The State Allocation Board (SAB) met August 28th to hear a number of business items, including regulatory changes to the Career Technical Education Facilities Program (CTEFP). Lisa Silverman of the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH) provided the following updates in her Executive Officer Statement:
- Upcoming Bond Sale– There will be a GO Bond sale next month. Staff anticipates receiving bond proceeds for the SFP from this sale and will prepare Priority Funding Apportionments commensurate with the funds received, for presentation to the SAB at the September 25, 2019 meeting.
- Career Technical Education Facilities Program Stakeholder Meeting– OPSC recently held two CTEFP Stakeholder meetings to evaluate the program’s funding order and to determine if regulation changes are necessary. Staff developed and presented multiple funding distribution scenarios to illustrate the impacts of any changes and solicited feedback. The stakeholder input was included as part of the policy discussion on potential change(s) to the regulations.
- Sixth CTEFP Filing Round– The filing period for the sixth round of CTEFP funding is now open. CTE Grant applications are due to CDE on or before December 2, 2019, and the Application for Career Technical Education Funding (Form SAB 50-10) is due to OPSC on April 6, 2020. For this round, CDE will be providing scores on a flow basis, and OPSC encourages projects with a score of 105 or higher to submit the SAB 50-10 form as soon as possible to ensure applicants can participate in the spring 2020 Priority Funding filing period. Future SAB regulatory amendments to the CTEFP funding order as a result of the Action item in today’s agenda will be applicable to the sixth and future rounds.
- Priority Funding Apportionments– At the April 24, 2019 meeting, the SAB approved $221.9 million in priority funding apportionments for 108 projects representing 54 school districts, including nine CTEFP projects approved as a reservation of funds. A total of 11 projects did not submit the form SAB 50-05 by the required deadlines and were returned to the Unfunded List (Lack of AB 55 Loans).
Other actions taken by the SAB
- The Solano County Office of Education (SCOE) requested to reinstate the unfunded approvals for two School Facility Program projects that were rescinded due to non-participation in the priority funding rounds; and to allow a change in scope to ensure these projects can be completed within the approved state grants. SCOE committed to obtaining CDE and DSA plan approval within 12 months before determining that the projects are ready for Apportionment. The SAB approved this appeal.
- OPSC staff drafted a number of scenario options for the SAB to consider in response to stakeholder concerns about the funding order of the CTEFP, specifically, about the equity of the funding order related to the assignment of the NCES Town Locale codes of the SFP definition of a Suburban Area, as well as an interest in returning to the Service Region model. OPSC staff stated that there is a consensus to move sites classified by NCES as Town from the SFP definition of Suburban Area to Rural Area. SAB approved the staff recommendation to move the Town Area locale from Suburban to Rural (requires regulatory amendments to existing definitions of Suburban Area and Rural Area) on an 8-0 vote.
The SAB approved Unfunded Approvals (Lack of AB 55 Loans) at the August 28, 2019 meeting worth the following:
- New Construction: $153,155,494
- Modernization: $104,654,599
- Total: $257,810,093
The Unfunded Approvals List (Lack of AB 55 Loans) dated June 26, 2019 contains projects worth $987,516,526.
The Workload List dated July 31, 2019 contains projects worth the following:
- New Construction: $1,773,105,736
- Modernization: $2,347,566,696
- Total: $4,120,672,432
The Acknowledged List dated July 31, 2019 contains projects worth the following:
- New Construction: $358,513,226
- Modernization: $450,399,528
- Total: $808,912,754
The next meeting of the SAB is scheduled for September 25, 2019 at 2:00 pm.
