| Summary |
The bill requires a school district, a charter school, an institute
charter school, a board of cooperative services, or the Colorado school for
the deaf and the blind (local education provider) to satisfy certain
requirements concerning installation, inspection, and maintenance of
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in schools if
the local education provider undertakes HVAC infrastructure
improvements using money made available by a federal government
source or by a federal government source in combination with a state
government source specifically for such purpose.
The requirements established in the bill concern:
•
Ventilation verification assessments, which include
assessments of an HVAC system's filtration, ventilation
exhaust, economizers, demand control ventilation, air
distribution and building pressurization, general
maintenance requirements, operational controls, and carbon
dioxide output;
•
The preparation of HVAC assessment reports;
•
The review of HVAC assessment reports by mechanical
engineers, who make recommendations regarding
necessary repairs and improvements, suggest pathways to
reduce emissions, and estimate associated costs;
•
HVAC adjustments, repairs, upgrades, and replacements;
•
The preparation of HVAC verification reports and the
submission of the reports to the state board of education;
and
•
Periodic inspections and ongoing maintenance.
The bill establishes mandatory criteria that an HVAC contractor
must satisfy in order to perform work described in the bill. A local
education provider that undertakes HVAC infrastructure improvements
using money made available by a federal government source or by a
federal government source in combination with a state government source
must do so using only contractors on the certified contractor list
established by the department of labor and employment.
The bill transfers money from the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act cash fund to the unused state-owned real property fund. The
public-private collaboration unit in the department of personnel (unit)
may use the money to provide grant writing support, administrative
support, and project planning, to review the work of applicants, and to
connect applicants with third parties with expertise pertaining to federal
funding application technical assistance.
The bill requires the unit to facilitate a public-public partnership
with local education providers to leverage federal dollars available to help
public schools improve air quality in schools, student performance, and
staff retention.
For each award of federal dollars obtained with the unit's grant
writing support, the unit is authorized to retain 2.5% of the dollars
awarded to cover the unit's administrative costs.
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