North Carolina § 115C-521 - Erection of school buildings.

§ 115C-521. Erection of school buildings.

It shall be the duty of local boards of education to provide classroom facilities adequate to meet the requirements of G.S. 115C-47(10) and 115C-301. Local boards of education shall submit their long-range plans for meeting school facility needs to the State Board of Education by January 1, 1988, and every five years thereafter. In developing these plans, local boards of education shall consider the costs and feasibility of renovating old school buildings instead of replacing them. It shall be the duty of the local boards of education to make provisions for the public school term by providing adequate school buildings equipped with suitable school furniture and apparatus. The needs and the cost of those buildings, equipment, and apparatus, shall be presented each year when the school budget is submitted to the respective tax-levying authorities. The boards of commissioners shall be given a reasonable time to provide the funds which they, upon investigation, shall find to be necessary for providing their respective units with buildings suitably equipped, and it shall be the duty of the several boards of county commissioners to provide funds for the same. The building of all new school buildings and the repairing of all old school buildings shall be under the control and direction of, and by contract with, the board of education for which the building and repairing is done. If a board of education is considering building a new school building to replace an existing school building, the board shall not invest any construction money in the new building unless it submits to the State Superintendent and the State Superintendent submits to the North Carolina Historical Commission an analysis that compares the costs and feasibility of building the new building and of renovating the existing building and that clearly indicates the desirability of building the new building. No board of education shall invest any money in any new building until it has (i) developed plans based upon a consideration of the State Board's facilities guidelines, (ii) submitted these plans to the State Board for its review and comments, and (iii) reviewed the plans based upon a consideration of the comments it receives from the State Board. No local board of education shall contract for more money than is made available for the erection of a new building. However, this subsection shall not be construed so as to prevent boards of education from investing any money in buildings that are being constructed pursuant to a continuing contract of construction as provided for in G.S. 115C-441(c). All contracts for buildings shall be in writing and all buildings shall be inspected, received, and approved by the local superintendent and the architect before full payment is made therefor. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit boards of education from repairing and altering buildings with the help of janitors and other regular employees of the board. No local board of education shall apply for a certificate of occupancy for any new middle or high school building until the plans for the science laboratory areas of the building have been reviewed and approved to meet accepted safety standards for school science laboratories and related preparation rooms and stockrooms. The review and approval of the plans may be done by the State Board of Education or by any other entity that is licensed or authorized by the State Board to do so. Local boards of education shall make no contract for the erection of any school building unless the site upon which it is located is owned in fee simple by the board: Provided, that the board of education of a local school administrative unit, with the approval of the board of county commissioners, may appropriate funds to aid in the establishment of a school facility and the operation thereof in an adjoining local school administrative unit when a written agreement between the boards of education of the administrative units involved has been reached and the same recorded in the minutes of the boards, whereby children from the administrative unit making the appropriations shall be entitled to attend the school so established. The State Board of Education shall establish within the Department of Public Instruction a central clearinghouse for access by local boards of education that may want to use a prototype design in the construction of school facilities. The State Board shall compile necessary publications and a computer database to distribute information on prototype designs to local school administrative units. All architects and engineers registered in North Carolina may submit plans for inclusion in the computer database and these plans may be accessed by any person. The original architect of record or engineer of record shall retain ownership and liability for a prototype design. The State Board may adopt rules it considers necessary to implement this subsection. A local board of education may use prototype designs from the clearinghouse established under subsection (e) of this section that is a previously approved and constructed project by the School Planning Division of the Department of Public Instruction and other appropriate review agencies. The local board of education may contract with the architect of record to make changes and upgrades as necessary for regulatory approval. For prototype schools under this section, local boards of education shall be exempt