 9 through 12 building.

And they're interested in partnering however the way I understood what
you said was they cannot basically cherry pick. They have to participate
in all components of the program.

And they wouldn't really be able to since we're doing the early
childhood and, you know, all of that other stuff. In that situation do
you make an exception to the rule?

Michael Wells: Well in any situation you have to have what's appropriate
for particular schools for instance a lot of districts have separate
high schools and elementary schools. So an elementary school itself
would not have to do the same programs that were being done at the high
school.

But the district must participate in all and if the private schools
involved they would participate in all that would be developmentally
appropriate for their students.

Kristy Ostergard: Okay. Then on that same track there we have in the
past we've kind of opened up a lot of our professional development
opportunities to our private schools whether there's a formal contract
or anything like that because we just think it's beneficial.

Is it okay if none of our private schools really select or opt to
partner with us if we're awarded the grant that we also include them in
professional opportunities if we want to?

Michael Wells: That would be fine.

Kristy Ostergard: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Angela Henry
of Iola, Kansas.

Angela Henry: Hi. I was wondering do you have a rate of travel like a
percentage or something that we are to use for figuring the travel for
the project director and the other individuals.

Michael Wells: No you would use whatever your local travel rates are
particularly if you're figuring mileage and so forth. But the best
measure to do is just essentially check with airlines or travel agencies
and so forth and see what the typical cost would be for coming to
Washington from your particular location. And we're just making an
estimate at this point. Those specifics can be adjusted along the way if
you're funded.

Angela Henry: Okay. And then I believe I read that you're anticipating
awarding 28 grants. Is that still correct?

Michael Wells: That's an anticipation. A lot of it depends on what our
funding from Congress is.

Angela Henry: Okay. And do you have any idea of a projection of how many
applicants - applications you'll receive?

Michael Wells: We have no way to know until March 4.

Angela Henry: Okay that's what I figured. Thank you very much.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Jeanie Lewis
of Redondo, California.

Jeanie Lewis: Yes. I wanted to ask a question about the - a couple of
questions. The indicators that you mentioned the accountability
indicators what are they GP\...

Michael Wells: GRPA, the GRPA.

Jeanie Lewis: Thank you. Those - do we - how does- does that bear
anything on what we need to include in the needs assessment? Do we - do
you expect that we would use those similar indicators in the needs
assessment? Or should we just use the indicators that we target
ourselves in the needs assessment?

Michael Wells: It's not a requirement that you use those in the needs
assessment. But you're eventually going to have to develop baseline
information around them anyway. So that if you can do them as part of
your needs assessment that's a good idea but it's not a requirement.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. My second question relates to the management
agreement. I just wondered if you could explain - it describes in the
grant a management team structure with those partners. How do you see
that?

What would be I guess your kind of vision of that partnership? Is that a
day to day management of all those partners, the mental health agency,
the - or is it more of a participation in the program partnership? I
guess I was just trying to get a better picture of that.

Michael Wells: We see the core management team as a support for a single
project director that runs the day to day operations of the overall
project. And what that means is that they'll be there to support them in
their efforts and be a liaison for that project director back to their
individual agency to help with things like gathering data that may be
slow coming in.

Or presenting the viewpoint of their particular agency as it relates to
the other activities of the project and so forth. It's a support
mechanism and an advisory group for the project director on the day to
day activities as opposed to a broader project over sight that might
come from your - from a bigger partnership group.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay so it's a different than like a collaborative or a
consortium. It's really the here you're looking at just those partners
those identified partners of juvenile justice, mental health, the school
and the police department as that core management team.

Michael Wells: Yes that's correct. And we would like to see someone from
a policy or a senior management level be on that so they would be able
to have some sort of helpful affect back with their individual agencies
if the need arose for that.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. I was wondering what the project director does that
need to be - like could that be split between two people or does it need
to be one person full time person?

Michael Wells: We have seen it tried with more than one person handling
that responsibility and we've never seen it work out very well.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. Do you have any preference between electronic
submission and the hard copy submission?

Michael Wells: We aren't allowed to have a preference.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay.

Michael Wells: How's that?

Jeanie Lewis: Okay.

Michael Wells: Now you may have a preference as to whether or not you
want to make sure it gets here but no either one is allowable. And it
certainly doesn't matter in terms of your possibility of being funded.
It will not matter whether or not you use one versus the other.

