School facilities: Civic Center Act: direct costs.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide details on what specific purposes the special fund can be used for beyond maintaining school facilities.

School Facilities: Civic Center Act Direct Costs

AB-503 restores the expanded definition of direct costs for school districts to charge fees when allowing civic center use and sets up a special fund for maintenance expenses.

What This Bill Does

• Restores an older definition of 'direct costs' that includes operating and maintenance costs proportional to how much a group uses school facilities.
• Requires school districts to set fees based on these direct costs for using their facilities as civic centers.
• Creates a special fund where money collected from maintenance, repair, restoration, and refurbishment goes.

Who It Names or Affects

• School districts that allow community groups to use their facilities as civic centers
• Community groups using school facilities for civic center activities

Terms To Know

Direct costs

The expenses related to supplies, utilities, janitorial services, and salaries of employees directly associated with the administration necessitated by a group’s use of the school facilities.

Civic Center Act

A law that lets schools allow community groups to use their buildings for civic purposes.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much of the operating and maintenance costs are included in direct costs.
• It is unclear what specific purposes the special fund can be used for beyond maintaining school facilities.

Official Summary Text

AB 503, Mark González.
School facilities: Civic Center Act: direct costs.
The Civic Center Act authorizes, and in some instances requires, the governing board of a school district to allow the use of school facilities or grounds as a civic center, for specified purposes. The act authorizes or requires, as applicable, the governing board of a school district to charge a fee, not to exceed the school district’s direct costs, as defined, for use of its school facilities or grounds. Existing law, for these purposes, defines “direct costs” to mean the costs of supplies, utilities, janitorial services, services of school district employees, and salaries paid to school district employees directly associated with the administration of this section necessitated by the entity’s use of the school facilities or grounds. Existing law, until January 1, 2025, expanded the definition of direct costs to include a specified share of the operating and maintenance costs
proportional to the entity’s use of the school facilities or grounds and a share of the costs for maintenance, repair, restoration, and refurbishment of the school facilities or grounds proportional to that entity’s use of the school facilities or grounds, as specified.
This bill would restore, indefinitely, the above-described expanded definition of direct costs that was repealed as of January 1, 2025. The bill would require funds collected relating to maintenance, repair, restoration, and refurbishment to be deposited into a special fund and to be used only for certain purposes.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF