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Committee advances statutory cleanup to constrain school facility lease costs
Summary
The House Education Committee voted to advance House Bill 20, a statutory cleanup that narrows lease-payment language to ensure state payments for leased school facilities do not exceed a specified per-square-foot or total-lease threshold, the committee was told.
CHEYENNE — The House Education Committee on Jan. 20, 2025 advanced House Bill 20, a statutory cleanup measure intended to clarify how the state calculates allowable lease costs for K-12 school facilities, including charter school leased space.
Representative Brown, appearing as chairman of the Select School Facilities Committee, told members the bill largely restates existing law with one substantive change: it adjusts the statutory language to require state payments for leased school facilities to be "equal to the lesser of the amount of the total lease agreement or the cost per square foot of the lease," rather than allowing payments that could "exceed the average cost per square foot," according to his presentation.
Representative Brown said the change was designed to prevent the state from paying "extremely high" lease amounts and to ensure leased facilities for charter schools and other schools are paid at the same square-foot basis as other facilities. He said the bill was prepared by the Legislative Service Office and that the Department of Education supported it; he also said there was no anticipated fiscal impact because the change is intended to reflect "business as usual." Ken de Kerria of the Wyoming School Boards Association told the committee he "just wanna speak in support of this" and that the bill "provides clarity in these charters."
Committee members asked clarifying questions about how allowable square footage is calculated. Representative Brown explained that "the allowable square footage is based off of the ADM calculation," meaning the model for allowable space uses average daily membership rather than actual building square footage in some districts, and that some districts'like Gillette'have excess square footage in older buildings that are not counted under the model.
Vice Chair Lalley moved the bill; Representative Erickson seconded. The committee approved the bill 9-0 on a roll call. The transcript shows no amendments and no fiscal note change resulting from the committee action.
