SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 6623

BYSenators Barr, Owen, Bailey and Smith

Revising allocations for small school district capital construction.

Senate Committee on Education

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 3, 1988; February 4, 1988

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 6623 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass and be referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

      Signed by Senators Bailey, Chairman; Kiskaddon, Vice Chairman; Bauer, Bender, Craswell, Gaspard, Lee, Rinehart.

Senate Staff:Larry Davis (786-7422)

                  February 5, 1988

Senate Committee on Ways & Means

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 5, 1988; February 8, 1988

Majority Report:  That Second Substitute Senate Bill No. 6623 be substituted therefor, and the second substitute bill do pass.

      Signed by Senators McDonald, Chairman; Craswell, Vice Chairman; Bauer, Bluechel, Cantu, Hayner, Johnson, Lee, Newhouse, Saling, Smith, Williams, Zimmerman.

Senate Staff:Ken Kanikeberg (786-7715)

                  February 9, 1988

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON WAYS & MEANS, FEBRUARY 8, 1988

BACKGROUND:

Under law and State Board of Education rules, school districts are eligible for state matching funds for school construction projects approved by the board and for which local funds have been or are expected to be secured. Provisions stipulate that high school age students living in a nonhigh district, but attending school in a high school district, may not be counted as resident students by the nonhigh district for purposes of determining the district's adjusted valuation per full time equivalent (FTE) pupil for an elementary building project in the nonhigh district.  At the same time, a nonhigh school district is required to contribute capital assistance for building programs in the designated serving high school district.

SUMMARY:

The state matching percentage for a school district with a board approved building project shall be calculated using the district's adjusted valuation per full time equivalent resident pupil.

A student who lives in a nonhigh district but is enrolled in a designated serving high school district shall be considered a resident of the nonhigh district for purposes of calculating the nonhigh district's adjusted valuation per FTE resident pupil.

For high school projects in designated serving high school districts, the state matching percentage shall be computed using the combined enrollments and adjusted valuations per FTE resident pupils for each district, nonhigh and high, with the enrollments and adjusted valuations weighted by the percentage of both district's total resident high school students served in the high school district.

A high school district shall be identified as a designated serving district if more than 33.3 percent of the high-school age students residing in the nonhigh district are enrolled in the high school district.

A Nonhigh district must contribute capital assistance to building programs in a high school district if it is designated a serving district by the nonhigh district at the time the county auditor requests that capital funds for an approved building project in the high school district be placed on the ballot.

EFFECT OF PROPOSED EDUCATION SUBSTITUTE:

Districts which secured local matching funds prior to the effective date of the bill and whose local matching funds were calculated by including high school students residing in a nonhigh school district are exempted from the provisions of the bill.

High school districts may count as resident students those high school age students who are residents of a nonhigh district but are enrolled in the high school district if the high school district has not been identified as a designated serving district by the nonhigh school district.

A district without a high school must designate a serving high school district if more than 33.3 percent of the high school students residing in the nonhigh district are enrolled in the high school district.  In no case may a district without a high school be required to designate more than one high school district, although the district without a high school may identify more than one if it so chooses.

Any emerging high school district which secured local matching funds prior to the effective date of the bill, but could not count resident high school age students enrolled elsewhere at the time, shall be able to recalculate its local match. 

An emergency clause is provided.

EFFECT OF PROPOSED WAYS & MEANS SUBSTITUTE:

The section is eliminated which allowed emerging high school districts who had secured local matching funds prior to the effective date of the act to recalculate local match according to the provisions of the act.

Appropriation:    none

Revenue:    none

Fiscal Note:      available

Senate Committee - Testified: EDUCATION:  Senator Barr, sponsor (for); Suellen White, Superintendent, Onion Creek and Summit Valley School Districts (for); Mike Roberts, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction; Robert LaLonde, Superintendent, Nine Mile Falls School District (for); Howard Coble, Washington Association of School Administrators

Senate Committee - Testified: WAYS & MEANS:  Suellen White, Superintendent, Onion Creek and Summit Valley School Districts (for)