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July Newsletter
2014

Latest News from 

SchoolWorks


With school starting in mid-August for so many school districts, the summer break will be over soon.

Also in early August, the summer break will be over for the assembly members and senators.  There is only a short time remaining to get a bond on the State ballot for November.  Although we are still hopeful and strongly supporting a bond effort, there is still mixed information on whether this effort will be successful.  Anything you can do to urge your staff and board to make the governor aware of your facility needs will be important in these last few weeks when a decision needs to be made.

 

The SAB had their last meeting on June 25th and the next meeting is planned for August 27th. 

 

Good luck to all districts planning for a local bond in November.  Hopefully there will be matching dollars from a State bond this year but if not, then local funds will be needed to carry you through until State funding would resume in 2016.  

State Bond in 2014

Some of the latest items I have heard include the fact that we have not had a State bond since 2006.  That is a long time since we have added bond debt due to school needs.  It is definitely time for the State to consider a bond and to address any specific education needs such as the new technology requirements for testing.

 

Great information is available on the CASH website in regards to the current bond efforts.  In terms of the information or speculation from what the governor is thinking, again there are several issues.  First his goal to reduce debt.  This of course seems to be in direct contradiction to our efforts for a new bond.  Next is the need for water projects to help with the drought problems.  Although both items have significant costs involved, the governor must realize the importance of both of the programs and that these types of bonds do generate jobs and do help fuel the economic recovery.  In fact, the school facility funding would even help improve our education outcomes which could further attract new employers to the State. 

 

As soon as the legislature returns from recess, we should find out what size bond will be proposed.  We have been arguing for at least $4 billion for K-12 schools to be able to fund the school facility program for the next two years.

 



SAB Meeting Notes


The State Allocation Board held a meeting on June 25th. The Charter School funding round has closed and there were $685 million in applications submitted with only $87 million in funding available.  The Fall priority funding round has also closed and there were requests for $100 million in projects this round.  This will fund nearly all the standard projects in line for funding for which there is authority at this time.

 

There were no appeal items heard at this meeting.

 

There was an action item approved this meeting.  New regulations were approved that will require school districts to return monies received from OPSC for any projects if they sell that site within ten years of a funded project.  There are some exceptions such as when the proceeds are used for capital outlay purposes, or if the site is sold to a charter or another school district or county office of education.

 

There are $393 million in processed projects that exceed bond authority.  There are also $523 million in projects that have been received but not processed by OPSC.  This results in a total of $916 million in projects that exceed the current bond authority.  This creates the existing demand for a State bond in November 2014, not counting the projects that will be submitted once funding is made available.

 

The next SAB meeting is scheduled for August 27th.


ERP Program

The emergency repair program was funded $188 million out of this year's budget.  These apportionments will begin at the August meeting.  These funds will allow districts to complete the needed repairs or if they have already been addressed, then the district will be reimbursed which allows them to pay off the debt they incurred or in some cases if the funds were borrowed from capacity facility accounts, will allow the district to begin additional facility improvement projects.  Please contact us if you need assistance with any of the paperwork for this program.
 
Good luck with the new school year.  As a final note, once the initial enrollment numbers are available, please feel free to share your enrollment by grade level with us to analyze your opportunities for state funding eligibility in the new construction program.  Districtthat see an increase in enrollment especially at the lower grade levels may need to consider additional classroom space in the near future which will be further complicated by the LCFF class size requirements of reducing the average to 24:1 for grades K-3.

 

Ken Reynolds

President

SchoolWorks


6815 Fair Oaks, Carmichael, CA 95618  Ph: (916) 733-0402  www.SchoolWorksGIS.com