TITLE: CONCERNING CREATION OF THE EXCELLENT SCHOOLS PROGRAM, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, SPECIFYING CRITERIA FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR SCHOOL AWARDS.

Fiscal Impact Summary	FY 1999/2000	FY 2000/2001
State Revenues Cash Fund Exempt	Possible grants, gifts, and donations
State Expenditures Cash Fund Exempt	Possible future cash awards
FTE Position Change	0.0 FTE	0.0 FTE
Other State Impact: None
Effective Date: July 1, 1999
Appropriation Summary for FY 1999-2000: None required
Local Government Impact: Schools will be the recipients of cash awards presented by the State Board of Education through the Excellent Schools Program.

This bill establishes the Excellent Schools Program to be administered by the Department of Education. The State Board of Education would be required to promulgate rules to administer the program. The State Board would annually present financial awards to the highest performing schools based on scores achieved on an index developed by the Department of Education. The index would include:

• the degree to which the school has achieved specified performance goals on statewide assessments;

• achievement of accreditation indicators pursuant to the State Board of Education's accreditation policy; and

• evidence of community satisfaction with school performance and of parental involvement.

The Department would give great weight to the factors in the index that are based on statewide assessments. The State Board of Education would annually review the percentage goals in the index, and would be authorized to raise those percentage goals.

The Department of Education would be authorized to receive public and private moneys for use in making financial awards. The Excellent Schools Program Fund would be established in the State Treasury. Moneys in the fund would be subject to annual appropriation by the General Assembly to the Department of the purpose of making financial awards. All interest derived from the deposit and investment of moneys in the fund would be credited to the General Fund. Moneys in the fund may not be used to pay for the expenses of the Department of Education in administering the program. The bill clarifies that any moneys awarded are in addition to funds received through the School Finance Act or the school district's taxing authority and are to be spent as each school's advisory accountability committee deems fit.

The bill authorizes the Department of Education to receive public and private moneys for use in making financial awards. Any grants, gifts, and donations received for the Excellent Schools Program from public or private sources would be considered as cash funds exempt revenue. It is assumed that no state General Fund moneys will be appropriated for this purpose.

Section 22-7-206, C.R.S. established the Excellent Schools Program to be administered by the Department of Education. This program is repealed, effective June 30, 1999. During its tenure, the program was unsuccessful in obtaining a funding source. While schools were recognized for their excellence, no financial awards were given out.

This bill establishes a new Excellent Schools Program to be administered by the Department of Education. The bill requires the State Board of Education to promulgate rules to administer the program providing financial awards to the highest performing schools based on an index developed by the Department of Education. The program rules and the index from the current program could be modified by the Department to accommodate the new Excellent Schools Program. Therefore, the department would not incur any additional administrative expense in order to implement the new program.

The State Board would annually present financial awards to the highest performing schools based on scores achieved on an index developed by the Department of Education. The number and amount of the awards would depend on the amount of funds available for this purpose in the Excellent Schools Program Fund. If funding for the program is obtained during FY 1999-00, these funds would be subject to appropriation by the General Assembly for disbursement in FY 2000-01.

Schools will be the recipients of cash awards presented by the State Board of Education through the Excellent Schools Program.

The fiscal note implies that no new spending authority or appropriations are required to implement the provisions of the bill.