School facilities funding: high performance schools.

(1) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 (the Greene Act) , requires the State Allocation Board to allocate to applicant school districts prescribed per-unhoused-pupil state funding for construction and modernization of school facilities, including hardship funding and supplemental funding for site development and acquisition and requires the board to adopt rules and regulations for the administration of the Greene Act. The Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 sets aside $100,000,000 of the proceeds of the bonds sold under that act for incentive grants under the Greene Act to promote the use of design and materials in new construction and modernization projects that include the attributes of high performance schools. Existing law authorizes a grant for new construction to be used for the costs of design and materials that promote the efficient use of energy and water, the maximum use of natural lighting and indoor air quality, the use of recycled materials and materials that emit a minimum of toxic substances, the use of acoustics conducive to teaching and learning, and other characteristics of high performance schools. A school district is required to certify, as part of its application for funding under the Greene Act, that it has considered the feasibility of using these characteristics of high performance schools. This bill would increase the amount of a grant for new construction to provide 50% of the additional costs associated with the use of design, the purchase of materials, and construction that promote the use of specified characteristics of a high performance school if the total amount of those costs exceeds specified nonresidential building energy efficiency standards by at least 15%. The bill would also increase the amount of a grant for a modernization project to provide for 60% of those additional costs. The bill would limit funding for these increases to $1,500,000 per schoolsite. The bill would require the State Allocation Board to adopt, and the Office of Administrative Law to process, emergency regulations to implement the increases. The provisions of the bill would be applicable, as specified, to contracts for these additional design, material, and construction costs signed on or after January 31, 2010. (2) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on January 8, 2010. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 8, 2010, pursuant to the California Constitution.