12.10 Team Eblast

MDE State Grant, 99h, is Open! Closes Jan. 6.

Good news!  The MI Dept. of Education (MDE) state grant is now open in NexSys!! The name of the grant is “99h: Robotics Competition Grant”. The MDE has replaced the MEGS+ grant system with NexSys.

The grant will be open until January 6 at 4:30 pm. This closing time is earlier than in prior years when the grant closed at 11:59 pm.
Here are a few things to note:

  • The grant must be initiated and submitted by the person in your school/district with Level 5 clearance. This person is usually in the superintendent’s office. The Level 5 can give the coach Level 3 or 4 clearance to fill it out once it is initiated. Then, the Level 5 can review the information and submit the application.
  • Any MDE recognized public or non-public school/district may apply for the grant.
  • All of a school’s/district’s FIRST teams should be included on a single application. The application allows you to add “pages” for each team across programs. It should include all of the FRC, FTC, FLL-Challenge/Explore/Discover teams in your school/district.
  • If you are a non-public school and don’t have a SIGMA vendor number with the state yet, you must establish one. Do this right away.
  • The award amounts in the grant are qualified with the words “up to”. This serves to alert you that this is the maximum amount the team may be awarded but the numbers may be adjusted downward based on the number of applicants.
  • Make sure you communicate right away with your Level 5 because January 6 will come more quickly than you think.
  • Participating in a sanctioned FIRST in Michigan FTC competition in the 2021-2022 season is a requirement of the grant. Participating in a fall, winter-remote, or spring FiM FTC event satisfies this requirement.
  • Please reach out to me if you have any issues. I may not have the answers but I can help direct you to someone who does.
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