15-2032. School facilities board; building renewal grant fund; definitions

A. The building renewal grant fund is established consisting of monies appropriated to the fund by the legislature. The school facilities board shall administer the fund and distribute monies to school districts for the purpose of maintaining the adequacy of existing school facilities. Monies in the fund are exempt from the provisions of section 35-190 relating to lapsing of appropriations.

B. The school facilities board shall distribute monies from the fund based on grant requests from school districts to fund primary building renewal projects. Project requests shall be prioritized by the school facilities board, with priority given to school districts that have provided routine preventive maintenance on the facility. The school facilities board shall approve only projects that will be completed within twelve months, unless similar projects on average take longer to complete.

C. School districts that receive monies from the fund shall use these monies on projects for buildings or any part of a building in the school facilities board's database for any of the following:

1. Major renovations and repairs to a building that is used for student instruction or other academic purposes.

2. Upgrading systems and areas that will maintain or extend the useful life of the building.

3. Infrastructure costs.

D. Monies received from the fund shall not be used for any of the following purposes:

1. New construction.

2. Remodeling interior space for aesthetic or preferential reasons.

3. Exterior beautification.

4. Demolition.

5. Routine preventive maintenance.

6. Any project in a building, or part of a building, that is being leased to another entity.

E. Accommodation schools are not eligible for monies from the building renewal grant fund.

F. If the school facilities board or a court of competent jurisdiction determines that a school district received monies from the building renewal grant fund that must be reimbursed to the school facilities board due to legal action associated with improper construction by a hired contractor, the school district shall reimburse the school facilities board an agreed-on amount for deposit into the building renewal grant fund.

G. The school facilities board shall categorize each project that is eligible for monies from the building renewal grant fund as either critical or noncritical. The board shall adopt policies and procedures to prioritize critical projects and to designate critical projects as projects that immediately impact student safety or building closures or that result in operational disruptions. Critical projects have priority over any previously approved noncritical projects.

H. If the school facilities board determines that sufficient monies are not available for a noncritical project that the board has approved, the board shall notify the school district that submitted the project request that monies will be distributed from the building renewal grant fund for the project only if the legislature appropriates sufficient monies. If sufficient monies are not available in the fiscal year in which the project is awarded for a noncritical project, the noncritical project does not receive priority in the next fiscal year.

I. Building renewal grants pursuant to this section shall be used only for projects that serve an academic purpose.

J. For the purposes of this section:

1. " Primary building renewal projects" means projects that are necessary for buildings owned by school districts that are required to meet the minimum adequacy standards for student capacity and that fall below the minimum school facility adequacy guidelines, as adopted by the school facilities board pursuant to section 15-2011, for school districts that have provided routine preventive maintenance to the school facility.

2. " Routine preventive maintenance" means services that are performed on a regular schedule at intervals ranging from four times a year to once every three years, or on the schedule of services recommended by the manufacturer of the specific building system or equipment, and that are intended to extend the useful life of a building system and reduce the need for major repairs.

3. " Student capacity" has the same meaning prescribed in section 15-2011.