The State Board of Education approved two contracts that will use $88 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The board also unanimously approved the final calculation of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which acts as MDE’s funding request for public K-12 schools. The base student cost this year is $6,532 and the total funding request from the formula calculation is $2.661 billon.
The biggest contract approved by the board paid with federal COVID-19 relief funds was to World Wide Technology of St. Louis, Missouri to build a new Mississippi Student Information System to replace the existing system, which is now nearly 21 years old. The contract amount is for $10.79 million for a term that will last from December 16, 2021 to September 30, 2024.
The second was a $1.8 million contract for TempStaff LLC., which would staff a call center that would respond to calls from prospective and licensed educators regarding licensure requirements. Like the other contracts with federal grants, this one will be for three years as well.
The third contract was for more than $514,000 for a term of three years for three consultants to provide technical assistance for keeping the MDE compliant with federal regulations governing ESSER funds.
On December 3, the state Public Procurement Review Board gave MDE an exemption on the call center contract despite having a protest on the contract. In September, the board for the Information Technology Services agency gave the MDE an exemption on the regulations that require one-year contracts for technology-related contracts.
MDE wanted an exemption to the regulatory one-year limitation on emergency contracts (for two years and nine months) for a vendor that would provide a call center for education licensure, which
Other components of the $88 million procurement with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds will include $9.3 million for the educator career continuum system, $14 million for a new school safety system, $14.6 million for the replacement of the Mississippi Student Information System and $49.5 million in learning aids for students.
The emergency declaration will help MDE officials meet deadlines to spend the federal money, which was appropriated by the Legislature last March.
Federal regulations require contracts to be awarded by January 2022 for the first round of funds and March 2022 for the second round. The department also must show federal officials that the funds are obligated through September 30, 2023 (first batch) and September 30, 2024 (second batch), which requires an extended contract.
These federal funds are a 9.5 percent holdback by the MDE from $2.5 billion from the ESSER Fund provided by the federal government that was disbursed to school districts for COVID-related expenses such as distance learning. Most of these funds were issued directly to districts.
