ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
school facilities
board; monitoring; leases
Establishes a school maintenance program to be administered by the School Facilities Board for ensuring adequate preventative maintenance, and changes the inspection of all school buildings in the state from at least once every five years to at least once every two years. Allows school districts to lease facilities for new schools rather than construct new facilities.
The School Facilities Board is required to inspect each school building in the state at least once every five years, provide for the correction of existing school deficiencies and ensure that school districts are in compliance with the minimum school facility adequacy guidelines. It is estimated that approximately 70 percent of the needs by school districts relating to deficiencies corrections are due to a lack of proper maintenance of facilities, according to staff of the School Facilities Board. This bill establishes a school maintenance program to ensure adequate preventative maintenance of school buildings, and additionally changes the school building inspection requirement from at least once every five years to at least once every two years.
H.B. 2552 also allows the School Facilities Board to approve a school district’s lease of buildings to address new school facility needs rather than constructing new facilities. The provision provides the School Facilities Board flexibility to determine if a school district’s growth is long-term or temporary based upon the Board’s demographic projections, and allows the Board to approve the lease of buildings for school district’s that are defined as temporary growth areas.
The School Facilities Board anticipates that there are no additional administrative costs associated with the implementation of this bill, and there is no discernable fiscal impact to the state general fund.
1. Requires the School Facilities Board (Board) to implement a school maintenance program to ensure that school buildings receive adequate preventative maintenance, and establishes the following program requirements:
(a) Requires the Board to develop and distribute to school districts standards for routine preventative building maintenance and guidelines for determining a preventative maintenance and operations budget.
(b) Requires school building inspections to include a determination of whether the routine preventative maintenance has been adequate. Prohibits a school facility from being inspected for preventative maintenance until after the facility meets all of the minimum school facility adequacy guidelines and preventative maintenance standards.
(c) Requires the Board to notify a school district if a determination is made by the Board that a building has received inadequate preventative maintenance, and to notify the school district of building maintenance standards.
(d) Requires the Board to reinspect inadequate buildings in a school district no sooner than six months after the initial notice of inadequacy.
(e) Requires the Board to notify a school district of the amount of maintenance and operations money to be budgeted for maintaining inadequate buildings, if the Board determines that the school district failed to meet the maintenance standards after the six-month correction period.
(f) Specifies requirements for a school district to budget monies until the Board determines that the preventative maintenance of the facility is adequate, and prohibits a school district from expending the budgeted maintenance and operations monies for any other purpose.
2. Requires the School Facilities Board to provide technical support to school districts as requested by school districts, including assistance in meeting preventative maintenance requirements.
3. Changes the Board’s inspection of each school building in the state from at least once every five years to at least once every two years.
4. Allows the Board to distribute monies for school district to lease facilities for a new school if the Board determines that it is more appropriate for a school district to lease facilities rather than construct new facilities, based upon enrollment projections.
5. Allows the Board to waive one or more of the building adequacy standards for leased facilities at the request of a school district.
6. Requires the Board to distribute the monies needed for leases provided that the rent paid by a school district is less than or equal to the fair market value for leases of similar property in that area.
7. Specifies that monies distributed for school district leases are not subject to the base cost per square foot calculation pursuant to the Board’s distribution of monies for new school facilities.
8. Makes technical and clarifying changes.
9. Provides for a general effective date.
Amendments
Adopted in Education Committee
1. Makes technical and clarifying changes.
ED 3/5/01 DPA 9-0-1-0-0 ED 3/22/01 DPA 7-1-0-0
Approps 3/6/01 W/D
3rd Read 3/13/01 DPA 58-0-2-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
April 2, 2001