Section 151.130  Award of School Maintenance Project Grants – Applicants With a Population of 500,000 or Fewer

Grant awards to applicants with a population of 500,000 or fewer shall be made as provided in this Section.

a)         An applicant that submits a timely, complete and accurate application that is in compliance with the School Construction Law and this Subpart and that indicates that the applicant has a qualifying project shall be awarded a grant for the approved project provided that the appropriation is sufficient to fund the grant.

b)         If the appropriation for any fiscal year is insufficient to fund all approved projects, grants shall be awarded in the following order until the appropriation is exhausted.

1)         Grants shall be awarded in rounds, with each applicant being allowed one approved project per round.

2)         Within each round, grants shall be awarded in order of the five priorities established in Section 5-100(b) of the School Construction Law and as defined in Section 151.110 of this Part:

A)        Emergency projects,

B)        Health/life safety projects,

C)        State priority projects,

D)        Permanent improvement projects,

E)        Other projects.

3)         Within each priority, grants shall be awarded in order of the applicant's need index, proceeding from greatest to least.

A)        For a school district applicant, the need index shall be determined by dividing the equalized assessed valuation per pupil in average daily attendance of the school district at the 90^th percentile of wealth for districts of that type (i.e., elementary, high school, or unit) by the equalized assessed valuation per pupil in average daily attendance of the applicant.

B)        For an applicant that does not possess property taxing authority, its equalized assessed valuation per pupil in average daily attendance shall be that of the school district in which the greatest number of the applicant's students reside.

C)        For purposes of calculating the need index, the equalized assessed valuation and average daily attendance shall be taken from the general state aid claims filed in the fiscal year for which a grant is made.  The average daily attendance to be used shall be the district's best three months average daily attendance.

c)         An approved application from the first round that is not funded because of an insufficient appropriation shall be placed ahead of new applications filed in a subsequent year, provided the applicant submits an updated application.

(Source:  Added at 24 Ill. Reg. 5661, effective March 17, 2000)