Department of Education briefs committee on $1 billion school modernization bond program and statewide facility condition assessment

Summary

Department of Education staff described distribution of roughly $1 billion in bond proceeds authorized by last session’s House Bill 521, the methodology used to allocate funds to districts, reporting and training requirements, and a statewide facility-condition assessment estimating about $19 billion in needs over 20 years.

Gideon Tullman, financial officer at the Idaho Department of Education, and Spencer Barzee, deputy superintendent, briefed the House Committee on Education on the School Modernization Facilities Fund established in House Bill 521 from the prior legislative session.

Tullman said the program used the State Building Authority and underwriters to access tax-exempt bond markets and that the state issued bond proceeds in two issuances (a $750 million issuance followed by an issuance that produced an additional $336.5 million in proceeds). He told the committee the first issuance totaled $750,000,000 and the second produced proceeds that brought the program total above $1 billion; the department has distributed $1 billion to districts and planned distribution of the roughly $86.5 million in additional proceeds using the same allocation formula unless the legislature…

Department of Education briefs committee on $1 billion school modernization bond program and statewide facility condition assessment

Summary

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