ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
school
facilities board; enrollment projections
(NOW: school facilities board; omnibus)
Makes numerous changes to the School Facilities Board (SFB) and related statutes.
Students FIRST established the SFB to develop capital standards, distribute state funding to ensure that adequate school facilities are built and maintained, and ensure the appropriate capital equipment is available in schools to meet the State’s academic requirements. (Laws 1998, 43rd Legislature, Fifth Special Session, Chapter 1). Schools are built or maintained by monies from the following funds: the deficiencies corrections fund, the building renewal fund and the new school facilities fund.
The deficiencies correction fund provides monies for correcting deficiencies in existing school facilities. Deficiencies might take the form of a square footage deficiency or a quality deficiency, and must be corrected by June 30, 2003. The SFB is charged with adopting rules establishing minimum school facility guidelines, assessing school buildings against these guidelines, and providing monies to bring the buildings up to the guidelines.
The building renewal fund provides monies to maintain the adequacy of existing school facilities. These monies can be used for major renovations and repairs of a building, for upgrades to building systems that will maintain or extend the useful life of a building, and for infrastructure costs. Monies from this fund may not be used for new construction, remodeling interior space for aesthetic purposes, exterior beautification, demolition, soft capital items, or routine maintenance. A building’s square footage, age, and student capacity are used in the building renewal calculation.
The new school facilities fund provides monies to construct new schools to meet the minimum adequacy guidelines. The criteria to determine district eligibility for monies from the new school facilities fund are based on annual evaluation and approval of district enrollment projections and the additional square footage that will be needed to maintain adequacy standards in a district. The SFB distributes new school facilities monies to school districts based on the following formula: (number of students) x (square footage) x (cost per square foot) = allocation.
The fiscal impact to the state general fund associated with this bill is unknown at this time. A Joint Legislative Budget Committee fiscal note has been requested.
1. Prohibits a school district governing board from reconfiguring grades if the reconfiguration results in a reduction of pupil square footage that would cause the school district to fall below the minimum adequate square footage requirements within three years.
2. Allows a school district to temporarily reconfigure grades to accommodate new school construction if the temporary reconfiguration does not exceed one year.
3. Allows the SFB to use monies in the new school facilities fund to pay attorney and witness fees and other costs to sue for the recovery of damages resulting from alleged construction defects or design defects for deficiencies corrections and new school construction that the SFB believes caused or contributed to a failure of the school building to conform to the minimum building adequacy guidelines.
4. Allows the SFB to lease facilities for new schools or to expand current schools using new school facilities monies if the SFB determines that the lease would be more appropriate for the school district than to construct new facilities:
a) Requires the SFB to establish criteria for school districts to lease facilities and allows the SFB to modify the building adequacy standards except for health and safety standards.
b) Requires leased facilities to meet the building adequacy standards and requires the Joint Committee on Capital Review (JCCR) to review the criteria established by the SFB.
c) Grants the SFB discretion to determine the duration, cost, termination and renewal of leases, except that the initial contract may not exceed five years, but is renewable up to two times for up to five years each renewal.
d) States the lessor is responsible for maintaining the facility pursuant to the building adequacy standards, and the school district is not eligible for capital outlay or building renewal monies for that facility.
e) Requires JCCR to review proposed leases.
f) Prohibits monies from being expended for the lease of portable facilities.
5. Allows the SFB to lease-to-own facilities for new schools or to expand current schools using new school facilities monies if it is determined by the SFB that the lease-to-own would be more appropriate for the school district than to construct new facilities:
a) Requires the SFB to establish criteria for school districts to lease-to-own facilities and allows the SFB to modify the building adequacy standards except for health and safety standards.
b) Requires lease-to-own facilities to meet the building adequacy standards.
c) Requires JCCR to review the criteria established by the SFB.
d) Grants the SFB discretion to determine the duration and cost of the lease-to-own agreement, except that the lease-to-own cannot exceed 25 years.
e) States the lessor is responsible for maintaining the facility pursuant to the building adequacy standards, and the school district is not eligible for capital outlay or building renewal monies for that facility, except that the facility is eligible for building renewal monies when the lease-to-own agreement ends and the district owns the facility.
f) Prohibits monies from being expended for leasing-to-own portable facilities.
g) Allows the SFB to enter into lease-to-own agreements when the net present value, minus finance and maintenance costs, does not exceed the difference between the amount necessary to fulfill the statutory requirements for the fiscal year and the amount the SFB receives for new school construction.
h) Requires payments for lease-to-own agreements to be made from the new school construction fund.
i) Requires JCCR to review any proposed lease-to-own facilities and net present value calculations.
