Florida Senate - 2019                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 7070
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì538594QÎ538594                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/21/2019           .                                
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       Appropriations Subcommittee on Education (Montford) recommended
       the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with directory and title amendments)
    2  
    3         Between lines 1362 and 1363
    4  insert:
    5         (2)(a) The department shall establish, as a part of the
    6  Public Education Capital Outlay and Debt Service Trust Fund, a
    7  separate account, in an amount determined by the Legislature, to
    8  be known as the “Special Facility Construction Account.” The
    9  Special Facility Construction Account shall be used to provide
   10  necessary construction funds to school districts which have
   11  urgent construction needs but which lack sufficient resources at
   12  present, and cannot reasonably anticipate sufficient resources
   13  within the period of the next 3 years, for these purposes from
   14  currently authorized sources of capital outlay revenue. A school
   15  district requesting funding from the Special Facility
   16  Construction Account shall submit one specific construction
   17  project, not to exceed one complete educational plant, to the
   18  Special Facility Construction Committee. A district may not
   19  receive funding for more than one approved project in any 3-year
   20  period or while any portion of the district’s participation
   21  requirement is outstanding. The first year of the 3-year period
   22  shall be the first year a district receives an appropriation.
   23  The department shall encourage a construction program that
   24  reduces the average size of schools in the district. The request
   25  must meet the following criteria to be considered by the
   26  committee:
   27         1. The project must be deemed a critical need and must be
   28  recommended for funding by the Special Facility Construction
   29  Committee. Before developing construction plans for the proposed
   30  facility, the district school board must request a
   31  preapplication review by the Special Facility Construction
   32  Committee or a project review subcommittee convened by the chair
   33  of the committee to include two representatives of the
   34  department and two staff members from school districts not
   35  eligible to participate in the program. A school district may
   36  request a preapplication review at any time; however, if the
   37  district school board seeks inclusion in the department’s next
   38  annual capital outlay legislative budget request, the
   39  preapplication review request must be made before February 1.
   40  Within 90 days after receiving the preapplication review
   41  request, the committee or subcommittee must meet in the school
   42  district to review the project proposal and existing facilities.
   43  To determine whether the proposed project is a critical need,
   44  the committee or subcommittee shall consider, at a minimum, the
   45  capacity of all existing facilities within the district as
   46  determined by the Florida Inventory of School Houses; the
   47  district’s pattern of student growth; the district’s existing
   48  and projected capital outlay full-time equivalent student
   49  enrollment as determined by the demographic, revenue, and
   50  education estimating conferences established in s. 216.136; the
   51  district’s existing satisfactory student stations; the use of
   52  all existing district property and facilities; grade level
   53  configurations; and any other information that may affect the
   54  need for the proposed project.
   55         2. The construction project must be recommended in the most
   56  recent survey or survey amendment cooperatively prepared by the
   57  district and the department, and approved by the department
   58  under the rules of the State Board of Education. If a district
   59  employs a consultant in the preparation of a survey or survey
   60  amendment, the consultant may not be employed by or receive
   61  compensation from a third party that designs or constructs a
   62  project recommended by the survey.
   63         3. The construction project must appear on the district’s
   64  approved project priority list under the rules of the State
   65  Board of Education.
   66         4. The district must have selected and had approved a site
   67  for the construction project in compliance with s. 1013.36 and
   68  the rules of the State Board of Education.
   69         5. The district shall have developed a district school
   70  board adopted list of facilities that do not exceed the norm for
   71  net square feet occupancy requirements under the State
   72  Requirements for Educational Facilities, using all possible
   73  programmatic combinations for multiple use of space to obtain
   74  maximum daily use of all spaces within the facility under
   75  consideration.
   76         6. Upon construction, the total cost per student station,
   77  including change orders, must not exceed the cost per student
   78  station as provided in subsection (6) except for cost overruns
   79  created by a disaster as defined in s. 252.34 or an
   80  unforeseeable circumstance beyond the district’s control as
   81  determined by the Special Facility Construction Committee.
   82         7. There shall be an agreement signed by the district
   83  school board stating that it will advertise for bids within 30
   84  days of receipt of its encumbrance authorization from the
   85  department.
   86         8. For construction projects for which Special Facilities
   87  Construction Account funding is sought before the 2019-2020
   88  fiscal year, the district shall, at the time of the request and
   89  for a continuing period necessary to meet the district’s
   90  participation requirement, levy the maximum millage against its
   91  nonexempt assessed property value as allowed in s. 1011.71(2) or
   92  shall raise an equivalent amount of revenue from the school
   93  capital outlay surtax authorized under s. 212.055(6). Beginning
   94  with construction projects for which Special Facilities
   95  Construction Account funding is sought in the 2019-2020 fiscal
   96  year, the district shall, for a minimum of 3 years before
   97  submitting the request and for a continuing period necessary to
   98  meet its participation requirement, levy the maximum millage
   99  against the district’s nonexempt assessed property value as
  100  authorized under s. 1011.71(2) or shall raise an equivalent
  101  amount of revenue from the school capital outlay surtax
  102  authorized under s. 212.055(6). Any district with a new or
  103  active project, funded under the provisions of this subsection,
  104  shall be required to budget no more than the value of 1 mill per
  105  year to the project until the district’s participation
  106  requirement relating to the local discretionary capital
  107  improvement millage or the equivalent amount of revenue from the
  108  school capital outlay surtax is satisfied.
  109         9. If a contract has not been signed 90 days after the
  110  advertising of bids, the funding for the specific project shall
  111  revert to the Special Facility New Construction Account to be
  112  reallocated to other projects on the list. However, an
  113  additional 90 days may be granted by the commissioner.
  114         10. The department shall certify the inability of the
  115  district to fund the survey-recommended project over a
  116  continuous 3-year period using projected capital outlay revenue
  117  derived from s. 9(d), Art. XII of the State Constitution, as
  118  amended, paragraph (3)(a) of this section, and s. 1011.71(2).
  119         11. The district shall have on file with the department an
  120  adopted resolution acknowledging its commitment to satisfy its
  121  participation requirement, which is equivalent to all
  122  unencumbered and future revenue acquired from s. 9(d), Art. XII
  123  of the State Constitution, as amended, paragraph (3)(a) of this
  124  section, and s. 1011.71(2), in the year of the initial
  125  appropriation and for the 2 years immediately following the
  126  initial appropriation.
  127         12. Phase I Final phase III plans must be approved
  128  certified by the district school board as being complete and in
  129  compliance with the building and life safety codes before June 1
  130  of the year the application is made.
  131  
  132  ====== D I R E C T O R Y  C L A U S E  A M E N D M E N T ======
  133  And the directory clause is amended as follows:
  134         Delete line 1356
  135  and insert:
  136         Section 13. Paragraph (a) of subsection (2) and paragraphs
  137  (b), (c), and (d) of subsection (6)
  138  
  139  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  140  And the title is amended as follows:
  141         Delete line 173
  142  and insert:
  143         F.S.; revising the information required to be included
  144         in a school district’s request to receive certain
  145         funding; prohibiting a district school board from
  146         using