By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green City School District will find out next month if it has moved up in the long wait line for state building construction money.
School officials are hopeful, but not expecting miracles.
“This ranking depends on other districts, too,” said Bowling Green Superintendent Francis Scruci. “It’s not just based on Bowling Green.”
The Bowling Green District is currently ranked at 506th in line for state funding for construction.
“It’s a gamble at this point,” Scruci said on Monday.
The Bowling Green School District submitted its application on May 21 for participation in the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission’s Expedited Local Partnership Program, and the application process is underway.
ELPP allows school districts to get credit toward the future funding requirements of the program, for funds spent today on current projects.
The assessments of the current school buildings done by the OFFC in 2015 are considered good for 10 years, Scruci said.
The application process required two primary reports – an updated enrollment projection, and an updated facilities master plan. The district received the revised enrollment projections on July 26, and in early August the district met with OFCC to discuss the updated master plan.
In that meeting, the OFCC confirmed the master plan will include all of the district’s buildings at the time funding becomes available. The currently planned elementary school project will qualify as the first portion of the overall master plan.
“Any future buildings could fall under the ELPP,” Scruci said.
Based on the district’s current ranking of 506th, the Bowling Green City Schools are currently eligible for 17 percent state funding on the qualifying improvements to be made in the future. However, the state will announce new rankings and funding percentages at the OFCC’s board meeting on Sept. 26.
The district will await the results of that meeting before concluding the application process and locking in the funding percentage. School officials will announce the outcome of the district’s ranking and state funding percentage as soon as it is available.
Last year, Steve Roka, the senior planning manager with the OFCC, and the district’s financial consultant David Conley met with local citizens to talk about the ELPP funding from that state.
“It’s a promise from the state – not a guarantee,” Roka said. “There’s more need than we have funds to go around.”
Through the ELPP, the district would have to come up with the financing for the project, with the state reimbursing the district for its portion later.
“It’s really undefined how far out in the future that will be,” Conley said.
The district would have to build according to OFCC guidelines, he added.
Bowling Green school officials and residents have been frustrated over the ranking the district has received for funding based on a formula of enrollment divided by the assessed property valuation.
The ranking puts Bowling Green’s ranking at 506th in the state – meaning funding would likely not be available for at least another 10 years through the standard OFCC funding program. There are currently about 100 other school districts already waiting in line for the OFCC funds.
“You’re at least 10 years away,” Roka said. “That can change. It could increase, it could decrease.”
Roka said some districts have challenged the rankings, but not successfully.
“We are required to follow that formula,” which puts poor districts ahead of wealthy ones, he said.
Conley agreed that appealing the ranking would be a futile effort.
“We’re not the only district penalized by the formula,” he said. “They know it’s not a perfect formula,” but the state is sticking with it.
The formula puts Bowling Green in the 83 percentile – meaning the state would pick up 17 percent of the construction costs and the district would be responsible for 83 percent.
That is an improvement from a few years ago, when the formula had the state picking up just 13 percent of the costs.
That formula is based on the value of the property in the school district, divided by the number of students.
“The higher the value per student, the lower your ranking,” Conley said.
So that number is constantly changing, since the property values shift and enrollment numbers fluctuate. Plus, since the state funds six to 10 school districts a year, those districts are taken out of the comparison group – which then affects the ranking of the districts still waiting, Conley explained.
Conley cautioned last year against the Bowling Green district waiting to proceed with buildings in hopes of the state portion continuing to increase.
“It’s not a safe assumption to say that’s going to be a continuing trend,” he said.
