BILL ANALYSIS
SB 305
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 1, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 305 (Corbett) - As Amended: May 6, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 22-10
SUBJECT : School facilities: seismic mitigation
SUMMARY : Requires the Office of the State Architect, using
existing resources, to update the inventory and report on the
seismic safety of California public schools to more accurately
identify building deficiencies in school facilities. Requires
the State Allocation Board (SAB) to use the information from
this updated inventory and report to inform the development of
eligibility criteria for the Seismic Mitigation Program.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Department of General Services (DGS) to, in
consultation with the Seismic Safety Commission, conduct an
inventory of public school buildings that are concrete tilt-up
school buildings and school buildings with nonwood frame walls
that do not meet the minimum requirements of the 1976 Uniform
Building Code. Provides that priority shall be given to
school buildings that are in the highest seismic risk zones in
accordance with the seismic hazard maps of the Department of
Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology.
2)Requires the DGS to submit the report by December 31, 2001 to
the Legislature and the Governor that summarizes the findings
of the seismic safety inventory and makes recommendations
about future actions that should be taken to address the
problems found by the seismic safety inventory. Prohibits the
report from identifying individual schoolsites.
3)Requires public school buildings to meet pupil safety
performance standards pursuant to the Field Act.
4)Authorizes school districts to apply for state education bond
funds for extraordinary circumstances, which may include the
need to repair, reconstruct, or replace the most vulnerable
school facilities that are identified as a Category 2
building, determined by the DGS to pose an unacceptable risk
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of injury to its occupants in the event of a seismic event.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : Background . The Field Act . The Field Act, named
after the author of the bill establishing the Act,
Assemblymember C. Don Field, was enacted in 1933 after an
earthquake in Long Beach. The Act authorized the State
Architect to develop a statewide building code to make all
buildings, especially school buildings, safe from earthquakes.
The Act has been strengthened since then and California's public
schools are commonly considered to be the safest public
buildings in the state.
Seismic Safety Inventory of Public Schools . On November 15,
2002, the DGS released a report titled "Seismic Safety Inventory
of California Public Schools," pursuant to AB 300 (Corbett),
Chapter 622, Statutes of 1999. Then Assemblymember Corbett
argued that an inventory was needed because some systems allowed
during the early days of the Field Act did not behave as
anticipated and as result, there are school buildings that are
at risk of full or partial collapse due to design philosophies,
methods of construction, unapproved alterations, deficient
structural system, or deterioration to primary structural
systems over the years.
Report Findings . Based on the criteria specified in the bill,
the DGS' Division of the State Architect (DSA) evaluated
construction documents of nonwood frame public school buildings
built before July 1, 1978. These are buildings designed and
constructed prior to the incorporation of seismic design of
buildings within the 1976 Uniform Building Code adopted on July
1, 1978 following an earthquake in the San Fernando Valley in
1971. The DSA found that "80 percent of California's
kindergarten through 12th grade public school buildings meet
life safety performance standards and would protect children
from injury during a serious earthquake." However, the report
found that 7,537 school buildings, deemed Category 2 buildings,
representing 14% of the state's kindergarten through 12th grade
school building's square footage at the time of the report, may
not perform well during an earthquake and should undergo
additional seismic evaluation. This inventory is commonly
referred to as the "AB 300 list". The report also identified
2,100 school buildings that are expected, but not guaranteed, to
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achieve life-safety performance in future earthquakes.
Education Bond Funds . In part due to the AB 300 report,
Proposition 1D, the Kindergarten-University Public Education
Facilities Bond Act of 2006, passed by voters in November, 2006,
authorizes up to $199.5 million for the repair, reconstruction,
or replacement of the most vulnerable school facilities or
Category 2 buildings. With limited funds, the SAB, a ten-member
body that administers state bond funds, adopted regulations in
September 2007 that specify the following four eligibility
criteria for funding:
1)The facility is constructed of one of four Category 2
construction types (Concrete Moment Frame; Precast/Tilt-up
Concrete Shear Wall with Flexible Roof, Precast Concrete Frame
and Roofs with Concrete Shear Walls, or Unreinforced Masonry
Bearing Wall buildings);
2)The facility is located in a zone where the ground shaking
intensity (GSI) is 1.70g or more;
3)The facility is designed for student and staff occupancy; and,
4)A structural engineer's report has been conducted identifying
the facility's deficiencies.
Based on these criteria, the DSA initially estimated that 77
facilities were eligible for funding. Through contacts with
districts and extensive outreach, the DSA has determined that 52
of the 77 facilities have already been rehabilitated, replaced,
demolish, or are no longer used for students and staff, leaving
25 eligible facilities. Thus far, four districts have submitted
architectural plans to the DSA for review and one application,
from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, has been
approved for funding by the SAB and only recently at its June
24, 2009 meeting. Districts have reported that the eligibility
criteria are too stringent and therefore only a handful intends
to apply for mitigation funds. The SAB, working in conjunction
with the DSA, is currently in the process of revising the
regulations. Several options to expand eligibility have been
proposed by the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) for
consideration by the SAB, including lowering the GSI threshold
and expanding the number of building construction types.
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This bill requires the DGS to update the AB 300 inventory and
report and requires the SAB to use the information to inform the
development of eligibility criteria for seismic mitigation
funding. The DSA and the SAB are in the process of doing what
this bill requires. The original AB 300 investigation cost
$500,000 and was a paper review. To garner more precise
information, almost a year ago, DSA initiated contact with
school districts with facilities on the AB 300 list and asked
districts to provide information on the structural systems
(e.g., is the facility constructed with steel, concrete masonry,
etc.) of the facilities. DSA anticipates having an updated
report by next year. To ensure that the updated information is
accurate and complete, the author may wish to consider requiring
districts to comply with the DSA's request for information.
As discussed above, DSA is also currently working with the SAB
on revision of the existing regulations and eligibility criteria
for the $199.5 million seismic mitigation funding.
Arguments in Support . The author states, "There has been
growing concern in the state that a number of our public schools
are seismically unsafe. Additionally, until 2001, there were no
methods in place to determine which schools were unsafe and
where they were located?.Unfortunately, the criteria established
in regulation [for seismic mitigation funds] has made it
virtually impossible for bond funding to be allocated to the
schools for seismic safety construction?.As the state revisits
this matter it is important that the data on schools in [sic] up
to date."
Related Legislation . SB 375 (Hancock), held on the Senate
Appropriations Committee suspense file, authorizes the SAB to
include costs for structural engineering reports and interim
housing in the apportionment for seismic mitigation funds.
Earlier versions of AB 970 (Yee), introduced in 2005, would have
authorized the DGS to provide to districts, upon their requests,
information regarding the seismic safety status of specific
buildings in their districts. The bill was dropped by the
author and gutted and amended into a different subject area
bill.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
SB 305
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California School Boards Association
Castro Valley Unified School District
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087