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New Rules for Green
School Funds:
Prop ID Update
By Racquel
Palmese
Proposition 1D, which provides incentive funds for high performance school
construction in
California,
has passed a major hurdle. On August 22 the California State Allocation
Board approved regulations determining that a modified version of CHPS
(Collaborative for High Performance Schools) standards will be the
criteria used to approve projects.
The 1D regulations are now being reviewed by the Office of Administrative
Law, which is expected to approve the plan “any day now,” according to
Steve Hall of the State Architect’s office. If there are no delays,
distribution of funds could start as early as October. The new
regulations, determining how $100 million in Prop 1D high performance
schools incentives will be spent, would allocate between 2 percent – 11
percent extra funding from the state for new K-12 green public school
projects. CHPS criteria cover high performance features in the areas of
sustainable sites, water, energy, materials, indoor environmental quality,
policy and operations. Since Prop 1D awards funding only for school
building, these incentives will not cover green operations or curriculum.
The $100 million high performance incentives are a small but significant
part of Prop 1D, which is a $10.4 billion funding package for the
upgrading of public K-12 schools, community colleges and state
universities (see
related story).
According to CHPS, “Schools that build to the CHPS Criteria will receive
funding for nearly all of their high performance features. All CHPS
credits, other than those that are operational or curriculum oriented,
including policy and operations credits and using the school as a teaching
tool, have been included in the incentive program. This alteration is
reflected in a lower level of points and prerequisites required for
participation in the funding program compared to CHPS.
“The incentive program will also give greater emphasis to CHPS’ energy
category by requiring that a minimum of four points come from energy
efficiency or renewable energy such as solar. Under the (regular) CHPS
program only 2 points are required.”
Click
here for more information on the CHPS 1D program.
For general information on Prop 1D, click
here. |
