accommodation schools; building renewal grants

HB2241 - 572R - I Ver

REFERENCE TITLE:
accommodation schools; building renewal grants

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

HB 2241

Introduced by

Representative
Blackman

AN
ACT

amending section 41-5731, Arizona
Revised Statutes; relating to building renewal.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 41-5731, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE
41-5731.

Building renewal grant fund; use of monies; rules; annual report;
definitions

A. The building renewal grant fund is established
consisting of monies appropriated to the fund by the legislature.� The division
shall administer the fund and distribute monies to school districts for the
purpose of maintaining the adequacy of existing school
facilities. Monies in the fund are exempt from the provisions of
section 35-190 relating to lapsing of appropriations.

B. The division shall distribute monies from the
building renewal grant fund based on grant requests from school districts to
fund primary building renewal projects. Project requests shall be
prioritized by the division, with priority given to school districts that have
provided routine preventive maintenance on the facility. A school
district must submit a preventive maintenance plan to the division to be
eligible to receive monies from the building renewal grant fund. The
division shall approve only projects that will be completed within twelve
months, unless similar projects on average take longer to
complete. A grant issued under this section expires twelve months
after the grant request is approved unless the division issues an extension,
except that if the division approves a project and determines that similar
projects on average take longer than twelve months to complete, the division
shall extend the grant expiration date based on the average amount of time that
similar projects take to complete. The division shall establish a
process by which a school district may request an extension under this
subsection. On expiration of a grant, a school district shall return
any building renewal grant fund monies that the school district has not spent
to the division for deposit in the building renewal grant fund.� The division
may spend monies from the fund for assessments to determine whether a grant
from the fund is warranted under this section.

C. School districts that receive monies from the
building renewal grant fund shall use these monies on projects for buildings or
any part of a building in the division's database for any of the following:

1. Major renovations and repairs to a building that
is used for student instruction or other academic purposes.

2. Upgrading systems and areas that will maintain or
extend the useful life of the building.

3. Infrastructure costs.

D. Monies received from the fund shall not be used
for any of the following purposes:

1. New construction.

2. Remodeling interior space for aesthetic or
preferential reasons.

3. Exterior beautification.

4. Demolition.

5. Routine preventive maintenance.

6. Any project in a building, or part of a building,
that is being leased to another entity.

E. Accommodation schools are not eligible
for

to receive
monies from the building
renewal grant fund
, except that an accommodation school may
receive monies from the building renewal grant fund in the same manner as a
school district only if the project is for a building or a part of a building
that was Constructed before 2014 using monies from the former school facilities
board
.

F. If the division or a court of competent
jurisdiction determines that a school district received monies from the
building renewal grant fund that must be reimbursed to the division due to
legal action associated with improper construction by a hired contractor, the
school district shall reimburse the division an agreed-on amount for deposit
into
in
the building renewal grant fund.

G. The division shall categorize each project that
is eligible for monies from the building renewal grant fund as either critical
or noncritical. The division shall adopt policies and procedures to
prioritize critical projects and to designate critical projects as projects
that immediately impact student safety or building closures or that result in
operational disruptions. Critical projects have priority over any
previously approved noncritical projects.

H. If the division determines that sufficient monies
are not available for a noncritical project that the division has approved, the
division shall notify the school district that submitted the project request
that monies will be distributed from the building renewal grant fund for the
project only if the legislature appropriates sufficient monies. If
sufficient monies are not available in the fiscal year in which the project is
awarded for a noncritical project, the noncritical project does not receive priority
in the next fiscal year.

I. Building renewal grants pursuant to this section
shall be used only for projects that serve an academic purpose.

J. The division shall do both of the following:

1. Implement policies and procedures to require a
school district to report the preventive maintenance activities completed
during the previous twelve months for the facility for which the monies are
being requested.

2. Submit a monthly report to the school facilities
oversight board that details how monies from the building renewal grant fund
have been distributed.

K. In addition to establishing a project eligibility
assessment under section 41-5702, subsection A, paragraph 5, subdivision
(b), the division shall adopt rules regarding both of the following:

1. The approval of building renewal grants pursuant
to this section.

2. Time frames for the division regarding all of the
following with respect to this section:

(a) Approving or denying grant requests for critical
projects.

(b) Notifying an applicant if the applicant's
application is incomplete.

(c) Providing regular updates to applicants
regarding completed applications.

(d) Distributing monies from the building renewal
grant fund.

L. The board shall review all policies and
procedures that the division develops to administer this section.

M. The division may spend monies from the fund for
assessments to determine
if
whether

a grant from the fund is warranted under this section.

N. On or before June 30 of each year, the division
shall submit a report to the joint legislative budget committee and the
governor's office of strategic planning and budgeting on any unobligated monies
in the building renewal grant fund.�

O. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Primary building renewal projects"
means projects that are necessary for buildings owned by school districts that
are required to meet the minimum adequacy standards for student capacity and
that fall below the minimum school facility adequacy guidelines, as adopted by
the board pursuant to section 41-5711, for school districts that have
provided routine preventive maintenance to the school facility.

2. "Routine preventive maintenance" means
services that are performed on a regular schedule at intervals ranging from
four times a year to once every three years, or on the schedule of services
recommended by the manufacturer of the specific building system or equipment,
and that are intended to extend the useful life of a building system and reduce
the need for major repairs.

3. "Student capacity" has the same meaning
prescribed in section 41-5711.
END_STATUTE