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S1110..........................................................by EDUCATION SCHOOL INSPECTIONS - REPORTS - Amends existing law relating to safe public school facilities to require publication of a summary of the reports made to the board of trustees of a school district. 02/12 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing 02/13 Rpt prt - to Educ 02/23 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 2nd rdg 02/26 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg 02/27 3rd rdg - PASSED - 33-0-2 AYES -- Andreason, Boatright, Branch(Bartlett), Brandt, Bunderson, Burtenshaw, Cameron, Danielson, Darrington, Davis, Deide, Dunklin, Frasure, Geddes, Goedde, Hawkins, Ingram, Ipsen, Keough, King-Barrutia, Lodge, Noh, Richardson, Risch, Sandy, Schroeder, Sorensen, Stegner, Stennett, Thorne, Wheeler, Whitworth, Williams, NAYS -- None Absent and excused -- Lee, Sims Floor Sponsor -- Keough Title apvd - to House 02/28 House intro - 1st rdg - to Educ
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO |||| Fifty-sixth Legislature First Regular Session - 2001IN THE SENATE SENATE BILL NO. 1110 BY EDUCATION COMMITTEE 1 AN ACT 2 RELATING TO SAFE PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITIES; AMENDING SECTION 33-1613, IDAHO 3 CODE, TO REQUIRE PUBLICATION OF A SUMMARY OF REPORTS MADE TO THE BOARD OF 4 TRUSTEES. 5 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho: 6 SECTION 1. That Section 33-1613, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby 7 amended to read as follows: 8 33-1613. SAFE PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITIES REQUIRED. (1) Definition. As used 9 in this section, "public school facilities" means the physical plant of 10 improved or unimproved real property owned or operated by a school district, 11 including school buildings, administration buildings, playgrounds, athletic 12 fields, etc., used by schoolchildren or school district personnel in the nor- 13 mal course of providing a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free 14 common schools, but does not include areas, buildings or parts of buildings 15 closed from or not used in the normal course of providing a general, uniform 16 and thorough system of public, free common schools. The aspects of a safe 17 environment conducive to learning as provided by section 33-1612, Idaho Code, 18 that pertain to the physical plant used to provide a general, uniform and 19 thorough system of public, free common schools are hereby defined as those 20 necessary to comply with the safety and health requirements set forth in this 21 section. 22 (2) Inspection. It is the duty of the board of trustees of every school 23 district at least once in every school year to require an independent inspec- 24 tion of the district's school facilities to determine whether those school 25 facilities comply with codes addressing safety and health standards for facil- 26 ities, including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, elevator, fire safety, 27 boiler safety, life safety, structural, snow loading, and sanitary codes, 28 adopted by or pursuant to the Idaho building code advisory act, chapter 41, 29 title 39, Idaho Code, adopted by the state fire marshal, adopted by generally 30 applicable local ordinances, or adopted by rule of the state board of educa- 31 tion and applicable to school facilities. The inspection shall be done pursu- 32 ant to section 39-4130, Idaho Code, or by an independent inspector profession- 33 ally qualified to conduct inspections under the applicable code. The results 34 of the inspection shall be presented to the board of trustees for their review 35 and consideration. 36 (3) Abatement required -- Reporting. The board of trustees shall, in 37 their sole discretion, accept or reject the results of the inspection in whole 38 or in part and in so doing shall identify any unsafe or unhealthy conditions 39 in the district. The board of trustees shall require that the unsafe or 40 unhealthy conditions be abated and shall instruct the district's personnel to 41 take necessary steps to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions. The board of 42 trustees must issue a report in the same school year in which the inspections 43 are made declaring whether any unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified have 2 1 not been abated. The state board of education may, by rule, provide for uni- 2 form reporting of unsafe and unhealthy conditions and for uniform reporting of 3 abatement or absence of abatement of unsafe and unhealthy conditions. At the 4 time of the report to the state board, a summary of the report made pursuant 5 to subsections (2) and (3) of this section shall be published in a newspaper 6 of general circulation within the district. The specific requirements of the 7 advertisement of the summary report shall be prescribed by rule of the state 8 board of education and shall include, but are not limited to, a listing by 9 school of the health or safety item(s) that need repair and the estimated cost 10 of repair. A complete copy of the report shall be available to the public in 11 the office of the school district. 12 (4) Costs of and plan of abatement. If the school district can abate all 13 unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified with the funds available to the dis- 14 trict, it shall do so, and it need not separately account for the costs of 15 abatement nor segregate funds expended for abatement. If the school district 16 cannot abate all unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified with the funds 17 available to it, the board of trustees shall direct that a plan of abatement 18 be prepared. The plan of abatement shall provide a timetable that shall begin 19 no later than the following school year and that shall provide for abatement 20 with all deliberate speed of unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified. The 21 district shall immediately begin to implement its plan of abatement and must 22 separately account for its costs of abatement of unsafe and unhealthy condi- 23 tions and separately segregate funds for the abatement of unsafe and unhealthy 24 conditions as required by subsection (5) of this section. 