The governing board of any school district which has in use for school purposes any school buildings which were not constructed under approved plans and the supervision and inspection requirements of Article 3 (commencing with Section 17280) of this chapter shall have such buildings examined pursuant to this section and shall have completed on or before January 1, 1970, the examination, reporting and estimate requirements of this section and Section 39223.

Whenever an examination of the structural condition of any school building of a school district has been made by the Department of General Services, or by any licensed structural engineer or licensed architect for the governing board of the school district, or under the authorization of law, and a report of the examination, including the findings and recommendations of the agency or person making the examination, has been made to the governing board of the district, and the report shows that the building is unsafe for use, the governing board of the district shall immediately have prepared an estimate of the cost necessary to make such repairs to the building or buildings as are necessary, or, if necessary, to reconstruct or replace the building so that the building when repaired or reconstructed, or any building erected to replace it, shall meet such standards of structural safety as are established in accordance with law. The estimate shall be based on current costs and may include other costs to reflect modern educational needs. Also an estimate of the cost of replacement based on the standards established by the State Allocation Board for area per pupil and cost per square foot, shall be made and reported.

The report required by this section shall include a statement that each of the buildings examined is safe or unsafe for school use. For the purpose of this statement the sole consideration shall be protection of life and the prevention of personal injury at a level of safety equivalent to that established by Article 3 (commencing with Section 17280) of this chapter and the rules and regulations adopted thereunder, disregarding, insofar as possible, such building damage not jeopardizing life which would be expected from one disturbance of nature of the intensity used for design purposes in said rules and regulations.

The governing board, utilizing the information acquired from the examination and report developed pursuant to this section, shall establish a system of priorities for the repair, reconstruction, or replacement of unsafe school buildings.

(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 277, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative January 1, 1998.)