Policy 7.135

Program Capacity

1. Purpose. -- To allow the school facilities space to meet the educational needs of all students while complying with statutory and local regulations by establishing procedures to allow deviations from and exceptions to the Educational Plant Survey. The scope of the deviation from approved standards for determining space needs and the exception to the recommendations in the educational plant survey are set forth below.

2. Deviations and Exceptions Allowing Program Capacity. -- Pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 1013.31 (1) (b) (5), the Educational Facilities Plan may include space needs that deviate from approved standards for determining space needs if the deviation is justified by the district and approved by the department or the Board of Governors, as appropriate, as necessary for the delivery of an approved educational program. Additionally, pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 1013.32, an exception to the recommendations in the educational plant survey may be allowed if a board considers that it will be advantageous to the welfare of the educational system or that it will make possible a substantial saving of funds.

3. Rationale for the Deviations and Exceptions. -- Fla. Stat. §§ 1013.03 (10) (a) and 1013.72 requires the District to prepare an educational plant survey whereby it must undergo a review to verify that student station and auxiliary facility space allocations do not exceed the limits provided by Fla. Stat. Chapter 1013, and related rules, and to compare total capital outlay full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment projections in the survey with Department of Education ("DOE") projections. Under current formulas, spaces used for essential special programs are counted by the DOE as regular instructional space, thereby limiting the District's ability to construct adequate school facilities to meet growth in specific geographic areas and to meet program needs. As a result, these formulas do not allow enough space for the many special programs in the District's schools. An example of a program includes:

   1. English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): In some neighborhoods, a higher than state-average number of ESOL programs is needed to serve the school population. Many ESOL students require an intensive program with a lower teacher-pupil ratio in a "pull-out" setting (typically in resource rooms). To meet this student instructional need in some schools, there would be competing uses for resource rooms in schools whose actual usage of resource rooms is much higher than currently recognized by the State.

4. Deviations and Exceptions to the Educational Plant Survey. -- The School Board will determine space needs at the local level, based on local projections and program needs.  The District will continue to use Florida Inventory of School Houses (FISH) as the baseline reporting measure. The District will provide for Board-approved deviations from the baseline, based on special programs in a school. The District will also follow the requirements of the Interlocal Agreement for School Concurrency. The primary funding source for deviations from use of the FISH baseline will be locally supported alternative funding, currently Certificates of Participation.

5. Criteria. -- The District will conform to the criteria contained in the Interlocal Agreement for School Concurrency, signed by 27 cities, the County and the School Board. The measurement of utilization will be based on the School Board-approved space needs of the following programs: ESOL, ESE, Pre-K, Title I-related programs, and other Board-approved special programs offered at a school. Annual space utilization surveys will also be conducted to assess use of space at each school. For example, schools with high ESOL populations have significant space facility needs in order to provide the appropriate instructional program for their students, and the alternative practice will enable the instructional space used by ESOL students to be measured based on actual use. The Program Capacity for each school will generally be determined as follows:

   1. For schools that have a School Board-approved Educational Specification, the Program Capacity listed on the Educational Specification will be used.

   2. For schools without a Board-approved Educational Specification, the FISH capacity for the school will be multiplied by.85 to allow for program needs at the school.

6. Impact on Students and Advantages to the Educational System. -- The deviations from and exceptions to the Educational Plant survey for program capacity will enable the District to utilize school space to meet the specific needs of the school population. All of the programs listed above are essential to the academic success of students. Additionally, by allowing the District to construct additional instructional space, these deviations and exceptions are consistent with and support the goals and objectives of Constitutional Amendment #9 for reduction of class size.

7. Monitoring and Reporting.-- The School Board will receive a reporting chart each fall showing compliance with concurrency level of service and capacity utilization percentage at each school, as well as FISH capacity and program capacity. District staff will also prepare the annual reports required by the School Concurrency Interlocal Agreement. As required by Fla. Stat. § 1013.32, "a board upon determining that an exception is warranted, must present a full statement, in writing, setting forth all the facts to the Commissioner of Education".