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 Federal  Communications  Commission  DA  01-  2749 
 Before  the  Federal  Communications  Commission 
 Washington,  DC  20554 


 In  the  Matter  of  ) 
 ) 
 Request  for  Review  of  the  ) 
 Decision  of  the  ) 
 Universal  Service  Administrator  by  ) 
 ) 
 Prospect  School  District  No.  59  )  File  No.  SLD-  202457 
 Prospect,  Oregon  ) 
 ) 
 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  26,  2001  Released:  November  27,  2001 
 By  the  Accounting  Policy  Division,  Common  Carrier  Bureau: 
 1.  The  Accounting  Policy  Division  has  under  consideration  a  Request  for  Review  filed 
 by  Prospect  School  District  59  (Prospect),  Prospect,  Oregon,  on  October  2,  2000.  1  In  the 
 Request  for  Review,  Prospect  seeks  review  of  a  funding  commitment  decision  issued  by  the 
 Schools  and  Libraries  Division  (SLD)  of  the  Universal  Service  Administrative  Company 
 (Administrator)  on  May  26,  2000.  2  For  the  reasons  set  forth  below,  we  deny  Prospect’s  Request 
 for  Review. 


 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  Commission  or  the  SLD  only  upon  receipt.  4  As  noted  above, 
 SLD  issued  a  Funding  Commitment  Decision  Letter  on  May  26,  2000.  Prospect  filed  an  appeal 


 1  Letter  from  Don  Alexander,  Prospect  School  District  No.  59,  to  Federal  Communications  Commission,  filed 
 October  2,  2000  (Request  for  Review). 
 2  Letter  from  Schools  and  Libraries  Division,  Universal  Service  Administrative  Company,  to  Don  Alexander, 
 Prospect  School  District  59,  dated  May  26,  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-  2749 
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 of  the  funding  decision  with  SLD  on  August  8,  2000.  5  SLD  dismissed  that  appeal  as  untimely.  6 
 Upon  review  of  the  record,  we  find  that,  because  Prospect  failed  to  appeal  the  Funding 
 Commitment  Decision  Letter  within  the  requisite  30-  day  appeal  period,  Prospect’s  appeal  to 
 SLD  was  correctly  denied  as  untimely. 


 3.  To  the  extent  that  Prospect  requests  that  we  waive  the  30-  day  deadline  established  in 
 section  54.720(  b)  of  the  Commission's  rules,  7  we  deny  that  request  as  well.  The  Commission 
 may  waive  any  provision  of  its  rules,  but  a  request  for  waiver  must  be  supported  by  a  showing  of 
 good  cause.  8  Prospect  has  not  shown  cause  for  the  untimely  filing  of  its  initial  appeal  beyond 
 stating  that  the  person  responsible  for  monitoring  this  type  of  correspondence  was  leaving 
 employment  with  the  district  and  because  of  other  responsibilities  did  not  review  the 
 correspondence.  In  light  of  the  thousands  of  applications  that  SLD  must  review  and  process  each 
 funding  year,  we  believe  it  administratively  appropriate  for  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  Prospect’s  request  to  waive  section  54.720(  b). 


 4.  ACCORDINGLY,  IT  IS  ORDERED,  pursuant  to  authority  delegated  under  sections 
 0.91,  0.291,  1.  3,  and  54.722(  a)  of  the  Commission's  rules,  47  C.  F.  R.  §§  0.  91,  0.291,  1.  3,  and 
 54.722(  a),  that  the  Request  for  Review  filed  on  October  2,  2000,  by  Prospect  School  District  59, 
 Prospect,  Oregon  and  the  request  to  waive  the  30-  day  time  limit  in  which  to  file  an  appeal  ARE 
 DENIED. 


 FEDERAL  COMMUNICATIONS  COMMISSION 


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


 5  Letter  from  Don  Alexander,  Prospect  School  District  No.  59,  to  Schools  and  Libraries  Division,  Universal  Service 
 Administrative  Company,  filed  August  22,  2000. 
 6  Letter  from  Schools  and  Libraries  Division,  Universal  Service  Administrative  Company,  to  Don  Alexander, 
 Prospect  School  District  No.  59,  dated  August  25,  2000  (Administrator's  Decision  on  Appeal). 
 7  See  47  C.  F.  R.  §  54.  720(  b). 


 8  47  C.  F.  R.  §  1.3. 
2