Karen Dorsey: This is Karen. We don't - we have yet to go to a true
paperless review process. So the first thing we do with electronic
applications print them.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. I have just one last question. I apologize for
asking so many. The local agencies that you might partner with that
provide services to you like for example mental health agencies or the
contractors of mental health agencies. Do they need to be non profit
organizations? Or can they be I don't know therapists or for profits
organizations, hospitals that provide these services\...

Michael Wells: For your service provider you can contract with whoever
you think is appropriate and whoever comes out on top of the bidding
process. In terms of your partners it must be the local authority which
would be usually a state or local agency.

Jeanie Lewis: Okay. Okay thank you very much appreciate it.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Steven
Goldsmith of Hawthorne, California.

Steven Goldsmith: Hi I have three. One is the MOU scored in some place
or contained within the scoring of the narrative or\...

Karen Dorsey: Hi this is Karen. If you look at the selection criteria
particularly the ones under - I'm sorry there are a couple under the
goals and objectives. I'm sorry and the project design and management
that talk about the relationship about having information in the
narrative portion as well as the logic model in the narrative portion
and the preliminary MOA. So having that internal consistency is
important and is scored with the selection criteria as the notes
demonstrate on pages 26, 27, and 28.

Steven Goldsmith: So they - the reader will be looking at how consistent
it is with the other parts of that narrative.

Michael Wells: Absolutely.

Steven Goldsmith: Okay. And then last time what was the lowest funded
score?

Karen Dorsey: Ninety-one point three three.

Steven Goldsmith: Okay. And I forgot my third one. Okay the - no okay.
And will there be more - there are future question and answers
conferences am I correct?

Michael Wells: Yes if you'll check the web site they're not every
Thursday but they're nearly every Thursday between now and the March 4
cut off point.

Karen Dorsey: The next call is next Thursday on the 29th.

Steven Goldsmith: Thank you.

Michael Wells: The subsequent Thursday calls however will be at\...

Karen Dorsey: One thirty Eastern.

Michael Wells: Right we had this one a little bit later because we had
the webinar ahead of time.

Operator: As a reminder in order to ask a question press star then the
number one on your telephone keypad. You have a follow up question from
Lori Brown of Ashville, North Carolina.

Lori Brown: Hi. Just a couple of questions. First of all can you talk
just a moment about the sustainability component? I'm sure all school
systems are in the same boat we're in with difficult financial times.
And we just took \$1 million hit from the state so, you know, I'm just
curious we may write in the grant that we'd like to try to stay through
local funding maybe certain positions.

But, you know, we can't know for certain if that funding even going to
be there. I mean heck I don't even know if I have a job next year. So,
you know, in those kind of issues is it okay to admit that funding is a
little bit unsettled but we anticipate this will happen.

Michael Wells: Certainly and one of the things that we'd like to see if
more than plan that you have to discuss it, to explore options, what
options you'll be looking at. It's not so much a commitment for those
local entities or the school district it self or so forth to pick up
specific positions for instance or specific funding. It's more about the
process you plan to use and the fact that you will be addressing
sustainability as you move forward.

Lori Brown: Okay. Next question is have you discovered that if people
are submitting to the grants.gov that when the application comes through
that there are typically major formatting issues. If you have tried to
put within the Word document that you're attaching like Excel tables and
that kind of thing. I know I read online about this certain versions of
Adobe that have to be used, etc. But do you find issues with tables,
charts, etc.

Michael Wells: There haven't been very many. The biggest issue that we
find with the grants.gov that give people trouble is remembering to be
able to attach everything. Some times we don't get the attachments that
they think they have sent through.

And the other issue has to do with timing. A lot of times folks think
they submitted it early enough but because the system was so over
burdened it didn't actually enter the system until after that 4:30
timeframe. And they were found to be ineligible by as many as seconds
some times. So those two are the biggest the formatting piece has not
seemed to be a major issue for most o four folks.

Lori Brown: Okay and one final question. I believe you had addressed
earlier the issue of if a survey that we get which might like be the
modified YRBS. It doesn't exactly ask one of the questions for
standards.

I mean would it be acceptable to write, you know, within the narrative
that we recognize that one of the things that has to happen is the
revision to our current survey tool and to recognize that basically this
is the closest data we have to that. And we know this is what we have to
get.

Michael Wells: Surely and the other thing you'll need to be sure and
include is that when you make that adjustment so that you have the exact
wording you'll need to take a new baseline. But that you can present the
information that you current have in your community assessment and that
will be fine.

Lori Brown: Great thank you.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Nancy Buyle of
Clinton Township, Michigan.

