Office of Facilities Planning
Newsletter #23 – January 2002

Can you find the REAL Maureen Lavare here? (The answer is at the end of the Newsletter.)

A:	B:
C: "Young hip married chick with two kids that drive her nuts. Ready for the insane asylum. May be willing to push projects ahead for a gift certificate for a massage by a big burly man named Sven."

A new method has been established for apportioning aid for debt service on capital projects based on the concept of assumed amortization. Here is a hyperlink to a letter on the SED State Aid web site, which will provide further information: http://stateaid.nysed.gov/bldlet_010202.pdf. We can’t urge you strongly enough to read this if you are dealing with state aid in any way.

During the past year we have made significant progress in alleviating the backlog of Final Building Project Reports here at the Office of Facilities Planning. During this process we have come up with a short list of the most common problems with these filings. Please take a moment to review this list below. Following these helpful hints will result in our being able to process your report in a much more timely manner.

Helpful Hints For Completing Final Building Project Reports:

1. Even if you have already submitted the Certificate of Substantial Completion for the project in question, please attach another copy to the Final Building Project Report. We cannot process the report until this form is received. Make sure both pages are attached, and also make sure it is not a "Partial".
2. Make sure you fill in the "SED Approval Date" column when listing all change orders. If you do not have an approved change order, attach an unapproved copy to the Final Building Project Report so we may review the change order at that time. Any unapproved change orders for which you cannot locate copies will be cut.
3. Check the SA-4 amounts on all projects to make sure you haven’t exceeded the total allocation for each project. Each project is treated separately. If totals have been exceeded, please attach completed form FPFI to each report along with proper supporting documentation. This documentation can be school board authorization to expend the extra funds on the project or voter authorization including a project by project breakdown showing the total of all projects combined did not exceed the total voter authorization.
4. Final Cost Reports are due in a timely manner. Please check our web site at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/What'sNewItems/FCR_DueDates.PDF for a complete listing of due dates. Failure to submit your report on time will result in the loss of building aid for that project, including the repayment of any aid, which may already have been received.

Should you have questions regarding any aspect of completing your Final Building Project Report, you may contact Gary Yorkshire at Office of Facilities Planning at 518 474-3906.

Asbestos Inspection Reminder:

The Federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) requires that all school buildings be inspected for the presence of asbestos prior to their use as a school building (§763.85(2)). An asbestos inspection may only be performed by a person who is currently certified by the New York State Department of Labor as an asbestos inspector. In the event that the emergency use of a building is necessary, the building must be inspected within 30 days after the commencement of such use.

School buildings include public and nonpublic elementary and secondary facilities that are either instructional or non-instructional. This would also apply to leased and rented spaces in public buildings or non-public buildings.

Construction employees, CMs and A/Es do not normally have to be fingerprinted because they are not supposed to have any contact with the student body. However, a school may require fingerprinting. If by any chance one of these exempted parties is going to have contact with students, such as through the Health and Safety Committee, they might be asked to be fingerprinted. Additional information or fingerprinting may be found at:

http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/ospra/index.html or call (518) 473-2998.

The Answer for the Get to Know us Better Quiz is… Whereas answer ‘A’ is a real picture of Maureen and answer ‘B’ reminds us of the free spirit and joy Maureen brings to our day, the answer is ‘C’ because "Maureen said so".

If you would like to have this Update sent directly to you by e-mail, please send your e-mail address to Joe Levy at jlevy@mail.nysed.gov