LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1193, as amended, Lowenthal. School facilities funding: high
performance schools.
Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998
(the Greene Act), requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to
applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state
funding for construction and modernization of school facilities,
including hardship funding and supplemental funding for site
development and acquisition and requires the board to adopt rules and
regulations for the administration of the Greene Act. The
Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006
(2006 bond act) sets aside $100,000,000 of the proceeds of
the bonds sold under that act for incentive grants under the Greene
Act to promote the use of design and materials in new construction
and modernization projects that include the attributes of
high-performance schools.
Existing law authorizes a grant for new construction to be used
for the costs of design and materials that promote the efficient use
of energy and water, the maximum use of natural lighting and indoor
air quality, the use of recycled materials and materials that emit a
minimum of toxic substances, the use of acoustics conducive to
teaching and learning, and other characteristics of high performance
schools. A school district is required to certify, as part of its
application for funding under the Greene Act, that it has considered
the feasibility of using these characteristics of high performance
schools.
This bill would increase the amount of a modernization grant by
$250,000 per schoolsite and the amount of a new construction grant by
$150,000 per schoolsite if a school district incorporates the use of
high performance design and materials, and if the project is able to
achieve one of 2 specified objectives. This increase would be
provided from the $100,000,000 set aside for this purpose in the 2006
bond act. The bill would require the State Allocation Board to
adopt, and the Office of Administrative Law to process, emergency
regulations to implement these provisions.
The bill would
make a Career Technical Education Facilities Program project eligible
for these grant increases, provided the project meets the criteria
prescribed by these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Comments/questions on SB 1193 (Lowenthal and Pavley): School facilities funding: high performance schools.