6. Clarifies that school districts may exceed minimum adequacy guidelines and build athletic fields and any other capital projects for leased and leased-to-own facilities.
7. Requires the SFB executive director to provide project managers for new school construction if requested by the school district. Stipulates, if a school district uses its own project manager, the members of the school district governing board and the project manager must sign an affidavit to ensure compliance with minimum adequacy requirements.
8. Requires surplus monies from new school construction to be returned to the new school facilities fund. Allows a school district to retain surplus monies if the SFB determines the project was completed using quality products.
9. Requires the SFB to inspect school buildings annually unless it is determined by the SFB that the building shall be inspected every other year.
10. Establishes a school maintenance program administered by the SFB.
a) Requires the SFB, with input from school districts, to develop and distribute standards for routine and preventative building maintenance and guidelines for determining the appropriate amount of maintenance and operation monies or building renewal monies, whichever is applicable, that should be budgeted for maintenance.
b) Exempts the SFB from the rule-making process for one year to establish the standards.
c) Stipulates, after inspecting a building, if the SFB determines that a building has received inadequate maintenance, the school has six months to rectify the problem.
d) Provides, upon re-inspection, if the school continues to be improperly maintained, the SFB must notify the school district of the amount of monies that the school district must budget for maintenance in the following fiscal years until the facility is adequate.
e) Prohibits the school district from spending these budgeted monies for any other purpose.
f) Requires school districts that fail to maintain facilities to be listed in the ADE annual report card as having failed to maintain adequate facilities.
11. Requires school districts, prior to receiving building renewal monies, to annually submit the following:
a) A letter signed by the school district governing board members to the SFB stating that the school district understands and will comply with the permissible uses of building renewal monies. The SFB must notify the school district in writing within 60 days if the proposed uses of building renewal monies are permissible.
b) A comprehensive five-year building renewal plan. The SFB must notify the school district in writing within 60 days if the proposed uses of building renewal monies are permissible. Allows a school district to revise and resubmit the five-year building renewal plan at any time.
c) The current statutory report of the prior year’s uses of building renewal monies.
12. Stipulates that beginning July 1, 2003, a school district is not eligible for building renewal monies until the fiscal year following the completion of all deficiencies corrections projects in the school district. Allows the SFB to make exceptions if extraordinary circumstances exist that cause the school district to fall below minimum adequacy guidelines.
13. Prohibits the SFB from distributing monies from the deficiencies corrections fund for projects commenced after June 30, 2003 or for projects not listed in the district assessment signed by the school district and the SFB before June 30, 2001 and supplemental projects after April 30, 2002.
14. Extends the deficiencies corrections fund for one year from June 30, 2003 to June 30, 2004.
15. Requires the SFB executive director to aid school districts in the development of reasonable and cost effective school designs to avoid statewide duplicated efforts and unwarranted expenditures in the area of school design.
16. Declares that the SFB, in cooperation with the school district, must consider the least expensive plan for serving pupils in school districts, including the use of leases and community cooperatives.
17. Repeals the freeze on changing the minimum school facility adequacy guidelines and declares that any proposed changes to the guidelines shall not be adopted unless it is determined that the changes would either result in cost savings to the state or be necessary to comply with building, health, fire or safety codes.
18. Requires any classroom space of new school facilities that were funded in whole or in part by Class B bonds, capital overrides or unrestricted capital outlay to be included in the computations of student capacity for those facilities.
19. Requires any classroom space that results from the expansion of existing facilities that were funded in whole or in part by Class B bonds, capital overrides or unrestricted capital outlay that exceeds 25 percent of the student capacity as of January 1, 2002 to be included in the computations of student capacity for those facilities.
20. Allows the SFB to temporarily transfer monies between the capital reserve fund, the deficiencies corrections fund, the emergency deficiencies corrections fund, the building renewal fund and the new school facilities fund if the transfer is necessary to avoid a temporary shortfall in one fund, the transferred monies are restored as soon as practicable and SFB reports to JCCR the amount and reason for transferring monies between funds.
21. Blends multiple enactments relating to the powers and duties of the SFB.
22. Contains technical, conforming and clarifying changes.
23. Contains a retroactive date of May 1, 2002.
APPROP 3/26/02 DPA/SE 10-4-1-1-0
3rd Read 4/08/02 33-16-11-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
April 17, 2002