University of Maryland College Park Office of Executive Programs
Newswire Week8(11/18-11/24)
LOCAL
Schools look for options amid crowding; Chesapeake to consider moving students, changing attendance zones The Virginian-Pilot - November 23, 2002 Saturday http://data.pilotonline.com/pilot/archives/
	Without the relief provided by a new public high school, unrelenting crowding could force some ninth-graders to be moved into middle schools and some sixth-graders into elementary schools under options that school officials are studying. Attendance-zone changes would be added under this contingency plan to find space for students. The first option remains continuing to rely on portable classrooms. The alternatives were released Friday in background materials for a joint meeting Tuesday between the School Board and the City Council, in which school-construction funding for the 39,000-student division will occupy much of the agenda. "Unfortunately . . . that's what we have to work on: options," School Board Chairwoman Barbara B. Head said Friday. "I don't know how feasible they are." Changing the configurations of its schools would require more school staff and materials and longer school days, school officials said. Course offerings would be affected, particularly for the sixth-graders who would be kept in elementary schools. The city has given no local money to the schools for construction since 1998, saying it can't afford it. The schools so far have been dealing with rising enrollment through portable classrooms, particularly at its high schools - 95 sit at five of the six high schools.
Charles Board Implements Tax On New Homes The Washington Post - October 24, 2002 Sunday http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29558-2002Nov23.html
	The Charles County Board of Commissioners adopted an ordinance last week that establishes the terms of the new excise tax that buyers of new homes will pay to finance school construction. The ordinance takes effect July 1, but commissioners have not decided when the new charge first will appear on property tax bills. Under the excise tax, buyers of new single-family homes will pay $ 9,700 over a 10-year period rather than the current $ 5,000 impact fee paid by home builders. Approved last spring by the Maryland General Assembly, this financing mechanism is designed to produce revenue more in line with the actual financial burden placed on county schools with each new home built. Buyers of new townhouses and multifamily dwelling units will pay $ 9,200 and $ 7,000, respectively, over 10 years.
NATIONAL
Gephardt's Economic Plan Calls for More Schools Rock Products - November/December 2002 http://www.rockproducts.com/ar/rock_gephardts_economic_plan_2/
	House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt [D-Mo.] laid out an economic plan that calls for spending more than $100 billion on school construction. "I am offering a five-point plan to restore economic growth," Gephardt says prior to the November election. "If we can gain control of the House of Representatives, I believe this could be the foundation of a New Economic Agenda for a New House. An economic strategy devoted to restoring growth and jobs to our economy." Some believe Gephardt will run for president in 2004. The Gephardt plan includes $125 billion in school construction, domestic anti-terrorism infrastructure and health care assistance; $75 billion in one-time rebates and tax cuts immediately to working families and company investments.
ACROSS THE NATION
California
State studies district's books: Beaumont: A claim that school officials falsified data to get more funding is being examined. The Press-Enterprise - November 20, 2002, Wednesday http://www.pe.com/localnews/desertpass/stories/PE_NEWS_ndscam20.58738.html
	State officials are looking at whether the Beaumont Unified School District qualified for millions of dollars in state construction money by overestimating future enrollment and understating local developer fees. While many Inland school districts are struggling to pay for new classrooms, Beaumont school officials abused a state program intended to help needy districts, Beaumont's former superintendent claims. State officials are trying to determine whether the Beaumont district padded enrollment and housing projections to obtain school construction funds, and whether a joint-use agreement with the city of Beaumont allows the district to claim it has less local income to contribute toward building classrooms, artificially increasing eligibility for state hardship dollars.
Ohio
Appeals court overturns school construction ruling The Associated Press State & Local Wire - November 20, 2002, Wednesday
	An appeals court has overturned a ruling that led to upheaval in Ohio's $2 million-a-day school building program, including the director's resignation and a request for an internal investigation. The decision by a Franklin County judge involved a single district's contract but condemned the way Ohio was implementing its 12-year, $23 billion school building program. The 10th Ohio District Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the Ohio School Facilities Commission had "arguably" failed to follow the law in approving construction contracts, a key point of Judge Jennifer Brunner's lower-court decision. But the appeals court also said the contracts themselves were valid and that the commission took the proper steps to ratify them later. After the judge's ruling, Gov. Bob Taft ordered the commission to retroactively approve more than 1,800 contracts.
California
Riordan pal gets sweet deal The Daily News of Los Angeles - November 20, 2002, Wednesday http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E20954%257E1001756,00.html
	A subsidiary of a firm headed by a Princeton schoolmate of former Mayor Richard Riordan used a loophole in state law to get a $107 million deal with the Los Angeles Unified School District without competitive bidding, the Daily News learned Tuesday. With Riordan playing a key role in LAUSD affairs, the deal raises questions about insider influence and back-room deal-making at a time when the district is embarking on a massive school construction program likely to cost more than $10 billion. Those who worked on the deal - including two Riordan & McKinzie attorneys who drew up legal papers for the developer - said Riordan and William Carey, chairman of W.P. Carey, the parent of Emerald Development Co., did not play a role in the negotiations for the turnkey school construction project south of downtown. But board member David Tokofsky, the only one who objected to the deal when it was approved, said it raises concerns about insider dealings. "There's no question Dick Riordan does tremendous charitable good things for the children of Los Angeles. But t buck at the same time.
Washington
School construction problems aired State, school districts battle over funding, solutions at hearing The Spokesman-Review - November 20, 2002 Wednesday http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=112002&ID=s1256897
	From bond guarantees that help school districts get lower interest rates to $10 million in interest subsidies handed out to certain districts in the past two years, Idaho has done much to address its school building problems, attorneys for the state said Tuesday. ''The Legislature's been very attentive to this," said Michael Gilmore, a deputy attorney general. But attorneys for a group of school districts who sued the state over deteriorating schoolhouses disagreed. ''The legislation that's passed nibbles around the edges, and takes no substantial step to solve the problems either as to safety or general adequacy of the facilities for a thorough education," said attorney Robert Huntley. State District Judge Deborah Bail nearly two years ago ruled Idaho's system for funding school construction unconstitutional, because it leaves poor school districts unable to provide safe school buildings for their students. Bail is now holding a series of hearings on the problems and potential solutions.

Articles compiled by Sujin Bae

Graduate assistant for the School Construction Funding Project

Van Munching Hall University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-1821

poissone@wam.umd.edu