GEM$ will prevent grant submission after the due date and time as listed in the RFP posting for competitive grants. If an applicant has technical difficulties trying to submit a grant 10-15 minutes prior to the deadline or has an issue getting the right people to submit their piece forward in the system, there really is not much DESE can do to show evidence of that and keep the grant fair, open and competitive. Please plan accordingly.
DESE wants to partner with districts to have successful grant submissions but districts need to uphold their end of the submission process and refrain from submitting within minutes of the grant submission availability. If issues are encountered so close to the deadline it is very difficult to be able to troubleshoot and assist in time to meet the deadline. An LEA choosing to wait until the very end to submit is at their own risk of becoming disqualified from review.
All competitive grants DESE administers are discretionary and highly competitive often with a set amount of funding available to award and application submissions that exceed available funding. Giving extensions to specific applicants gives the appearance of unfairness and upsets the entire competitive procurement process modeled after the state’s RFR process. In every competitive RFP posting the submission instructions highlight the importance of getting competitive submissions all the way through the (3) LEA approval steps before DESE can consider it as submitted. Please plan accordingly and ensure all parties involved in moving the grant forward are aware and available to meet the deadline.
Step 1: Establish and assign proper roles well ahead of the grant due date/time. Grant submission at the LEA level requires roles to be established for Grant writer for the specific fund code, LEA fiscal for financial review/approval, and Superintendent/Chief Executive sign off.
Step 2: Submit the grant through all (3) LEA steps in GEM$. There are three LEA steps a competitive grant must be submitted through by the due date and time to be considered for funding:
- Grantwriter Submitted
- LEA Fiscal Representative Approved
- LEA Superintendent / Chief Executive Approved
Of course, should GEM$ have a known system-wide issue and ALL applicants are having difficulty submitting a grant, we can consider extending the deadline but that is up to DESE to determine if that is appropriate and available.