The State's School Facility Program (SFP) provides funding opportunities for new school construction. The State funds 50% of the project costs, with the district funding the 50% balance. For districts qualifying under the financial hardship criteria, the State pays for 100% of eligible projects. The Escondido Union School District established eligibility in the SFP for 5 new elementary schools and 1 new middle school as a financial hardship district in March 2000. The District's participation in the SFP has resulted in the receipt of $5.8 million in design apportionments, which enabled work to being on these new school projects. Applications for construction funding have been submitted to the State Allocation Board for four sites. Three of four are approved and are on the unfunded list waiting for more state funds to become available. The Office of Public School Construction is currently reviewing the fourth application for construction funding. Upon approval, this fourth school will be added to the unfunded list as well. Unfortunately, the State School Facility Program does not have enough money to fund the construction portion of our projects at this time. The Proposition K bond measure that passed on the March 2002 ballot will allow the district to move forward on the construction of Bear Valley Middle School and Farr Avenue Elementary School.

The District owns property for the one middle school and two of the five elementary schools and is in the process of acquiring the site for the third elementary school. Approvals on all four sites have already been secured from the California Department of Education. The District is still looking for an additional two elementary school sites.

LPA, Inc. is the architect firm hired by the district to design the new schools. The architect has completed the design and has received plan approvals through the Division of State Architect for Bear Valley Middle School, the Reidy Creek site elementary school, the Bernardo site elementary school and the Farr Avenue Elementary School.

January 2003 Update:
On November 5, 2002 California voters approved Proposition 47, allocating $11.4 billion to K-12 education facilities. Bond funds are allocated as follows for K-12 education:

New Construction	$3.45 billion
Modernization	$1.4 billion
New Construction Backlog (currently approved but unfunded)	$2.9 billion
Modernization Backlog (currently approved but unfunded)	$1.9 billion
Critically Overcrowded Schools	$1.7 billion
Joint Use Projects	$50 million

The district's four new construction projects were waiting on the unfunded list until passage of Proposition 47. On December 6, 2002 the State Allocation Board approved $32,887,639 in new construction appointments for Escondido Union Elementary School district. As the District secures the contracts for these qualifying projects, funds will be requested and released from the state. All fund requests must be made by July 2004 in order to retain funding.

Originally the District's projects were listed as financial hardship projects, meaning the state would fund 100% of the project. Upon the state's reassessment of the District's finances, it was determined that we no longer qualify for financial hardship funding. The District's new construction projects are now based upon a 50% District contribution and 50% state funding. With the new construction funds received, the district expects to complete the construction at the Bernardo and Reidy Creek elementary sites.