Background
Assembly Bill (AB) 127 (Chapter 35, Statutes of 2006 - Nunez and Perata), establishes a new grant that enables districts to reduce the number of portable classrooms on overcrowded school sites and replace them with permanent classrooms. AB 127 provides $1 billion for eligible schools.

Eligible Schools
In order to participate in the ORG, districts must have school sites deemed eligible by the California Department of Education (CDE) based on population density utilizing the 2005/06 California Basic Educational Data Systems (CBEDS). The school site must have a pupil population density equal to or greater than 175 percent of CDE's recommended population density. Additionally, population density will be reduced when applicable to account for multistory construction and approved new construction projects, including approved apportionments for the Critically Overcrowded School (COS) Facilities Program. Districts should consult with the CDE in order to determine its eligible schools by submitting the Overcrowding Relief Grant Eligibility Determination form for each school site to the CDE.

Eligible Pupils
Each district will have a district wide (or High School Attendance Area/Super High School Attendance Area) eligibility bank which can be utilized at any eligible school. The district wide eligibility will be determined by the number of portables that were included in the initial new construction baseline determination multiplied by the applicable State loading standard, i.e. K-6: 25, 7-12: 27, non-severe: 13, and severe: 9. Districts may establish eligibility prior to or concurrently with the submittal of a funding application. The Overcrowding Relief Grant Pupil Eligibility Determination, Form SAB 50-11 has been developed for this purpose.

Pupils who are housed in Class Size Reduction (CSR) portables must be reduced from the number of eligible pupils pursuant to EC Section 17079.10 (a). In order to accomplish this, each elementary school application submitted will be adjusted based on a pro-rate of the number of district wide CSR portables and elementary schools. Districts will certify to the OPSC on the Form SAB 50-11 the total number of CSR portables district wide, as well as the total number of elementary schools in the district. Then the number of portables will be divided by the number of elementary schools to determine the average number of CSR portables at each elementary school. This will be a one-time determination. Each elementary school funding application pupil grant request will be reduced by the average number of portables per elementary school multiplied by 25 (State loading standard for K-6).

Filing Period
Project applications will be funded based on highest density for a total of three funding cycles. The funding cycles will occur as follows:

Any remaining funds from each funding cycle will be rolled over into the next funding cycle.

Financial Hardship
Under the ORG, design and site apportionments will not be available to financial hardship districts. Districts will have the option of acquiring a loan to fund the design and planning of their projects, and if it is determined that the district qualifies for financial hardship assistance, the State will pay up to the district's full matching share at the full grant apportionment. Because of the filing periods and requirement to fund the highest density projects first, the OPSC cannot guarantee the availability of funds once the district is prepared to submit a full grant application. The financial hardship regulations will be modified to allow the bridge financing loan for the ORG and will protect the loan from being considered a district contribution towards the district's School Facility Program projects.

Processing
Districts will request funding under the ORG by submitting a complete new construction package to the OPSC, which will include an Application for Funding (Form SAB 50-04). The Form SAB 50-04 will be modified to request a narrative describing how the project relieves overcrowding. Site visits will be conducted by OPSC to verify information reported by the districts.

During the processing of the ORG applications, site modernization eligibility will be reduced to account for the replaced facilities.

For assistance please contact your OPSC Project Manager.