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 Federal  Communications  Commission  DA  01-  2696 
 Before  the  Federal  Communications  Commission 
 Washington,  DC  20554 


 In  the  Matter  of  ) 
 ) 
 Request  for  Review  of  the  ) 
 Decision  of  the  ) 
 Universal  Service  Administrator  by  ) 
 ) 
 Request  for  Waiver  by  ) 
 ) 
 Pinellas  County  Schools  )  File  No.  SLD-  203512 
 Largo,  Florida  ) 
 ) 
 Federal-  State  Joint  Board  on  )  CC  Docket  No.  96-  45 
 Universal  Service  ) 
 ) 
 Changes  to  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  )  CC  Docket  No.  97-  21 
 National  Exchange  Carrier  Association,  Inc.  ) 


 ORDER 
 Adopted:  November  19,  2001  Released:  November  20,  2001 
 By  the  Accounting  Policy  Division,  Common  Carrier  Bureau: 
 1.  The  Accounting  Policy  Division  has  under  consideration  a  Request  for  Review  and 
 Waiver  filed  by  Pinellas  County  Schools  (Pinellas),  Largo,  Florida,  on  September  19,  2000.  1  In 
 its  Request  for  Review  and  Waiver,  Pinellas  seeks  review  of  a  funding  commitment  decision 
 issued  by  the  Schools  and  Libraries  Division  (SLD)  of  the  Universal  Service  Administrative 
 Company  (USAC  or  Administrator)  on  June  23,  2000.  2  Because  Pinellas  failed  to  appeal  SLD’s 
 funding  decision  within  30  days  of  the  Funding  Commitment  Decision  Letter,  it  also  requests  a 
 waiver  of  the  30-  day  appeal  period.  For  the  reasons  set  forth  below,  we  deny  Pinellas’s  Request 
 for  Review  and  its  Request  for  Waiver. 


 2.  Under  section  54.720(  b)  of  the  Commission’s  rules,  any  appeal  must  be  filed  within 
 30  days  of  the  issuance  of  the  decision  that  the  party  seeks  to  have  reviewed.  3  Documents  are 
 considered  to  be  filed  with  the  SLD  only  upon  receipt.  4  As  noted,  the  Funding  Commitment 


 1  Letter  from  Shannon  Eddinger,  Pinellas  County  Schools,  to  Federal  Communications  Commission,  filed 
 September  19,  2000  (Request  for  Review  and  Waiver). 
 2  Letter  from  Schools  and  Libraries  Division,  Universal  Service  Administrative  Company,  to  Shannon  Eddinger, 
 Pinellas  County  Schools,  dated  June  23,  2000  (Funding  Commitment  Decision  Letter). 
 3  47  C.  F.  R.  §  54.  720(  b). 


 4  47  C.  F.  R.§  1.  7. 
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 Federal  Communications  Commission  DA  01-  2696 
 2 
 Decision  Letter  was  issued  on  June  23,  2000.  Pinellas  filed  an  appeal  of  the  funding  decision 
 with  SLD  on  August  31,  2000.  5  SLD  dismissed  that  appeal  as  untimely.  6  Upon  review  of  the 
 record,  we  find  that,  because  Pinellas  failed  to  appeal  the  Funding  Commitment  Decision  Letter 
 within  the  requisite  30-  day  appeal  period,  Pinellas’s  appeal  to  SLD  was  correctly  denied  as 
 untimely. 


 3.  Pinellas  requests  that  we  waive  the  30-  day  deadline  established  in  section  54.720(  b) 
 of  the  Commission's  rules.  7  The  Commission  may  waive  any  provision  of  its  rules,  but  a  request 
 for  waiver  must  be  supported  by  a  showing  of  good  cause.  8  Pinellas  has  not  shown  cause  for  the 
 untimely  filing  of  its  initial  appeal  beyond  the  assertion  that  it  had  not  received  a  Receipt 
 Acknowledgement  Letter  and  without  that  letter  it  could  not  correlate  the  various  Funding 
 Request  Numbers  (FRNs)  in  the  Funding  Commitment  Decision  Letter  to  its  154  district  sites 
 and  thus  complete  its  review  of  the  funding  commitment  decision.  In  fact,  the  Funding 
 Commitment  Decision  Letter  restates  all  of  the  information  contained  in  the  Receipt 
 Acknowledgement  Letter  and  correlates  each  FRN  to  a  site  identifier.  9  In  light  of  the  thousands 
 of  applications  that  the  SLD  must  review  and  process  each  funding  year,  we  believe  it 
 administratively  appropriate  for  the  SLD  to  require  applicants  to  adhere  strictly  to  its  filing 
 deadlines.  Accordingly,  we  believe  that  waivers  of  these  deadlines  should  not  be  routinely 
 granted.  For  these  reasons,  we  find  that  the  circumstances  here  do  not  warrant  relief  and, 
 therefore,  we  deny  Pinellas’s  request  to  waive  section  54.720(  b). 


 4.  ACCORDINGLY,  IT  IS  ORDERED,  pursuant  to  authority  delegated  under  sections 
 0.91,  0.291,  and  54.722(  a)  of  the  Commission's  rules,  47  C.  F.  R.  §§  0.91,  0.  291,  and  54.722(  a), 
 that  the  Request  for  Review  and  the  Request  for  Waiver  filed  on  September  19,  2000,  by  Pinellas 
 County  Schools,  Largo,  Florida  ARE  DENIED. 


 FEDERAL  COMMUNICATIONS  COMMISSION 


 Mark  G.  Seifert 
 Deputy  Chief,  Accounting  Policy  Division 
 Common  Carrier  Bureau 


 5  Letter  from  Bob  Liles,  Pinellas  County  Schools,  to  Schools  and  Libraries  Division,  Universal  Service 
 Administrative  Company,  filed  August  31,  2000. 
 6  Letter  from  Schools  and  Libraries  Division,  Universal  Service  Administrative  Company,  to  Bob  Liles,  Pinellas 
 County  Schools,  dated  September  1,  2000  (Administrator’s  Decision  on  Appeal). 
 7  See  47  C.  F.  R.  §  54.  720(  b). 


 8  See  47  C.  F.  R.  §  1.3. 
 9  See  Funding  Commitment  Decision  Letter,  at  6-  42. 
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