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1999 SESSION

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SB 1289 Public school construction.

Introduced by: Stanley C. Walker | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Public school construction. Revises various school construction funding and distribution mechanisms and establishes an 18-member statutory legislative commission to oversee school construction policy. The bill authorizes the Board of Education to issue Literary Fund loans to fund part or all of the costs for constructing, renovating, retrofitting, or enlarging school buildings; prohibits the denial or delay of a Literary Fund loan for part or all of the costs of construction for a school building solely on the basis that the applicant has applied for or obtained a grant; authorizes Literary Fund applications for part or all of the costs of construction or purchasing and installing educational technology equipment and infrastructure while simultaneously applying for a grant; and requires any school board making application for both a Literary Fund loan and a grant to notify the Board of Education of this request in its Literary Fund application. The Board will take into consideration any Literary Fund loan which may have been applied for or awarded for the same projects.

The Virginia Public School Authority is empowered to distribute the grants, upon approval of the Board of Education. The grants may be used for erecting, renovating, retrofitting or enlarging public school buildings and site acquisition for school buildings and the costs of purchasing and installing education technology equipment and infrastructure and for debt service payments for projects completed during the previous ten years. This bill requires a written application which sets forth such items as appropriation of the local match and any Literary Fund loan.

Grants will be allocated and distributed annually to school divisions in accordance with the following: (i) 30.78 percent of the available grant funds to be allocated and distributed to each school division on the basis of the school division’s average daily membership, adjusted for half-day kindergarten enrollment, and further adjusted by (a) the ratio that the locality’s index of fiscal stress bears to the statewide average of fiscal stress, and (b) the percentage of students in such school division enrolled in the federal Free Lunch Program; (ii) 34.61 percent of the available grant funds to be allocated and distributed to each school division on a pro rata basis according to the school division’s average daily membership, adjusted for half-day kindergarten enrollment, and further adjusted by the locality’s composite index of local ability to pay; and (iii) 34.61 percent of the available grant funds to be allocated and distributed in equal amounts to each school division. Local governing bodies are authorized to escrow the funds to be used at a later date in compliance with the grant stipulations. Unclaimed lottery prizes will be deposited to the Literary Fund and transferred to and deposited in the Virginia Public School Construction Grants Fund on and after July 1, 1999. Dedication of lottery funds to the school construction program will be phased in; topping out at 66-2/3 percent in fiscal year 2007 and thereafter. Increases are conditioned on adequate revenues being available to meet other commitments of the Commonwealth.


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