Nancy Buyle: Hi with respect to that evaluation if we are applying on
behalf of a consortium of districts we can - can we use an aggregate of
those? Or do we have to individually submit data for every district
that's in the consortium?

Michael Wells: The district - I mean the data should be across all the
districts that are being involved. In terms of what you present for your
narrative that's your choice. You could do it district by district in
terms of what you're present in your application. Should you be funded
we would be looking for information that was more across the project
rather than district by district.

Nancy Buyle: Okay. And secondarily to the grants.gov issue that I had
brought up earlier I am on this grants.gov again. I went through the
U.S. Department of Ed and the same site and they take you to the actual
grant application where I can download the PDF. But as far as trying to
get on board to begin submitting the application I did not find any
links to that.

But I did the search results under grants.gov. And they have a thing
that says find or new grant opportunities. There's a whole bunch listed
and yours is not on that one either. Can I have that funding opportunity
number again so that when I hang up from here we can - I can call a
number or something and get more information?

Karen Dorsey: Sure it's 123008-001. So you call grants.gov I think
there's a technical assistance number.

Michael Wells: Or help line.

Karen Dorsey: Or help line yes and if you still experience difficulties
drop me an email and I'll start approaching on our end tomorrow.

Nancy Buyle: Okay. I'll do that thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Margaret Mitchell of
Chesterfield, South Carolina.

Margaret Mitchell: Hello. I - in previous years looking at this
application SROs were not allowed as part of the budget and part of the
process. Did I understand that's a change in policy we can include SROs
and the equipment that are needed for school resource officers as part
of our plan?

Karen Dorsey: In very early iterations of the grant 1999/2000 I believe
up until 2001 SROs were supported by the COPS Program and OJJDP and so
we encouraged applicants to submit an application for Cops and for Safe
Schools Healthy Students and that's how we funded the SRO. Since then
SROs have been included provided that they are within this 10% cap. So
we've never disallowed it's just we've changed how we have funded the
position.

Michael Wells: And it's also important when you mentioned equipment to
recognize there are certain things that the grant cannot be used in
terms of equipment so for instance you can't buy weapons or ammunition
and that sort of thing.

So be sure and check to make sure what's eligible. However if you
include something there that's not eligible it's not going to make you
unable to get the grant. We'll just correct that with a budget revision
later on.

Margaret Mitchell: Oh excellent. And then the private school
participation it - I'm getting the feeling so I want to make sure I'm
going in the right direction that the - you're trying to encourage
private school participation in the planning as much as in the receiving
of the programs. I'm not sure that any of our private schools are going
to want to participate if they're not allowed to cherry pick. But is
your point that we have started now talking to our private schools.

Michael Wells: Absolutely. Everybody who is partnering with this should
be there as much from the beginning in the planning as possible. It
shouldn't be something that a couple of agencies or one agency writes
and plans and everyone else simply signs onto.

You're absolutely right that the private schools should be there from
the beginning or as early as possible in the planning process not just
be there afterwards to see what they want to line up and collect from
the grant.

Margaret Mitchell: Okay. And then the - let's see there's another
funding opportunity about the integration of school based of home
services. And I'm not sure if it's from the state department of
education of if it's from another agency.

Michael Wells: It's from the federal - it actually is from our office of
Safe and Drug Free Schools.

Margaret Mitchell: That's what I thought so is there - there's also an
emphasis on school based mental health services through your GPRA
measures. Is there any advantage to applying for both and referencing
each other?

Michael Wells: You may apply for both but you'll only receive funding
from one. And the - we've got a number of grantees currently that are
awarded that have been previous grantees of the school mental health
integration grant. So those are often times used by folks as preparation
for the Safe Schools Healthy Students grant since it includes mental
health.

But is a much broader look at other issues and other programs and
projects. So you can apply for both. There's not a real advantage to or
disadvantage either way. And you would not be able to receive funding
from both.

Karen Dorsey: So this is Karen. And while you can be a mental health
integration former grantee and then apply for Safe Schools Healthy
Students you cannot do the reverse. If you receive a Safe Schools
Healthy Students grant you are ineligible to apply for a mental health
integration grant in the future.

Margaret Mitchell: Oh interesting okay.

Michael Wells: The mental health integration grant is primarily there to
set up infrastructure and develop the processes and agreements to make
mental health services in the school possible. If you do a Safe Schools
Healthy Students grant you're going to already be doing that.

Margaret Mitchell: Excellent okay. And then the last question is I heard
a reference to a sub region within a district. But I was under the
impression that we couldn't use just one part of our district that it
had to be a district wide project.

