TWO FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

 HARRISBURG, NOV. 18 – State Sen. Connie Williams announced two funding opportunities that are available to schools considering construction and renovation projects.

 The newly established Early Childhood Capital Investment Fund was created to assist school districts in making changes to their facilities to accommodate early childhood education opportunities, such as launching new pre-kindergarten, full-day kindergarten and class-size reduction programs.

 Funded with $5 million in state dollars, the new program will provide small, low-interest loans to school districts in order to increase the availability of early childhood educational opportunities. Loans may be used for construction costs, renovation of an existing facility, needed equipment and furniture or a combination of qualified uses.

 “Pennsylvania has placed a greater emphasis on early childhood education, because children who are engaged early and ready to learn have fewer problems during their education career,” Williams said. “This new loan program will provide schools the financial assistance they need to make appropriate changes to schools to accommodate these early education initiatives.”

 The loan program is open to all school districts that are establishing new early childhood education programs for the 2005-06 or 2006-07 school year. Loans are offered for a term of no more than 5 years. The average loan is expected to be around $100,000. Projects over $500,000 will be considered only under special circumstances. Loans from the fund will be made available by the Pennsylvania State Public School Building Authority. For guidelines online visit: www.pde.state.pa.us/early_childhood.cwp/view.asp?Q=115615&A=179.

 Electronic applications (eGrants) will be accepted through Dec. 15 for the first cycle (applications will be reviewed and approved two times each year by the Department of Education’s Policy Office). The Department of Education will begin accepting loan applications on Jan. 1, 2006 and will begin making award announcements in February 2006. The second cycle begins in the spring of 2006.

 Another new program aimed at helping public schools, Area Vocational Technical School and Career and Technology Centers make positive environmental decisions, has been launched by a collaborative effort of the Governor’s office and the Department of Education, Department of Environmental Protection and the State Public School Building Authority.

 The Pennsylvania High-Performance Green Schools Planning Grant program will provide grants of $20,000 (on average) to defray some of the costs not generally included in the design fee that are critical to the design of an innovative environmental and energy efficient school building. Eligible costs include building energy simulations and daylight modeling, green coaches and specialty consultant fees, design fees for additional services beyond those conventionally covered, and help with LEED-NC certification costs.

 Funds will not be given for research, materials, or construction costs. Projects that fail to obtain at least a LEED-NC Silver certification within one year of building acceptance will be required to repay grant funds to the Department of Education.

 For more information online go to www.state.pa.us and use Keyword “Green Schools.”

 There is no application deadline. Grant awards will be made on a first come basis and upon verification of project eligibility.