David Lever, Executive Director of Maryland’s Public School Construction program recently addressed MACo’s Legislative Committee.  Dr. Lever provided an overview of school construction funding and requests since 2006 and shared information about new programs for air conditioning in schools and physical enhancements to school security.  The Governor’s budget included $25 million each for the new programs.

The Interagency Committee on School Construction (IAC) approved draft regulations for the air conditioning program and the school security program in February.  According to Dr. Lever, the air conditioning funding would be used for upgrades in schools with no air conditioning, schools with window units, and schools with partial central air conditioning, prioritizing those schools with no air conditioning.  The school security funding will be distributed based on square footage of school structures, not on the number or students or other security factors.  As described in the draft regulations,

Allocations . . . will be distributed among [local education agencies] LEAs based on their proportion of total statewide square footage.  The Facilities Inventory Database of the Public School Construction Program as of April 5, 2013, will provide the square footage information to calculate each LEA’s share of the allocation.

For more information, view Dr. Lever’s complete presentation to MACo’s Legislative Committee