Michael Wells: The sub districts are generally only there from very
large districts like the Chicago, New York or Los Angeles district in
which they have essentially school districts within a much larger
district of 800,000 to a million students.

Margaret Mitchell: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Paige Collins of
Dallas, Texas.

Paige Collins: Good afternoon. I had just a couple of questions. As far
as salaries go for personnel are there any other stipulations for any
other positions other than the security?

Karen Dorsey: This is Karen. No just that they are necessary and
reasonable.

Paige Collins: Okay. And the other question would be based on the
purchasing of equipment necessary for any of the programs that's going
to be going on or software or personnel possibly that would need to work
with the equipment, software is there any stipulations on that?

Karen Dorsey: No just the same that they are necessary and reasonable.

Paige Collins: Okay all right. That's it thank you.

Karen Dorsey: You're welcome.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Kate Frew of Yakima,
Washington.

Kate Frew: Hello I have a couple of questions. The first one is about
the budget and the number of students served. We intend to serve all
students in prevention activities and fewer number of students in
intensive services obviously. The budget range seems to be relatively
large for, you know, the district numbers. Is there a recommendation on
the number of students served by successful grantees?

Karen Dorsey: This is Karen. No it's really dependent on your project
design.

Kate Frew: Okay. As long as it makes sense and there's consistency
there.

Michael Wells: Yes.

Kate Frew: Okay. And then I have another question about school readiness
and element five. If we were to do, you know, screening for children for
school readiness but one of the agencies that we're using is a Head
Start piece. Do we need to have a relationship built in with them as one
of the partners if we refer to them specifically for an element?

Michael Wells: Your required partners would not change. You may have
them sign the MOA if you like but it wouldn't be required. They would
essentially it sounds like be a contractee like anyone else would be
that you're contracting for services.

Kate Frew: Okay. All right thank you very much.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Steven
Goldsmith of Hawthorne, California.

Steven Goldsmith: Hi. I have a couple of questions. One and I apologize
I joined some what after the beginning so this may have been asked and
answered. But in terms of the juvenile justice agency that's typically
involved I saw it on the webinar they mentioned corrections authority.

And if we have a state corrections standards authority but I don't think
we have a corrections authority in our particular city, the city of
Englewood which is part of Los Angeles County. We would of course
include probation and local - and court and again my question there sort
of is do we do the county court or do we do the local judge in our
local - at our local courthouse in Englewood?

And similarly district attorney is that considered a juvenile justice
agency and therefore would we have our local district attorney as a sign
on or the county wide one?

Karen Dorsey: Part of the answer is to that is sort of your project
design and the required collaboration with I mean if you are looking at
serving students in the juvenile justice that are under a particular
juvenile court then that would be the more appropriate entity to have
sign. And if you're working with multiple local juvenile justice
partners they would also sign. But it really is - I mean it's we're not
saying that you have to have all of these entities that are listed on
page 16.

Michael Wells: Those were given as examples because it's one of the
areas in which there's so many different local authorities from
jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And in some places the local authority is
the juvenile corrections agency. In others it's a family court so it's
whatever is appropriate for your area is what you would use and
certainly it's not required that you include all of those folks or even
include corrections at all.

Steven Goldsmith: Okay good yes mostly we work with probation.

Michael Wells: Right.

Steven Goldsmith: And then you also in the webinar you mentioned
something this back about surveys and not using the school data. It was
in reference to something called the YBFA survey or did I miss hear
that?

Michael Wells: YRBS is a survey that's used across the country by a lot
of districts. It's the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In California I know
they have the California Healthy Kids Survey which is similar. In other
places they have state surveys or even individually developed surveys so
it's not required that the YRBS be used that's just widely used and we
used that as an example.

Steven Goldsmith: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question is a follow up question from Lori Brown of
Ashville, North Carolina.

Lori Brown: Yes two quick questions. One is if you are training
classroom teachers at a time that they are off the clock either after
school, on a Saturday or in the summer can you use grant funding to pay
a direct stipend to the individual?

Michael Wells: As long as you're following your local district's
personnel policy for reimbursement of that sort of thing then that's
allowable.

Lori Brown: Okay. And I know the grant will not fund incentives but if
you are establishing kind of a hall behavior modification or character
ed type program say like PBS or something and as part of establishing
that you need funding to purchase some of the incentives that go along
with the school initiated programs. Are things that would go along with
a character ed program considered incentives?

