SB269INTRODUCED
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EH7BC2-1
By Senator Orr
RFD: Finance and Taxation Education
First Read: 02-May-23
2023 Regular Session
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6 EH7BC2-1 05/01/2023 KHF (F)KHF 2023-1718
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SYNOPSIS:
This bill would establish the K-12 Capital Grant
Program within the Office of the Lieutenant Governor to
provide grants to local schools to assist with capital
project, deferred maintenance, or technology needs.
This bill would establish the process for grant
applications, the purposes for which grant funds could
be made, and the criteria used to evaluate grant
proposals.
In addition, this bill would establish the K-12
Capital Grant Program Fund in the State Treasury to
receive appropriations made by the Legislature to
implement the program.
A BILL
TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
Relating to education; to establish the K-12 Capital
Grant Program within the Office of the Lieutenant Governor to
provide grants to local schools to assist with capital
project, deferred maintenance, or technology needs; to provide
the purposes for which grant funds can be used; to establish
the process for grant applications and approvals; to establish
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the K-12 Capital Grant Program Fund in the State Treasury; and
to provide an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1. The following words and phrases, whenever
used in this act, shall have the following meanings:
(1) ELIGIBLE K-12 ENTITY. Any public school in
operation for the current fiscal year providing appropriate
elementary instruction and eligible to participate in
allocations from the Advancement and Technology Fund pursuant
to Section 29-9-4, Code of Alabama 1975.
(2) GRANT. The award by the Office of the Lieutenant
Governor of funds appropriated by the Legislature to an
eligible K-12 entity.
(3) GRANT PROPOSAL. A written plan for the expenditure
of funds by an eligible K-12 entity, which meets one or more
of the purposes outlined in Section 3, subject to the approval
by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and expended under
the direction of the head of the eligible K-12 entity.
Section 2. There is hereby created the Alabama K-12
Capital Grant Program within the Office of the Lieutenant
Governor to award grants to local school systems to assist
with capital project, deferred maintenance, or technology
needs of the school systems. The Legislature may from time to
time appropriate funds into the K-12 Capital Grant Program
Fund hereby established within the State Treasury to
facilitate the grant program. Provided, however, that no funds
shall be withdrawn or expended except as budgeted and
allocated in accordance with Article 4 of Chapter 4 of Title
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41, Code of Alabama 1975, and only in the amounts provided by
the Legislature in an appropriation bill. Any unencumbered and
unexpended balance of this fund remaining at the end of any
fiscal year shall not lapse or revert, but shall be carried
forward for the purposes of this act until expended.
Section 3. K-12 Capital Grants shall be made for only
the following purposes: 1) To assist with the total cost of
capital projects that will enhance the educational environment
of students, including the construction, reconstruction, or
renovation of permanent buildings containing classrooms,
offices, libraries, laboratories, teaching facilities,
training facilities, cafeterias, alternative schools, physical
education facilities, including athletic facilities,
facilities for the performing arts and arts education,
together with tangible personal property that becomes a part
of such facilities; 2) to provide funds to assist with the
payment of existing debt service related to capital projects;
3) to assist with the total cost of necessary deferred
maintenance for existing facilities; 4) to assist with the
total cost of projects that will improve school security and
safety; and 5) for technology and equipment for schools or
students that will provide access expanded educational
opportunities.
Section 4. (a) The Office of the Lieutenant Governor
shall evaluate grant proposals based upon the following
criteria:
(1) The total amount of state funds available for
grants, with the maximum grant amount from state funds not to
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exceed $5 million for any grant proposal;
(2) The purposes for which the grant funds are
intended;
(3) The availability of local matching funds, so long
as there is not a required match of more than 35% of the total
cost of the project; and
(4) The extent to which the grant proposals benefit
eligible K-12 entities in each geographic area of the state,
understanding the number of students and school systems
located within each geographic area vary throughout the state.
(b) The Office of the Lieutenant Governor shall utilize
a sliding scale of matching requirements for grant proposals,
taking into consideration the financial capacity of the
eligible K-12 entity to provide matching funds. The office
shall ensure that grant proposals from eligible K-12 entities
with considerable populations of at-risk students receive
priority consideration for review.
(c) Any eligible K-12 entity receiving grant funds
pursuant to this act shall file a report with the Office of
the Lieutenant Governor within one-year following the receipt
of the funds. The report shall indicate that expenditures are
in accordance with the associated grant proposal and other
state laws. Upon a finding that grant expenditures are not in
accordance with these conditions, the Office of the Lieutenant
Governor shall suspend the release of further grant funds to
the entity.
(d) The Department of the Examiners of Public Accounts
shall examine compliance of the recipient K-12 entities with
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the grant program.
(e) The Office of the Lieutenant Governor shall design
and distribute a grant proposal instrument to the State
Department of Education to make available to eligible K-12
entities. The Office shall maintain electronic records of all
grant proposals for all grants currently in effect and all
completed grants and may promulgate reasonable rules necessary
to implement the provisions of this act.
Section 5. This act shall become effective immediately
following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its
otherwise becoming law.
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