NJASBO School Development Authority Committee Work

NJ School Development Authority

Trenton Office

Over the past eight years I have been planning and managing facility projects through state facility grants.  The reimbursement process for all section 15 grant agreements going back as far as 2004 and carrying through into the current RODs (Regular Operating District's)Grants established in late 2008 2009 have proven to be an effective way to address critical facility needs at a significant savings of forty cents on the dollar or 40% from the state through direct reimbursement of final eligible costs (FEC) as determined by the NJDOE Office of Facilities. 

 

While impressive and vital to the continuation of these projects, the reimbursement process is best described as arduous requiring a paper chase of duplicative and labor intensive clerical work that often delays the actual receipt of the much needed funding.

 

With reimbursable grants, districts and or municipalities in Type I districts typically bond only the "local share" or 60% of the final approved project and issue short term notes for the "state share."  In reality, since reimbursement is only made after major milestones of project completion, this could roll into years as a typical project can span two or more fiscal school years as construction must be planned around the school day.

 

Recognizing and experiencing this fact with many of my colleagues the discussion became a focus area at our NJASBO (Association of School Business Officials) state meetings leading to the formulation of the SDA Committee with me as chair at the suggestion of  John Donahue, Executive Director NJASBO.

 

Over the past four months we have met with Marc D. Larkins, CEO; Jason E. Ballard, Chief of Staff; and Andrew D. Yosha, Vice President Chief of Operations.

The committee’s goals are as follows:

1.    Streamline the approval process to effectuate prompt payment to districts for RODS grants

2.    Simplify the process by converting PDF documents to Word and or Excel

3.    Improve communications between the SDA project specialists and district representatives throughout the process

4.    Address the need for information sharing between the NJDOE Office of Facilities and the NJSDA in an attempt to eliminate duplicative requests for information from districts on approved projects.