from the designer selection procedure in Article 3D of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes and may enter into an agreement with the original design professional of the prototype to supply design services for future construction of the prototype school. Each local board of education shall adopt a policy governing change orders to any construction or repair work for which a contract has been awarded in accordance with G.S. 143-128, 143-128.1, 143-128.1A, 143-128.1B, 143-128.1C, or 143-129. The policy shall address, at a minimum, all of the following: The process by which a proposed change order is submitted by the contractor for approval, including any request for expedited review. The individual or individuals with responsible authority for approving change orders of a particular category of work or amount, or a combination thereof, and the corresponding descriptions and dollar limits. The process by which any change order that must be reviewed and approved by the local board is submitted to the local board. The process by which the local board is notified of all change orders submitted to the individual or individuals identified with responsible authority to approve those orders, and the resulting actions taken. Upon determination by a local board of education that the existing permanent school building does not have sufficient classrooms to house the pupil enrollment anticipated for the school, the local board of education may acquire and use as temporary classrooms for the operation of the school, relocatable or mobile classroom units, whether built on the lot or not, which units and method of use shall meet the approval of the School Planning Division of the Department of Public Instruction, and which units shall comply with all applicable requirements of the North Carolina State Building Code and of the local building and electrical codes applicable to the area in which the school is located. These units shall also be anchored in a manner required to assure their structural safety in severe weather. The acquisition and installation of these units shall be subject in all respects to the provisions of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes. The provisions of Chapter 87 , Article 1, of the General Statutes, shall not apply to persons, firms or corporations engaged in the sale or furnishing to local boards of education and the delivery and installation upon school sites of classroom trailers as a single building unit or of relocatable or mobile classrooms delivered in less than four units or sections. In the design and construction of new school buildings and in the renovation of existing school buildings that are required to be designed by an architect or engineer under G.S. 133-1.1 , the local board of education shall participate in the planning and review process of the Energy Guidelines for School Design and Construction that are developed and maintained by the Department of Public Instruction and shall adopt local energy-use goals for building design and operation that take into account local conditions in an effort to reduce the impact of operation costs on local and State budgets. In the design and construction of new school facilities and in the repair and renovation of existing school facilities, the local board of education shall consider the placement and design of windows to use the climate of North Carolina for both light and ventilation in case of power shortages. A local board shall also consider the installation of solar energy systems in the school facilities whenever practicable. In the case of any school buildings erected, repaired, or equipped with any money loaned or granted by the State to any local school administrative unit, no board of education shall invest any money until it has (i) developed plans based upon a consideration of the State Board's facilities guidelines, (ii) submitted these plans to the State Board for its review and comments, and (iii) reviewed the plans based upon a consideration of the comments it receives from the State Board. In all cases where title to property has been vested in the trustees of a special charter district which has been abolished and has not been reorganized, title to the property shall be vested in the local board of education of the county embracing the former special charter district. History (1955, c. 1372, art. 15, ss. 5-7; 1969, c. 1022, s. 1; 1981, c. 423, s. 1; c. 638, s. 1; 1983, c. 761, s. 93; 1985, c. 783, s. 3; 1987, c. 622, s. 14; 1993, c. 416, s. 1; c. 465, s. 1; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 775, s. 6; 1995, c. 8, s. 1; 1996, 2nd Ex. Sess., c. 18, ss. 18.17(c), (d); 1997-222, s. 3; 1997-236, s. 1; 2009-59, s. 3; 2013-401, s. 7; 2016-58, s. 1; 2016-126, 4th Ex. Sess., s. 24.) Local Modification. - Ashe: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 622, s. 2; Avery: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 622, s. 2; Brunswick: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 612, s. 2; Chowan: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 655, s. 2; Duplin: 1993, c. 549, ss. 1, 2; Forsyth: 1993, c. 128, s. 1, 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 642, s. 3; Harnett: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 622, s. 2; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 623, s. 2; Lee: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 622, s. 2; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 623, s. 2; Nash: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 