A message from Executive Director Katherine Craven

I am honored to serve you as the first Executive Director of this important Authority at such a critical time in its creation and development. The work of this Authority is to implement the 2004 school construction grant reform legislation, including reforming the management of the distribution of state school building grant funds, as well as creating a framework for a new, financially sustainable school building grant program to begin on July 1, 2007. Since our inception, we have demonstrated a commitment to working with communities within the parameters of the statutes, regulations and guidelines for the school building assistance program inherited from our predecessor agency, the Department of Education, while developing a new grant program that will serve communities for many years to come. Our goal has been to ensure that communities waiting for school project funding get their funding quickly, saving local taxpayers millions in avoided interest costs. At the time of the Authority’s creation in 2004, the Commonwealth owed $5.1B for 728 projects that had been receiving payments and $5.5B for 428 projects on a “wait list” which had been indefinitely waiting for their first payment from the Commonwealth. I use the word “indefinitely” because to pay off the wait list, in the absence of this reform, would have required the Legislature to more than double the annual appropriation of $400M to the school building assistance program without allowing approval for any new project conceived after 2003.

By the end of 2007, we will have made over $3.7B in accelerated payments to communities long-awaiting school project payments from the state. We know that the infusion of the Authority’s cash has helped many cities, towns and regional school districts with local operating budget shortfalls, lowering local tax rates, or using funds formerly tied up in school debt service for other local capital improvement projects.

Since the fall of 2004, staff at the Authority has worked tirelessly to resolve a backlog of over 800 audits for local school building projects to resolve remaining payments which are owed to the community. Some of these projects have been occupied by students and teachers for over a decade without the Commonwealth or the municipality knowing what the proper reimbursements should be. We have implemented a “pay as you go” construction payment plan for communities on the wait list which will give communities the local cash infusion of the Authority’s funds as they build their projects, rather than wait 10 years to receive the first payment from the state which would then continue for 19 more years. We will be auditing invoices in real time as projects are being built. The former practice where entire generations of schoolchildren would go through a building before the Commonwealth would finish paying its share will now end.

These are just a few of the changes that we are working on to improve the way in which school building projects are funded by the state. We are in the process of building a first-class staff to serve as a technical resource for communities building school projects. We are looking to utilize the most up-to-date information technology systems in order to streamline what had been a process completely dependent upon paper transactions.

I look forward to continuing our commitment to work with local officials and the Legislature as we create a new, financially sustainable school building grant program.

Sincerely,

Katherine Craven, Executive Director

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