25 (5) Special provisions for implementation of plan of abatement. 26 (a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law concerning expenditure of 27 lottery moneys distributed to the school district, all lottery moneys pro- 28 vided to the school district for a school year in which the school dis- 29 trict cannot abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified and not 30 legally encumbered to other uses at the time and all lottery moneys for 31 following school years shall be segregated and expended exclusively for 32 abatement of unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified until all of the 33 unhealthy and unsafe conditions identified are abated, provided, if the 34 school district has obtained a loan from the safety and health revolving 35 loan fund, the provisions of section 33-1017, Idaho Code, and the condi- 36 tions of the loan shall determine the use of the district's lottery moneys 37 during the term of the loan. 38 (b) If the lottery moneys referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection 39 will, in the board of trustees' estimation, be insufficient to abate the 40 unsafe and unhealthy conditions identified, the plan of abatement shall 41 identify additional sources of funds to complete the abatement of the 42 unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The board of trustees may choose from 43 among the following sources, or from other sources of its own identifica- 44 tion, but the plan of abatement must identify sufficient sources of funds 45 for abatement. 46 (i) If the school district is not levying under chapter 8, title 47 33, Idaho Code, at the maximum levies allowed by law for levies that 48 may be imposed by a board of trustees without an election, the board 49 of trustees may increase any of those levies as allowed by law for 50 the school year following the school year in which it was unable to 51 abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified. 52 (ii) If the school district is levying under chapter 8, title 33, 53 Idaho Code, at the maximum levies allowed by law for levies that may 54 be imposed by the board of trustees without an election; or, if after 55 increasing those levies to the maximum levies allowed by law for 3 1 levies that may be imposed by the board of trustees without an elec- 2 tion, there will still be insufficient funds to abate unsafe or 3 unhealthy conditions identified, the school district, after giving 4 notice and conducting a hearing, may declare a financial emergency 5 and/or may apply for a loan from the safety and health revolving loan 6 fund as provided in section 33-1017, Idaho Code, to obtain funds to 7 abate the unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified. 8 (iii) Upon the declaration of a financial emergency, the board of 9 trustees shall have the power to impose a reduction in force, to 10 freeze some or all salaries in the district, and/or to suspend some 11 or all contracts that may be legally suspended upon the declaration 12 of a financial emergency; provided, that when a board of trustees 13 declares a financial emergency, or when a declaration of a financial 14 emergency is imposed by the state treasurer pursuant to section 15 33-1017, Idaho Code, and there is a reduction in force, some or all 16 salaries are frozen, or some contracts are suspended, the payments to 17 the school district under the foundation program of chapter 10, title 18 33, Idaho Code, and in particular the staff allowances under that 19 chapter, shall not be reduced during the duration of the financial 20 emergency as a result of a reduction in force, frozen salaries, or 21 suspended salaries from what the staff allowance would be without the 22 reduction in force, frozen salaries or suspended contracts. 23 (c) All costs of abatement for a program implementing plans of abatement 24 under subsection (5) of this section must be separately accounted for and 25 documented with regard to abatement of each unsafe or unhealthy condition 26 identified. Funds obtained under section 33-1017, Idaho Code, must be used 27 exclusively to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified. Funds 28 obtained pursuant to section 33-1017, Idaho Code, in excess of funds nec- 29 essary to abate unsafe or unhealthy conditions identified must be returned 30 as provided in section 33-1017, Idaho Code. Return of these funds shall be 31 judicially enforceable as provided in section 33-1017, Idaho Code.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE RS 10789 Last year, in the 2000 legislative session, Idaho Code 33-1613 which requires safe public school facilities was passed. The code requires inspection of safety issues, abatement of these issues and formulation of a plan to abate them. This bill simply gives the public, the patrons of the district, the opportunity to know the results of the inspection, the cost of the repairs and the plan for repair by requiring publication in the local newspaper. This will allow for patrons, school boards and school administrations to work together on resolving these issues. FISCAL IMPACT There will be an impact to school district budgets for publications in newspapers. Contact Name: Sen. Shawn Keough Phone: 342 1405 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE S 111