The USAC Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) recognizes that during the winter holiday season many applicants and service providers might not be available to answer questions tied to Form 471 applications. If the SLD application reviewers are unable to reach a particular stakeholder by December 19th, they will delay the PIA resolution deadline (which is typically 15 days) until after January 2, 2015.
SLD application reviewers will continue to review applications during this time frame and applicants will receive quicker funding commitments if they are available to assist the reviewer in answering their questions over the break. It is advisable that if stakeholders are unavailable after December 19 that they leave an out of office message on their email and voice mail systems.
According to the FY 2015 SLD Administrative Procedures reviewers must not only make live contact with the appropriate contact person, but must also ask the contact if they are able to respond to the inquiry at that time, or if the question(s) needs to be deferred until later. Further information on the SLD Winter Contact Period procedures can be viewed here.
