Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning Improvement Projects in Schools

The bill requires a school district, a charter school, an institute charter school, a board of cooperative services, or the Colorado school for the deaf and the blind (local education provider) to satisfy certain requirements concerning installation, inspection, and maintenance of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in schools if the local education provider undertakes HVAC infrastructure improvements using money made available by a federal government source or by a federal government source in combination with a state government source specifically for such purpose from the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" cash fund.

The requirements established in the bill concern:

• Ventilation verification assessments, which include assessments of an HVAC system's filtration, ventilation exhaust, economizers, demand control ventilation, air distribution and building pressurization, general maintenance requirements, and operational controls ; and carbon dioxide output
• The preparation of HVAC assessment reports;
• The review of HVAC assessment reports by mechanical engineers, who make recommendations regarding necessary repairs and improvements, suggest pathways to reduce emissions, and estimate associated costs;
• HVAC adjustments, repairs, upgrades, and replacements; and
• The preparation of HVAC verification reports, and the submission of the reports to the state board of education; which must be maintained for at least 5 years and made available to the public upon request. and
• Periodic inspections and ongoing maintenance.

The bill establishes mandatory criteria that an HVAC contractor must satisfy in order to perform work described in the bill. A local education provider that undertakes HVAC infrastructure improvements using money made available by a federal government source or by a federal government source in combination with a state government source from the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" cash fund must do so using only contractors on the certified contractor list established by the department of labor and employment, unless the local education provider determines that there were no responsive, eligible subcontractors available to fulfill the mechanical, electrical, or plumbing portions of the contract. The bill transfers money from the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" cash fund to the unused state-owned real property fund. The public-private collaboration unit in the department of personnel (unit) may use the money to provide grant writing support, administrative support, and project planning, to review the work of applicants, and to connect applicants with third parties with expertise pertaining to federal funding application technical assistance. The bill requires the unit to facilitate a public-public partnership with local education providers to leverage federal dollars available to help public schools improve air quality in schools, student performance, and staff retention. For each award of federal dollars obtained with the unit's grant writing support, the unit is authorized to retain 2.5% of the dollars awarded to cover the unit's administrative costs.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)