[Busmgrs] Proposed changes to the Office of School Facilities

Thu May 18 13:41:06 PDT 2017

Dear Business Managers and Facility Experts,

Change is potentially coming to the Oregon School Capital Facilities Matching Program (OSCIM) Program and the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) Program! After listening to the advisory group, we have proposed some changes to make the programs more responsive to districts. The rules are up for final adoption in the State Board of Education's May meeting. I wanted to give everyone a sneak peek at the proposed changes.
Changes:

1.       Submission of long-range facility plans and facility assessments will be required as part of the OSCIM Program;

2.       OSCIM Program moves to a 9-month application cycle; and

3.       TAP Program moves to a once-a-year application cycle

Additionally, the Oregon Department of Education is asking the State Board to adopt rules to increase the transparency of the program and ensure that the funding available is distributed as equitably and transparently as possible.

1.       Submission of long-range facility plans and facility assessments required
When Senate Bill 447 was passed, it required districts to submit long-range facility plans (LRFP) and facility assessments (FA) as part of the OSCIM grant application. That requirement was waived for the 2015-17 biennium. However, we are now concluding the 2015-17 biennium and so districts must comply with this requirement. In order to facilitate these new requirements, we are proposing that the LRFP and FA be submitted before the OSCIM Program application period opens. We are proposing that all LRFP and FA be submitted to the Office of School Facilities no later than two weeks before the opening of the application period.

We are proposing early submission for two reasons. The first is to provide feedback to districts on their LRFP and FA. These plans must meet the standards set forth in Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) in order to qualify as a submission for the OSCIM Program. By requiring districts to submit this early, we have time to review the plans to ensure their compliance with the OAR standards. It also gives us time to provide feedback to districts such that they can make minor corrections and still qualify for an OSCIM grant.

The second reason is administrative.  We need the submission of the regular application to be as quick as possible. In the lottery process, we would be unable to review applications in a timely manner, provide feedback to districts to make changes to their applications and still meet the deadlines. If these large plans were submitted at the same time, it would delay the ability for us to notify districts about whether they received an OSCIM grant commitment or not. Setting up the earlier deadline keeps the commitment process as efficient as possible.

Please note the following requirements for the LRFP and FA:

*         These are required to be submitted. Failure to submit these plans will invalidate a later OSCIM application.

*         These plans must meet the standards. FA: OAR 581-027-0035 and LRFP: OAR 581-027-0040

*         These plans must be submitted through the Secure File Transfer protocol. These plans frequently exceed the 5 MB limit that our email system imposes on attachments. Thus, if we don't get these plans through the secure file transfer protocol, we cannot confirm their receipt.

*         The deadline, two weeks before the start of the OSCIM Program, is final. We cannot accept late submissions.

*         We only accept electronic copies.

*         If there are deficiencies in the report, we will try to provide feedback to the districts. The districts will have until the start of the OSCIM application period to correct them.

New OSCIM Program Grant Schedule
We heard from the advisory group that the 6-months period from commitment to election was too short for many districts. Specifically, it is not enough time to fully communicate the benefit of receiving a commitment from the OSCIM Program to voters to have as significant an impact as possible. To help with that problem, the OSCIM program is proposing to move to a; new calendar:
2017

2018

2019

J

A

S

O

N

D

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

J

F

M

A

M

J

Timeline for November 2017

Timeline for May 2018 election

Timeline for November 2018 election

Timeline for May 2019 election

Final reconciliation for any remaining funds from previous elections

As you can see, this new calendar provides 9 months between the initial commitment and the election for three out of the four elections in a biennium. The first election, the first November election, will continue to have 6 months lead time. This is required to ensure that there is no overlap between biennia for the OSCIM Program.  Some other highlights of this change:

*         After the second November election in a biennium, if there are any uncommitted funds left from any of the elections, they will be applied to the waitlist of the last May election.

*         Long-Range Facility Plans and Facility Assessments will still need to be submitted before the application dates for each election.

*         The applications will open as follows:

o    First November: July 15

o    First May: September 15

o    Second November: March 15

o    Second May: September 15

*         The applications for an election are due before the previous election has been decided. If a district applies for a specific election, they cannot reapply to the program until that election has occurred.

Technical Assistance Program (TAP) Grants being issued once a year
The TAP grants were issued twice in the 2016-17 school year during the 2015-17 biennium. However, ODE is requesting the State Board of Education to approve once-a-year issuance moving forward. Highlights for this change:

*         Estimated $2.5 million in grants will be available each year

*         Applications will open on January 15th and close on February 15th

*         Districts will have 12 months to complete each type of work, facility assessment, long-range facility plan, or seismic assessment

If after reading this email you have additional questions, please let me know.

Thank you,
Michael

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D2CFDC.629E4520]
Oregon achieves . . . together!

Michael Elliott J.D.
School Facilities Coordinator
Office of Finance and Administration | Office of School Facilities
503-947-5627 | 503-551-9227
Michael.s.elliott at state.or.us<mailto:Michael.s.elliott at state.or.us> | www.oregon.gov/ode<http://www.oregon.gov/ode>

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