BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1724 (Chesbro)
Hearing Date: 06/28/2010 Amended: 06/22/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 6-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 1724, an urgency measure, would allow two
elementary schools in the Del Norte County Unified School
District and one elementary school in the Calaveras Unified
School District to receive necessary small schools funding, as
specified, even though the districts' enrollment exceed caps to
qualify for this funding.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
NSS exemptions $165 $165 $165 General*
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Under current law, school districts with fewer than 2,501 units
of average daily attendance (ADA) are eligible for necessary
small schools (NSS) funding for certain schools assuming
specified conditions are met. For high schools, those
conditions include an ADA of 301 or fewer and a specified number
of teachers. For elementary schools, the maximum number of ADA
is 96.
This bill would allow each district to receive NSS funding
despite the fact that both districts exceed the district cap
(Del Norte County USD has approximately 3,400 ADA and Calaveras
USD has nearly 3,300). The bill further specifies that the
districts would only be eligible for NSS funding as long as the
ADA for the specified schools does not exceed 100.
Normally, districts receive a revenue limit apportionment for
each unit of ADA. Districts qualifying for the alternative NSS
funding model receive a payment based on ADA thresholds.
Relevant to this bill, elementary schools with an ADA of between
25 and 49 received $226,197 in 2009-10, and schools having
between 73 and 96 received $452,395.
The cost of authorizing NSS exemptions for the specified schools
would be approximately $165,000, annually, depending on the ADA
of the schools in a given fiscal year. In addition to this
bill's total direct costs, providing NSS exemptions to districts
above the current NSS cap creates pressure to raise the cap or
provide exemptions to other districts with enrollment exceeding
2,500. Thus, passage of this bill could result in additional
funding pressure of several million dollars, annually.
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SB 1724 (Chesbro)
SB 460 (Florez) of 2007, which would have allowed the Kings
Canyon Unified District to claim necessary small school funding
for a high school, was held on this committee's suspense file.
SB 1139 (Cox) of 2008, which would have the Kings Canyon Unified
School District to claim NSS funding for a high school and would
have allowed Calaveras USD to claim NSS for funding for an
elementary school, was held on this committee's suspense file.