NS Policy on Planning and Funding School Capital Projects

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Attachment 1 7 Revised for BOCC approval on 11/01/00 • Instruct County staff to confirm the project's cost estimate and student capacity in accordance with the County's adopted School Construction Standards Reports along with student enrollment projections; • If the Board of Commissioners approves the project concept, the County Budget Director will prepare an agenda abstract and related capital project ordinance that provides funding for the concept and pre-planning phase of the project; • Appoint, by majority vote of the Board, either a Commissioner representative(preferably the same representative that participated in the siting phase of the project) and one staff representative, or two staff representatives, to partner with the school system as the plans develop; 0 Instruct the County Manager to update the Commissioners on a regular basis regarding the written information shared by the School Superintendent. 6. Expenditure of Project Funds Funding for Project Planning - School systems will not expend or encumber for planning of any project until the Board of County Commissioners has approved the plan concept. Background-For several years, the Board of Commissioners has approved a capital project ordinance entitled Planning for Future Projects for each school system. The creation of these ordinances enabled a system to expend a portion of their pay-as-you-go funds for planning during a project's conceptual stages. Once a project grew beyond the concept stages, systems requested the Commissioners to approve a"project specific" capital project ordinance allocating all funds anticipated to carry out the planned project. In turn, each district expended their monies up-front for planning, design, architect, construction, furniture and equipment. In return, the County reimbursed each District with all of the project-related expenditures up to the total project budget. With the changes implemented by the County Commissioners in June 1999, this process has changed. It is important to note that unless a County approved capital project ordinance is in place (i.e. adopted by the County Commissioners), that the County is not legally or otherwise obligated to reimburse the school system for their expenditures. If the Board of County Commissioners approve the project concept and capital project ordinance as outlined in Item 5 above, the following steps occur: • Following Board of Commissioner approval of final plans for the project, the school system advertises for construction bids; • Once the system receives the bids, the School Superintendent notifies the County Manager, in writing, of the result of all bids received. • The County Manager informs the Board of Commissioners, in writing, of the construction bid results. Page 5 of 6 Policy on Planning and Funding School Capital Projects