Karen Dorsey: This is Karen. If an award is made your federal project
officer would work with you to determine what kinds of things that you
could use as an incentive. So we understand that there's certain
programs that as part of delivering the curricula I know with FAST,
families are given vouchers to buy food so they can prepare a meal and
so that would be an allowable thing.

But you can in your budget reserve a pot of money for that estimate what
it is you would like to spend. And then we would kind of work out the
particulars with you if an award is made.

Michael Wells: But be very specific in your budget what you're planning
to use them for. If you just put a line item that says incentives and
put money in there it may be taken out of your budget.

Lori Brown: Okay thank you.

Operator: Again in order to ask a question press star then the number
one on your telephone keypad. At this time there are no further
questions.

Michael Wells: Let's hold for just a second and see if anyone has any
other questions that come to mind and then we'll wrap up.

Operator: You have a question a follow up question from Angela Henry of
Iola, Kansa.

Angela Henry: Yes I was wondering where in the application would you
identify specifically that you were a novice applicant. Is there any
particular place or just throughout the narrative?

Michael Wells: You certainly would want to discuss it in the narrative
but there is an assurance that would need to be signed that's a part of
the appendices of the application. And while we're talking I'll see if I
can find exactly what page.

Karen Dorsey: Page 50 - I'm sorry 52 I believe. Yes page 52.

Angela Henry: And are there priority points given to a novice applicant?

Michael Wells: Yes five points.

Angela Henry: Five points that's\...

Michael Wells: It's actually not a novice applicant. It's someone who's
never been funded. You could have applied before but if you've never
been funded you would still get those five points.

Angela Henry: Within this initiative right.

Michael Wells: Correct.

Angela Henry: Okay. And then would all the partners need to sign that or
is just the LEA right? It would just be the LEA.

Michael Wells: Just the authorized representative which is usually the
superintendent of the LEA.

Karen Dorsey: Unless it's a consortia of LEAs then each authorized
representative from each LEA would have to sign the assurance.

Michael Wells: But you wouldn't need it from mental health and law
enforcement and so forth just the LEA.

Angela Henry: Okay thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Christy Compton of
Lynchburg, Virginia.

Christy Compton: Hi thank you again for providing all this good
information. Earlier in the call you mentioned that the lowest funded
score from previous years was around the 91.33 range. Our school
district is having a hard time finding the score that we received last
year. We were not funded. But we're trying to find out what our final
score was.

The only thing we can find is one set of the technical review from
reader number two. So we were wondering if there was any way to obtain
our score just for us to kind of see where we need to be and as we're
doing the planning process.

Karen Dorsey: This is Karen. What you can do is send me an email but it
has to be from somebody that is a district employee. So and give me the
city and state and the official name of your LEA. And I cannot guarantee
how quickly I can get those to you because we actually don't have them
on site so I can't go and pull them and fax them to you. So there is a
bit of a process that we have to submit and request and then we can get
those emailed to you.

Christy Compton: Thank you and I apologize for asking an individual
question. But it was something we were looking at. And you said last
year am I correct in understanding that it was about 380 submitted last
year with 60 funded. And this year you're anticipating funding about 20?

Michael Wells: Twenty-eight was the published anticipation but that's
just our best guess.

Christy Compton: Okay. It is much more competitive this year.

Michael Wells: It just depends on how many applications we get. And in
fact last year when we funded 60 that's the largest what we funded
perhaps ever certainly for a long, long time.

Christy Compton: Okay thank you so much.

Operator: From the line of Leslie LcGrith of Darby, Pennsylvania.

Leslie McGrith: Hi, how are you?

Michael Wells: We're doing well.

Leslie McGrith: Did I understand you say that a partner can be added
during the duration of the grant or is there a cut off time?

Michael Wells: Not a required partner they should be there from the very
beginning but someone who might be working with your district could be
added later on if it's determined say for instance the Boy's and Girl's
Club you didn't think about them as you wrote the grant. But they've
become involved and are interested you want to add them in as a partner.

Leslie McGrith: Okay. All right thank you.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time.

Michael Wells: Hold for just a second. Okay it looks like we have no
further questions for today. I'd like to thank everyone for calling in.
Remind you that we do have additional technical assistance calls
scheduled. The next one is scheduled from 1:30 to 3:30 Eastern Time
February 5.

You can check on the web site for the call in number and I.D. as you did
today and feel free to call back in with additional questions or to
listen in to other questions. Thank you so much. Thank you (Wendy).

Operator: This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect.

\*Please note that it was erroneously stated that there would be a call
on January 29, 2009 -- The next scheduled call will be February 5, 2009

END