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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 428
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES RELATING TO
SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION.
SUMMARY
This bill makes the following changes in the public school
construction statutes:
1. requires the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to
administer a reimbursement grant program beginning in FY 23
for the cost of school indoor air quality improvements, including
the installation, replacement, or upgrading of heating,
ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems (§ 1);
2. extends the allowable 25% increase in per-pupil square footage
limits in current law for school buildings built before 1950 to
include those built before 1959 (§ 2);
3. requires the DAS commissioner to create an addendum to the
school construction priority list project report to include grants
awarded by DAS for certain school construction projects without
legislative approval (“emergency grants”) (§ 3);
4. removes the requirement that a superintendent notify the DAS
commissioner of the need for an emergency grant and formally
apply within a certain timeframe (§ 4);
5. eliminates the DAS commissioner’s authority to approve
emergency school construction reimbursement grants for
administrative and service facility and school safety projects (§
4);
6. requires school construction grant recipients to submit a project
completion notice to DAS within three years after the date when 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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a certificate of occupancy for the project was issued (§ 5);
7. eliminates the School Safety Infrastructure Council (SSIC) and
generally reassigns its duties to the School Building Projects
Advisory Council (§§ 6 & 7); and
8. eliminates from current law the (a) newspaper advertising
requirement for public invitations to bid on orders and contracts
for school construction services and (b) option for a construction
manager to self-perform any school construction project element,
which takes effect under current law beginning on July 1, 2022 (§
8).
The bill also makes several technical and conforming changes,
including eliminating references to SSIC (§§ 3 & 9-11).
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2022
§ 1 — INDOOR AIR QUALITY GRANT PROGRAM
Beginning in FY 23, the bill allows local or regional boards of
education or regional education service centers (RESCs) to apply for the
reimbursement grant with the DAS commissioner when and in a
manner she determines. It prohibits boards of education and RESCs
from using these grant funds to replace local matching requirements for
other federal or state funding received for indoor air quality
improvement or HVAC projects.
Under the bill, if there are insufficient funds to give grants to all
applicants, then the commissioner must prioritize applicants with
schools that have the greatest need for HVAC systems or other indoor
air quality improvements. She must use the eligibility criteria described
below when determining priority among applicants.
Eligibility Criteria
The bill requires the DAS commissioner to develop eligibility criteria
to use when determining whether to award a grant for air quality
improvements to a school. These criteria must include the following: 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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1. the age and condition of the school’s current HVAC system,
2. current air quality issues at the school,
3. the overall school building’s age and condition,
4. the school district’s master plan,
5. maintenance records availability,
6. a contract or plans for the HVAC system’s routine maintenance
cleaning, and
7. the board’s or RESC’s ability to finance the project’s remainder
cost after receiving a program grant.
Grant Amount Calculations
The bill establishes different grant award calculations for local boards
of education, regional boards of education, and RESCs.
Local Boards of Education. Under the bill, a local board may
receive a reimbursement grant for 20-80% of its eligible expenses, based
on its town ranking. The bill establishes the following formula for DAS
to use to determine the ranking:
1. Rank each town in descending order (from 1 to 169) using its
adjusted equalized net grant list per capita (AENGL) (a measure
of town wealth as defined in the education cost sharing (ECS)
grant statutes (see BACKGROUND)) from two, three, and four
years prior to the fiscal year of the grant application.
2. Assign a reimbursement rate from 20%-80% for each town on a
continuous scale, with the first-ranked town receiving a 20% rate
and the last-ranked town receiving an 80% rate.
Regional Boards of Education and RESCs. Under the bill, a
regional board or RESC may receive a reimbursement grant for a
percentage of its eligible expenses under the following ranking formula,
which is based on the local boards’ formula and the regional district’s 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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or RESC’s member towns’ populations:
1. Multiply each member town’s total population by its AENGL
ranking calculated above.
2. Add together the above products for each member town.
3. Divide the total sum by the total population of all member towns.
4. Round each regional board’s or RESC’s ranking to the next
higher whole number.
5. Assign to each regional board or RESC the same reimbursement
percentage as a town with the same rank (presumably, under the
AENGL-based formula for local boards of education).
6. For regional boards only, add 10% to this amount, up to a
maximum reimbursement of 85%.
