This is the body of the email I sent today to all applicants:

Ladies and Gentlemen -

I will have the final, validated selections for you all at the end of this week. At that time I will also announce who the selection committee members are so you know who reviewed and scored your applications.

The process has gone beautifully, and you should be proud of the efforts you each made (and that your peers have made) in applying for this pilot program. The overall quality, thoughtfulness, and due diligence in the overwhelming majority of the applications has been raised and lauded by the selection committee more than a few times during their deliberations. It reflects so well on each of your agencies that the caliber of response is so high, and that numerous re-reads and extended discussions have been essential for the committee members to reach their conclusions.

I know you are all anxious to find out the outcome, and to be able to move forward with continued time constraints. We will work to make this as smooth a roll-out for the finalists as possible over the coming weeks and months.

The only caveat to the end-of-week deadline for announcements is that we must coordinate with Intel on their press release process, and I haven't heard back from them yet on how that needs to look. I will do my very best to at least secure permission to release winners' names by Friday so planning can begin immediately thereafter.

My deepest gratitude for taking this process seriously, and for working to help bring new opportunities to children across this gorgeous state of ours.

Leslie
Partnership Technology Director
ODE/OAESD