642, s. 3; Orange: 1993 Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 642, s. 3; Pasquotank: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 655, s. 2; Sampson: 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 614, s. 3; Alamance-Burlington Board of Education, 2017-82, s. 11(a)-(c); Asheville City School Administrative Unit and Buncombe County School Administrative Unit: 1983, c. 360; Avery County Board of Education: 1998-7; Burke County School Administrative Unit: 1985, c. 198; Burke County Board of Education: 1985, c. 230; Lenoir County Board of Education: 1995, c. 200, s. 1; Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education: 1993, c. 128, s. 1. For provisions regarding Ashe, Avery, Brunswick, Chowan, Forsyth, Harnett, Haywood, Lee, Macon, Nash, Orange, Pasquotank, Richmond and Sampson Counties and local boards of education for school administrative units in or for Ashe, Avery, Brunswick, Chowan, Forsyth, Harnett, Haywood, Lee, Macon, Nash, Orange, and Pasquotank Counties, see the editor's note under G.S. 153A-158.1 . Cross References. - As to report on guaranteed energy savings contracts, see G.S. 143-64.17 G. Editor's Note. - The statewide school facility minimum standards to be adopted under prior G.S. 115C-489.3 , were repealed by Session Laws 1995 (Reg. Sess., 1996), c. 631, s. 13, effective June 21, 1996. Session Laws 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 775, which amended this section, in s. 10, as amended by Session Laws 1995, c. 295, s. 3, would have prohibited local governmental units from entering into guaranteed energy savings contracts under Part 2 of Article 3B of Chapter 143 on or after July 1, 1999. This provision was repealed by Session Laws 1999-235, s. 4, effective July 1, 1999. Session Laws 2013-401, provides in its preamble: "Whereas, the legislature recognizes that there is a public need for the design, construction, improvement, renovation, and expansion of high-performing public buildings within the State of North Carolina; and "Whereas, the public need may not be, in limited situations, wholly satisfied by existing procurement methods in which public buildings are designed, constructed, improved, renovated, or expanded; and "Whereas, many local governmental entities request special legislative authorization to enter into public-private partnerships and use design-build contracting every legislative session; and "Whereas, in some instances, more efficient delivery of quality design and construction can be realized when a governmental entity is authorized to utilize an integrated approach for the design and construction of a project under one contract with a single point of responsibility; and "Whereas, the design-build integrated approach to project delivery, based upon qualifications and experience, in some instances, can yield improved collaboration among design professionals, builders, and owners throughout the entire process and deliver a quality and cost-efficient building; and "Whereas, certain governmental entities within the State lack the financial resources required to undertake capital building construction projects that are necessary to satisfy critical public needs; and "Whereas, partnerships with private developers may offer an effective financial mechanism for governmental entities to secure public buildings to satisfy critical public needs that cannot otherwise be met; and "Whereas, the legislature recognizes that the general public must have confidence in governmental entities' processes for construction contracting; and "Whereas, the legislature realizes that open competition delivers the best value for taxpayers and public owners; and "Whereas, the legislature seeks to create transparent, fair, and equitable contracting procedures for the use of public funds in government construction contracting; and "Whereas, the legislation proposed in this act is not intended to affect the existing statutes, regulations, or practices relevant to projects administered by the North Carolina Department of Transportation nor licensing requirements of designers or contractors; Now, therefore," Session Laws 2013-401, s. 9, provides: "This act becomes effective 30 days after it becomes law [September 22, 2013] and applies to projects bid on or after that date and public private development contracts entered into on or after that date, and does not supersede any prior enacted local act of the General Assembly enacted on or before July 1, 2013." Session Laws 2016-58, s. 2, made subsection (h), as added by Session Laws 2016-58, s. 1, applicable to contracts awarded, extended, or renewed on or after October 1, 2016. Session Laws 2016-126, 4th Ex. Sess., s. 42, is a severability clause. Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2009-59, s. 3, effective June 5, 2009, added subsection (c1). Session Laws 2013-401, s. 7, added subsections (f) and (g). For effective date and applicability, see editor's note. Session Laws 2016-58, s. 1, effective October 1, 2016, added subsection (h). See editor's note for applicability. Session Laws 2016-126, 4th Ex. Sess., s. 24, effective January 1, 2017, in subsection (b), in the first sentence inserted "local" and deleted "of the several local school administrative school units of the State" in the first paragraph, and substituted "Department of Public Instructions" for "State Board of Education" in the first sentence of the second paragraph; substituted "Department of Public Instructions" for "State Board of Education" in the first sentence of subsection (f).