Senate Bill No. 244
(By Senators Snyder and Unger)
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[Introduced January 21, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9D-16 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the school building authority
generally; and establishing increased student enrollment as
the prevailing criterion in funding decisions made by the
school building authority.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9D-16 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9D. SCHOOL BUILDING AUTHORITY.
§18-9D-16. Facilities and major improvement plans generally;
need-based eligibility.
(a) To facilitate the goals as stated in section fifteen of
this article and to assure the prudent and resourceful expenditure
of state funds for construction projects as described in subsection
(d) of said section, each county board of education shall submit a countywide comprehensive educational facilities plan that addresses
the facilities and major improvement needs of the county and
includes up-to-date projections of student enrollments pursuant to
such guidelines as shall be adopted by the authority in accordance
with this section and in accordance with each county's facilities
plan approved by the state board of education. Any project
receiving funding must be in furtherance of the approved countywide
facilities plan.
(1) To assure efficiency and productivity in the project
approval process, the countywide facilities plan may be submitted
only after a preliminary plan, a plan outline or a proposal for a
plan has been submitted to the authority. Selected members of the
authority, which selection shall include citizen members, shall
then meet promptly with those persons designated by the county
board to attend the facilities plan consultation. The purpose of
the consultation is to assure understanding of the general goals of
the school building authority and the specific goals encompassed in
the following criteria and to discuss ways the plan may be
structured to meet those goals.
(2) The guidelines for the development of a facilities plan
must state the manner, timeline and process for submission of any
plan to the authority; project specifications considered
appropriate by the authority; and those matters which are
considered by the authority to be important reflections of how the project will further the overall goals of the authority.
(b) To facilitate the goals as stated in section fifteen of
this article and to assure the prudent and resourceful expenditure
of state funds derived from the school major improvement fund, each
county board of education shall submit to the authority a ten-year
countywide school major improvement plan that addresses the major
improvement needs of each school within the county. If the state
board of education or the administrative council of an area
vocational educational center chooses to seek funding for a major
improvement project from the authority pursuant to subsection (f)
of said section, the state board or the administrative council
shall submit a ten-year school major improvement plan that
addresses the major improvement needs of the school or area
vocational educational center for which funding is sought. Each
ten-year school major improvement plan must be prepared pursuant to
guidelines adopted by the authority in accordance with this section
and must be updated annually to reflect projects completed, current
enrollment projections and new or continuing needs. Any school
major improvement project funded by the authority must be in
furtherance of the approved school major improvement plan.
The guidelines for the development and annual updates of a
ten-year school major improvement plan must state the manner,
timeline and process for submission of any plan, including a repair
and replacement schedule for school facilities, to the authority; the maintenance specifications considered appropriate by the
authority; and those matters which are considered by the authority
to be important reflections of how the major improvement project or
projects will further the overall goals of the authority.
(c) The guidelines regarding submission of the facilities
plans and school major improvement plans must include requirements
for public hearings, comments or other means of providing
broad-based input within a reasonable time period as the authority
may consider appropriate. The submission of each plan must be
accompanied by a synopsis of all comments received and a formal
comment by the county board, the state board or the administrative
council of an area vocational educational center submitting the
plan.
The guidelines regarding project specifications may include
such matters as energy efficiency, preferred siting, construction
materials, maintenance plan or any other matter related to how the
project is to proceed. If a county board of education proposes to
finance a construction project through a lease with an option to
purchase pursuant to an investment contract as described in
subsection (e), section fifteen of this article, the specifications
for the project must include the term of the lease, the amount of
each lease payment, including the payment due upon exercise of the
option to purchase, and the terms and conditions of the proposed
investment contract.
(d) The guidelines pertaining to quality educational
facilities must require that a facilities plan address how the
current facilities do not meet and how the proposed plan and any
project thereunder does meet the following goals:
(1) Student health and safety;
(2) Economies of scale, including compatibility with similar
schools that have achieved the most economical organization,
facility utilization and pupil-teacher ratios;
(3) Reasonable travel time and practical means of addressing
other demographic considerations;
(4) Multicounty and regional planning to achieve the most
effective and efficient instructional delivery system;
(5) Curriculum improvement and diversification, including
computerization and technology and advanced senior courses in
science, mathematics, language arts and social studies;
(6) Innovations in education;
(7) Adequate space for projected student enrollments; and
(8) To the extent constitutionally permissible, each
facilities plan must address the history of efforts taken by the
county board to propose or adopt local school bond issues or
special levies.
If the project is to benefit more than one county in the
region, the facilities plan must state the manner in which the cost
and funding of the project will be apportioned among the counties.
(e) The guidelines pertaining to quality educational
facilities must require that a school major improvement plan
address how the proposed plan and any project thereunder meet the
following goals:
(1) Student health and safety, including, but not limited to,
critical health and safety needs; and
(2) Economies of scale, including regularly scheduled
preventive maintenance: Provided, That each county board's school
maintenance plan must address regularly scheduled maintenance for
all facilities within the county.
(f) Each county board's facilities plan and school major
improvement plan must prioritize all the construction projects or
major improvement projects, respectively, within the county. A
school major improvement plan submitted by the state board or the
administrative council of an area vocational educational center
must prioritize all the school improvement projects contained in
the plan. The priority list is one of the criteria to be
considered by the authority in determining how available funds must
be expended. In prioritizing the projects, the county board, the
state board or the administrative council submitting a plan shall
make determinations in accordance with the objective criteria
formulated by the school building authority: Provided, That of the
criteria formulated by the school building authority in making
determinations for prioritizing projects, funding for the construction needs of counties with increased student enrollment
shall take precedence over all other county or state-wide funding
requests.
(g) Each facilities plan and school major improvement plan
must include the objective means to be used in evaluating
implementation of the overall plan and each project included
therein. The evaluation must measure each project's furtherance of
each applicable goal stated in this section and any guidelines
adopted hereunder, as well as the overall success of any project as
it relates to the facilities plan or school major improvement plan
and the overall goals of the authority.
(h) The state department of education shall conduct on-site
inspections, at least annually, of all facilities which have been
funded wholly or in part by moneys from the authority or state
board to ensure compliance with the county board's facilities plan
and school major improvement plan as related to the facilities; to
preserve the physical integrity of the facilities to the extent
possible; and to otherwise extend the useful life of the
facilities: Provided, That the state board shall submit reports
regarding its on-site inspections of facilities to the authority
within thirty days of completion of the on-site inspections:
Provided, however, That the state board shall promulgate rules
regarding the on-site inspections and matters relating thereto, in
consultation with the authority, as soon as practical and shall submit proposed rules for legislative review no later than the
first day of December, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four.
(i) The authority may adopt guidelines for requiring that a
county board modify, update, supplement or otherwise submit changes
or additions to an approved facilities plan or for requiring that
a county board, the state board or the administrative council of an
area vocational educational center modify, update, supplement or
otherwise submit changes or additions to an approved county board
facilities plan or school major improvement plan. The authority
shall provide reasonable notification and sufficient time for the
change or addition as delineated in guidelines developed by the
authority.
(j) Based on its on-site inspection or notification by the
authority to the state board that the changes or additions to a
county's board facilities plan or school major improvement plan
required by the authority have not been implemented within the time
period prescribed by the authority, the state board shall restrict
the use of the necessary funds or otherwise allocate funds from
moneys appropriated by the Legislature for those purposes set forth
in section nine, article nine-a of this chapter.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish increased
student enrollment as the prevailing criterion in funding decisions
made by the school building authority.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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