How Current is Your Maintenance Plan?

09 Oct How Current is Your Maintenance Plan?

The State of California Will Match Your Funding, but Only Under Certain Conditions

Are you participating in the School Facility Program (SFP) through the State of California? If so, you need to ensure that you have an up-to-date routine restricted maintenance plan to comply with the requirements set by the California Education Code 17070.75 (ED 17070.75).

What is a Routine Restricted Maintenance Plan?

Let’s start with how the state defines “maintenance” and “facility” as it relates to the SFP:

California School Accounting Manual- maintenance is defined as “activities involved with repair . . .”

Maintenance—the routine, recurring, and usual work for the preservation, protection, and keeping of any publicly owned or publicly operated facility for its intended purposes in a safe and continually usable condition for which it was designed, improved, constructed, altered, or repaired.

Facility—any plant, building, structure, ground facility, utility system, or real property.

The document goes on to explain how contributions toward “routine restricted maintenance” are defined under the SFP:

• Establish a restricted resource within the general fund of the school district for the exclusive purpose of providing monies for ongoing and major maintenance of school facilities.
• A minimum contribution equal to or greater than the 3% of the combined adopted total general fund expenditures of the school district.
• Minimum amount to be contributed from the unrestricted.

In short, your school district must have a routine restricted AND deferred maintenance plan (a current plan for funds specifically earmarked for ongoing and major maintenance) to be considered eligible for the funding supplied under the SFP.

How Can I Ensure My District Meets SFP Requirements?

The Education Code goes on to explain the exact requirements laid out under the SFP to be eligible for state funding. But here are some of the most important provisions:

• [The legislature then explains what must be included in a district’s restricted maintenance plan; specifically, the state describes a multi-faceted, proactive strategy for the continued upkeep of your district’s facilitates. These requirements encapsulate both the level of labor involved as well as the way in which this labor is funded and projected:
• Identification of the major maintenance, repair, and replacement needs for the project.
• Specification of a schedule for completing the major maintenance, repair, and replacement needs.
• Specification of a current cost estimate for the scheduled major maintenance, repair, and replacement needs.
• Specification of the school district’s schedule for funding a reserve to pay for the scheduled major maintenance, repair, and replacement needs.
• Review of the plan annually, as a part of the annual budget process of the school district, and update, as needed, the major maintenance, repair, and replacement needs, the estimates of expected costs, and any adjustments in funding the reserve.
• Availability for public inspection of the original plan, and all updated versions of the plan, at the office of the superintendent of the school district during the working hours of the school district.

Maintenance Plans Are Important to Students, Not Just the State

The expected criteria for a district’s routine restricted AND deferred maintenance plan is clarified in the SFP. To be eligible for state funding, you’re required to meet these standards. But your maintenance plan shouldn’t exist for the sole purpose of attaining state funding. It’s also important to your students to ensure that they have the use of safe and modern facilities for their education.

A lot goes into running a school district. Your maintenance plan can sometimes be an afterthought. However, it doesn’t have to be. At DIXON SmartSchoolHouse, we’ll handle your restricted routine AND deferred maintenance plan as well as many other advisory aspects of your district, such as LCFF/LCAP strategies, bond program planning, organizational structuring, property management, and much more.

Joe Dixon, the owner of DIXON SmartSchoolHouse, is a former Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Governmental Relations for the Santa Ana Unified School District. He brings extensive knowledge of the California public school system—from outside and within—through his role in legislature and as an instructor.

Don’t let your maintenance plan fall to the wayside. DIXON SmartSchoolHouse can handle it for you. We have the expertise and the resources ready. Send us an email with any questions or to set up a consultation.