CAG Update: Office of Public School Construction, State Allocation Board, Status of Bond Authority

Office of Public School Construction

The Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) recognizes the impact COVID-19 school closures hashadon the ability of school districts to provide responses toOPSC's time sensitive correspondence.OPSC has said itwill work with all impacted school districts and grant extensions due to the unforeseen closures,and has taken several steps to provide flexibility to districts.

OPSC created a School District Time Extension Request Form for use by districts unable to meet response deadlines and/or due dates due to COVID-19. OPSC will review the request and, if approved, send approval of the requests to the District Representative. If you do not hear back from OPSC within 5 business days, please contact OPSCCommunications@dgs.ca.gov.

OPSC has also postponed or provided deadline extensions for the following:

· Full Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant Program, originally scheduled to open on April 1, 2020 and end on April 30, 2020, has been postponed and will be rescheduled.

· Career Technical Education Facilities Program (CTEFP) filing deadline, which was earlier this month,has been extended to June 30, 2020.

· Priority Funding Filing Round (PFFR) begins on May 13, 2020, and the filing period has been extended to August 28, 2020.

State Allocation Board

The State Allocation Board (SAB) held a virtual meeting Wednesday toprovide unfunded approvals for over $63 million in new construction and modernization projects,totaling 28 applications.

At the meeting it was alsoannounced that The Office of Administrative Law approved emergency regulations providing the Executive Officer, upon notice to the Board, the authority to temporarily extend a deadline for any program set in regulations adopted by the Board or in rules and procedures set by the Board or OPSC. This will allow for the continued extension of programmatic deadlines, as necessary due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Status of Bond Authority

Amounts estimated as a Status of Funds item was not presented or included in the agenda.

The next SAB meeting is scheduled to take place on May 27, 2020.