Education facilities: bond act: Greene Act.

(1) Existing law, the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, 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. The act requires, for purposes of determining existing school building capacity, the calculation to be adjusted as required for first priority status, as provided, relating to multitrack year-round schools, and requires, notwithstanding those provisions, the existing school building capacity for a high school district to be calculated without regard to multitrack year-round school considerations. This bill would repeal that provision. This bill would require the board to convene a workgroup comprised of representatives of specified entities to recommend changes to the act that will shorten and streamline the process for construction and modernization of school facilities. The bill would require the board to submit a report containing those recommendations to the Legislature by September 1, 2016. The bill would authorize the board to require each school district that elects to participate in a new construction program to reestablish eligibility, as specified, and to conduct an inventory of existing facilities for purposes of maintaining a statewide school facilities inventory. The bill would delete a provision requiring the board to conduct an evaluation of the cost of new construction and modernization of small high schools in conjunction with a specified pilot program. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to, commencing with the proceeds from any bond approved by voters after January 1, 2016, adjust the local match requirements for a new construction grant based on a school district's ability to raise local revenue. The bill would, commencing with the proceeds from any bond approved by voters after January 1, 2016, authorize a grant for new construction to be used for additional specified purposes. The bill would require the Office of Public School Construction to recommend regulations to the State Allocation Board to provide school districts with flexibility in designing instructional facilities. The bill would authorize the board to require each school district that elects to participate in a modernization program funded by the proceeds of any bond approved by voters after January 1, 2016, to reestablish baseline eligibility, as specified, and to submit information describing existing facilities for purposes of establishing a statewide inventory, as specified. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to, commencing with the proceeds from any bond approved by voters after January 1, 2016, adjust the local match requirements for a modernization grant based on a school district's ability to raise local revenue. The bill would, commencing with the proceeds from any bond approved by voters after January 1, 2016, authorize a modernization apportionment to be used for additional specified purposes. The bill would require the Office of Public Construction to provide the board recommendations on the value of allowing school districts to replace existing facilities on existing schoolsites under certain conditions. (2) The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (A) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (B) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (C) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (D) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would enact the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of ____ to authorize an unspecified amount of state general obligation bonds to provide aid to school districts, county superintendents of schools, county boards of education, charter schools, the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University to construct and modernize education facilities. The proceeds of these bonds would be deposited in the continuously appropriated ____ State School Facilities Fund, which this bill would establish. The proposed bond act would become operative only if approved by the voters at an unspecified statewide general election, and the bill would provide for its submission to the voters at that election. (3) This bill would specify that certain of its provisions would become operative only if the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of ____ is approved by the voters at an unspecified statewide general election. (4) This bill would make conforming and nonsubstantive changes in related provisions of existing law.