BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1193
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Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1193 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: August 2, 2010
Policy Committee: Education Vote:7-1
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill increases the modernization and new construction
grants under the State School Facility Program (SSFP) by
$250,000 per schoolsite (modernization) and $150,000 per
schoolsite (new construction), if a school district incorporates
the use of high performance design and materials specified in
current law. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the project to meet one of the following in order to
receive the increased grant amounts: (a) score the requisite
number of points to meet the high performance criteria, as
determined by the State Allocation Board (SAB) and certified
by the Division of State Architect (DSA), or (b) achieve
Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) "verified"
status in accordance with the California Edition of CHPS
criteria, with confirmation by DSA.
2)Requires the SAB, in addition to the $250,000 increase for
modernization projects, to provide funding for modernization
projects that exceed the criteria based on a high performance
rating school, as specified.
3)Requires the SAB to adopt emergency regulations to administer
this section at the next regularly scheduled board meeting
following the effective date of this measure. This bill also
requires the Office of the Administrative Law to process these
regulations within 14 calendar days of their adoption.
4)Requires a school district to provide matching funds for any
increased grants, except for hardship allocations, as
specified. This measure also requires the increased grant
amounts be provided from Proposition 1D state school bond
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funds allocated for high performance schools.
5)Specifies that a career technical education project is
eligible for the increased grant amounts.
FISCAL EFFECT
State school facilities bond pressure, likely in the tens of
millions, to accommodate increased grant amounts and demand for
projects funded under the HPI program. This bill increases the
based grant amounts for this program and specifies that CTE
school facility projects are also eligible under this program.
According to OPSC, there is $76.9 million (of $100 million)
available for the HPI program. To date, 17 school districts
have received $16.5 million for approved projects.
COMMENTS
1)Background . AB 127 (Nunez), Chapter 35, Statutes of 2006,
authorized Proposition 1D: the Kindergarten-University Public
Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 for $10.416 billion. The
voters passed Proposition 1D on November 7, 2006. Of the
$10.416 billion, $7.329 billion was allocated for K-12
education facilities, including $100 million for High
Performance Initiative (HPI) grants.
The SSFP, administered by the SAB, provides funding primarily
to local education agencies (LEAs) to construct or modernize
education facilities. The SSFP receives funding from a
variety of sources, including the state GF and proceeds from
the sale of general obligation (G.O.) bonds. Programs under
the SSFP include new construction, modernization, the HPI, CTE
facilities, and charter school facilities.
2)Purpose . The HPI provides incentive funding to augment new
construction and modernization projects for the use of designs
and materials that promote energy and water efficiency,
natural lighting and indoor air quality, the use of recycled
materials and materials that emit a minimal amount of toxic
substances, the use of acoustics conducive to teaching and
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learning, and other characteristics of high performance
schools. The HPI program is based on the rating criteria
point system of the CHPS, as determined by DSA.
According to the author, "School districts have struggled to
navigate the layers of red tape required by [the HPI] program,
leaving approximately $80 million in program funds unclaimed.
[The] program has been stalled by a well-intentioned but
onerous process for awarding the grants." This bill proposes
to provide incentive grants for the HPI program, as specified.
3)Is this bill necessary ? According to the author, school
districts have had difficulty implementing the HPI programs.
Specifically, the author states: "[The] process awarded points
to various environmental and energy-related features of school
construction projects. While the number of points determined
the amount of funding a district would receive, the points had
no relationship to the actual cost of the desired features.
Some districts found that the costs associated with the
required certification of these features to earn the points
were almost as high as the percentage grant increase they
would receive as part of the program."
According to the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC),
the SAB approved regulations for the HPI program at its May
2010 meeting. These regulations made adjustments to the
rating criteria, which will result in an applicant's ability
to earn more points as part of the grant process. The
increased points will lead to school districts earning higher
grant amounts. The regulations also increased the base grant
for modernization projects to $250,000 and $150,000 for new
construction projects. This measure increases the grant
amounts to the same levels as the SAB. The committee may wish
to consider whether or not this bill is necessary given the
SAB's actions.
4)Reduction in operating expenses . The US Department of
Energy's Rebuild America K-12 Schools Program estimates that
school energy costs are approximately $100 per student year,
depending on region and climate conditions. Adding in the
costs of water, wastewater processing and trash raises the
cost to approximately $125 per student per year. High
performance design solutions can yield savings of up to $50
per student per year.
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5)CHPS is a non-profit organization that strives to increase the
energy efficiency of California schools by marketing
information, services, and incentive programs directly at
school districts and designers. It provides a number of
resources to help school districts design and build
environmentally safe schools, including the Best Practices
Manuel.
The standards developed by CHPS establish design and building
criteria for indoor air quality, ventilation, thermal comfort,
and lighting and acoustics levels that are intended to save
energy and resources while creating a healthy learning
environment. School construction projects meeting CHPS
criteria will have increased costs of approximately $3 to $4
per square foot, which translates to an additional $150,000 to
$200,000 for a 50,000 square foot school.
There are approximately 28 school districts in the state that
have adopted board resolutions making the CHPS Criteria the
standard for all new school construction and major
modernizations district-wide. These school districts include
Los Angeles Unified School District, Long Beach Unified School
District, and Santa Ana Unified School District.
Under current HPI program requirements, a school districts
requests DSA to evaluate and score the project for the
purposes of qualifying for an HPI grant. This bill authorizes
school districts to either : (a) be scored by DSA or (b)
achieve CHPS "verified" status in accordance with the
California Edition of CHPS criteria, with confirmation by DSA.
Essentially, this bill allows a third party reviewer (CHPS)
to determine project eligibility for the HPI program. The May
2010 SAB regulations do not provide this authorization. The
committee may wish to consider whether or not a third party
review is appropriate for the purposes of awarding state
school bond funds.
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Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081