Rep. Jeff Bourne

Department of Education; School ConstructionFund and Program; Gaming Proceeds Fund revenues. Establishesthe School Construction Fund as a special nonreverting fund in thestate treasury and requires the Department of Education to establishthe School Construction Program for the purpose of providing grantsfrom the Fund, subject to certain conditions, to school boards thatleverage federal, state, and local programs and resources to financethe design and construction of new school buildings and facilitiesor the modernization and maintenance of existing school buildingsand facilities. The bill provides that three percent of any fiscalyear's budget surplus shall be appropriated to the School ConstructionFund and Program. The bill also provides that any remaining revenuesnot appropriated by the Gaming Proceeds Fund shall be appropriatedto the School Construction Fund and Program. Under current law, anyremaining revenues in the Gaming Proceeds Fund not appropriated remainin the Fund until appropriated by the General Assembly for programs established to address public school construction, renovations, orupgrades.

Standards of Quality; work-based learning; teacher leaders and mentors; principal mentors; certain personnel positions and initiatives. Makes several changes to the Standards of Quality, including requiring the establishment of units in the Department of Education to oversee work-based learning and principal mentorship statewide and requiring the Board of Education to establish and oversee the local implementation of teacher leader and teacher mentor programs in Standard 5. The bill also makes several changes relating to school personnel in Standard 2, including (i) establishing schoolwide ratios of students to teachers in certain schools with high concentrations of poverty and granting flexibility to provide compensation adjustments to teachers in such schools; (ii) requiring each school board to assign licensed personnel in a manner that provides an equitable distribution of experienced, effective teachers and other personnel among all schools in the local school division; (iii) requiring each school board to employ teacher leaders and teacher mentors at specified student-to-position ratios; (iv) requiring state funding in addition to basic aid to support at-risk students and granting flexibility in the use of such funds by school boards; (v) lowering the ratio of English language learner students to teachers; (vi) requiring each school board to employ reading specialists and establishing a student-to-position ratio for such specialists; (vii) requiring school boards to employ one full-time principal in each elementary school; (viii) lowering the ratio of students to assistant principals and school counselors in elementary, middle, and high schools; and (ix) increasing from at least three to at least four the required number of specialized student support positions, including school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions, per 1,000 students.

Literary Fund; loans; application process; maximum loan amounts; rates of interest; closing costs; waiting lists. Requires the Board of Education (the Board) to establish an annual open application process for Literary Fund loans to finance the construction and renovation of public elementary and secondary school buildings in the Commonwealth to occur during the period that the Board deems most suitable and requires the Board to prioritize applications on the basis of the composite index of local ability-to-pay. The bill increases from $7.5 million to $25 million the maximum Literary Fund loan amount and requires the Board to offer a loan add-on not to exceed $5 million per loan for projects that result in school consolidation and the net reduction of at least one existing school. The bill further requires the Board, in consultation with the Department of Treasury, to establish loan interest rates that are benchmarked to a market index on an annual basis, not to exceed two percent per year for the localities with a school division composite index of local ability-to-pay between 0.0 and 0.299 and requires the Board to utilize a sliding scale based on the local school division's composite index of local ability-to-pay to determine the interest rate on each such loan. Under current law, such rates are required to be set between two and six percent per year. The bill requires the Board to establish a competitive program for the award of up to $25,000 to a school division that receives a Literary Fund loan for the purpose of subsidizing all or a portion of the closing costs for such loan. In addition, the bill permits the Board to remove any project that has been inactive for at least five years from any Literary Fund loan project waiting list that it maintains. As introduced, this bill is a recommendation of the Commission on School Construction and Modernization.