Grant Increases for Contracting With Minority Business
Enterprises
The bill requires that a board of education’s or RESC’s
reimbursement grant percentage increase by an additional 5% if the
DAS commissioner, in consultation with the Commission on Human
Rights and Opportunities, determines that it has exceed the minority
business enterprises requirements in state law for the air quality or
HVAC improvements for which the grant was awarded (existing law
makes a municipal public works contractor, rather than a municipal
entity, responsible for complying with MBE requirements; see
BACKGROUND) . (The bill does not specify for how long the increase
applies or a how a board’s or RESC’s performance is measured with
respect to the requirements.)
The bill also requires a 5% reimbursement increase if the board or
RESC has contracted with a minority business enterprise for at least 10
years for the routine maintenance and cleaning of the HVAC system for
which the grant was awarded.
Ineligible Costs 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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The bill makes the following costs ineligible for grant reimbursement:
(1) routine HVAC system maintenance and cleaning, (2) work that is
otherwise eligible for a state school construction reimbursement grant,
and (3) work on a public school administrative or service facility that is
located outside of a public school building.
Project Completion and Maintenance
Under the bill, any project that receives an indoor air quality
improvement grant award must be completed by the end of the next
calendar year. However, the DAS commissioner may extend the project
duration if the recipient board or RESC shows good cause.
The bill places the responsibility for an HVAC system’s routine
maintenance and cleaning with the grant recipients and requires them
to train to school personnel and building maintenance staff about the
system’s proper use and maintenance.
§ 2 — SPACE STANDAR DS
By law, reimbursement grants for school building projects authorized
by the legislature must follow per-pupil square footage limits set in state
law or regulation. Currently, any building constructed before 1950
receives a 25% increase for any square footage limit. The bill expands
eligibility for this increase to include any building constructed before
1959.
§§ 3 & 4 — DAS-APPROVED EMERGENCY GRANTS
Priority List Addendum
The law allows the DAS commissioner to award school construction
grants for certain projects without legislative approval (“emergency
grants”), within the limit of appropriated funds.
Beginning July 1, 2022, the bill requires the commissioner to create an
addendum to the school construction priority list project report. By law,
she must send this report to the legislature’s school construction
committee before December 31 each year (see BACKGROUND). Under
the bill, the report addendum must contain all emergency grants
approved by the DAS commissioner during the previous fiscal year. The 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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law allows her to approve emergency grants for the following purposes:
1. remedy fire and catastrophic damage;
2. correct safety, health, and other code violations;
3. replace roofs, including skylight installation;
4. remedy a certified school indoor air quality emergency;
5. insulate exterior walls and attics; or
6. purchase and install a limited use and limited access elevator,
windows, photovoltaic panels, wind generation systems,
building management systems, or portable classrooms.
(The bill also eliminates emergency grant authority for certain
projects; see below.)
The bill also removes the requirement that a superintendent notify
the DAS commissioner of the need for an emergency grant and formally
apply within a certain timeframe. Under current law, a superintendent
has seven calendar days after discovering the emergency to notify the
commissioner in writing about the reason for the emergency grant, and
to receive the grant he or she must apply to the commissioner within six
months after submitting the written notice.
§ 4 — ELIMINATED EMERGENCY PROJECTS
The bill subjects the following projects to legislative approval by
eliminating the DAS commissioner ’s authority to approve
reimbursement grants on an emergency basis: (1) public school
administrative or service facilities and (2) school security projects,
including improvements to existing school security infrastructure or
new infrastructure. Accordingly, these types of projects must instead
appear on the school priority list and the project report that the DAS
submits to the legislature’s school construction committee for approval
every December.
§ 5 — PROJECT COMPLETION AND CLOSURE 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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Beginning July 1, 2022, the bill requires towns and regional school
districts that are grant recipients to submit a project completion notice
to DAS within three years after the date when a certificate of occupancy
for the project was issued. If a grant recipient does not submit this notice
on time, then the DAS commissioner must deem the project complete
and begin a final project audit. By law, DAS must conduct an audit
within five years after a school district files a notice of project
completion (CGS § 10-286e(a)).
Additionally, the bill requires the commissioner to deem a project
authorized before July 1, 2022, as complete if its grant recipient has
received a certificate of occupancy and has not submitted a project
completion notice to DAS on or before July 1, 2025.
§§ 6 & 7 — SCHOOL SAFETY INFRASTRUCTURE COUNCIL
The bill eliminates the School Safety Infrastructure Council (SSIC)
and generally reassigns its duties to the School Building Projects
Advisory Council. SSIC is 10-member council of agency heads and
gubernatorial and legislative appointees, chaired by the DAS
commissioner and tasked under current law with developing the school
safety infrastructure criteria for projects that are awarded state school
building project reimbursement grants and school security
infrastructure competitive grants. The School Building Projects
Advisory Council is an eight-member council of agency heads and
executive branch appointees, also chaired by the DAS commissioner,
that conducts studies, research, and analyses and makes
recommendations for improvements to the school building projects
processes to the governor and legislature (CGS § 10-292q).
The bill eliminates provisions in current law requiring SSIC to
develop the grants’ criteria and meet at least annually to review and
update the criteria and make them available to boards of education. The
bill instead requires the advisory council to periodically review and
update the criteria as necessary, and submit any updates to the
education and emergency service s and public protection
commissioners, along with the Public Safety and Security and Education
committees. 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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§ 8 — BIDDING REQUIREMENTS AND CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT SERVICES
Public Invitations to Bid
The bill eliminates the newspaper advertising requirement for public
invitations to bid on orders and contracts for (1) school building
construction projects receiving state grants, (2) architectural services,
and (3) construction management services. Under current law, these
public invitations to bid must be advertised in a newspaper having
circulation in the town where the construction will take place, except for
certain projects such as those using a state contract. The bill retains
provisions in current law requiring a public bidding process, but does
not specify a particular method for giving public notice of bidding
opportunities.
Construction Manager Self-Performance
The bill eliminates the option for a construction manager to self-
perform any project element, which under current law becomes
effective beginning July 1, 2022. Current law conditions this option upon
the (1) DAS commissioner and the awarding authority determining that
the construction manager can self-perform the work more cost-
effectively than a subcontractor could and (2) commissioner’s written
approval.
For subcontractor bids on school building projects, the bill requires
the construction manager to invite bids on project elements and give
notice of bidding opportunities on the State Contracting Portal. It
explicitly deems the construction manager ineligible to bid on any
project element.
The bill requires that each bid be kept sealed until opened publicly at
the time and place stated in the bid solicitation notice. After consultation
with and approval by the employing town or regional school district,
the construction manager must award any related contracts for project
elements to the lowest responsible qualified bidder. As under current
law, construction cannot begin before the guaranteed maximum price is
determined (except for site preparation and demolition work). 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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BACKGROUND
Related Bills
SB 423, reported favorably by the Labor Committee, requires the
labor commissioner to set up a school indoor air quality assessment and
ventilation monitoring program and also makes certain school HVAC
projects eligible for state reimbursement grants.
HB 5479, reported favorably by the Public Health Committee,
requires the Department of Public Health to set up an indoor air quality
monitoring program for public schools.
Adjusted Equalized Net Grand List (AENGL) Per Capita
AENGL per capita is a measure of town property wealth. It is
calculated using the following formula:
1. Take the net grand list of the town upon which taxes were levied
for the town’s general expenses three years before the fiscal year
when the grant will be paid, equalized by the Office of Policy and
Management secretary to calculate ECS grants consistent with
state law.
2. Divide the above number by the product of the (a) town’s total
population and (b) ratio of the town’s per capita income to the
per-capita income of the town at the 100th percentile among all
towns when ranked from lowest to highest in per capita income
(CGS § 10-261).
Minority Business Enterprise Contracting Requirements
Under the state set-aside program, state agencies and political
subdivisions (other than municipalities, see below) must set aside at
least 25% of the total value of all contracts they let for construction,
goods, and services each fiscal year for exclusive bidding by certified
small contractors. The agencies must further reserve at least 25% of the
set-aside value (i.e., at least 6.25% of the total) for exclusive bidding by
certified minority business enterprises (MBEs). Contractors awarded
municipal public works contracts must comply with these requirements
if the (1) contract includes state financial assistance and (2) total contract 2022SB-00428-R000449-BA.DOCX
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value exceeds $50,000. MBEs are small contractors owned by women,
minorities, or people with disabilities. The owner must have managerial
and technical competence and experience directly related to his or her
principal business activities (CGS §4a-60g).
School Construction Priority List Project Report
By law, the project report must contain all school building projects
the DAS commissioner has placed on the priority list as eligible for a
school construction reimbursement grant, listed with each project’s
estimated grant amount, enrollment projections, estimated total cost,
and readiness to begin construction, among other things.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Education Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 39 Nay 0 (03/25/2022)