LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1193, as introduced, 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
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 grant for new
construction to provide 50% of the additional costs associated with
the use of design and materials that promote the use of specified
characteristics of a high performance school if the total amount of
those costs exceeds specified nonresidential building energy
efficiency standards by at least 15%. The bill would also increase
the amount of a grant for a modernization project to provide for 60%
of those additional costs. The bill would limit the amount of this
increase to $3,000,000 per schoolsite. The bill would require the
State Allocation Board to adopt regulations to implement the
increases. The provisions of the bill would be applicable to
contracts for these additional design and material costs signed on or
after January 31, 2010.