Committee considers grant program to improve school building safety

As the relentless wave of school violence continues, lawmakers continue to propose a range of options to help school districts stop it.

Sponsored by Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie), HF3796 would provide grant funding to school districts for facility upgrades to enhance student and staff safety.

The bill was held over Thursday by the House Education Finance Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion. The companion, SF3607, awaits action by the Senate Capital Investment Committee. Sen. Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) is the sponsor.  

This is the second school-safety bill Loon has sponsored this session. The other would allow districts to use long-term facilities maintenance funds for school safety improvements. However, she recognized that many districts’ facility funds are already stretched too thin to cover all their needs.

“I think this is yet another tool for districts who may already be at their capacity with their long-term facilities maintenance funds, or maybe have needs that just aren’t going to be met that way,” she said.

The Education Department would run the program and distribute the funds with input from the Department of Public Safety’s Minnesota School Safety Center. The grants would be funded by the sale of state general-obligation bonds.

The proposal would require at least half of the grants be awarded to school districts located in Greater Minnesota, and would prohibit the distribution of funds until all the districts’ construction bids are submitted and it can be confirmed the projects can be completed with the money available. The commissioner would be responsible for developing additional criteria for applicants, as well as prioritizing the need. 

Fred Nolan, executive director of the Minnesota Rural Education Association, said the program would provide much-needed relief for cash-strapped school districts.

“It would allow districts to stretch those long-term facilities maintenance dollars without putting the burden on their local property taxpayers or farmers, and that’s pretty important because we have less property wealth in general and less income in general than the largest 25 districts,” he said.

Nolan said he also expects the program would be a good way to gauge the facility needs of districts statewide, and urged the committee to consider providing ongoing funding for it.

“I don’t consider this a one-and-done approach,” he said. “Student safety is more important than that, and while we may not get all the projects in the first round, we’ll know what projects need to be done and, with creativity, continue to work on this.”