SPECIAL-ED PAYBACKS AVOIDED SCHOOLS SPARED $15 MILLION IN REFUNDS FOR CLASSROOMS.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

Fourteen school districts in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys apparently will not have to reimburse the state up to $15 million for the construction of special education classrooms.

Officials had feared a new law would unfairly penalize the districts for taking over the operation of special education programs for severely disabled students several years ago from Los Angeles County.

But after nine local schools superintendents went to Sacramento to discuss the law, state officials assured them the law would not be applied retroactively.

"The trip was effective. It was important to make. There was power in the room and they listened to us," said Lori Ordway-Peck, deputy superintendent of the Palmdale School District, which stood to lose $6 million to $10 million.

"There were nine superintendents, a (special education) director, and a consultant from both Santa Clarita and the Antelope valleys who made sure they understood it was a big deal and nothing to be taken casually."

Assembly Bill 2947 would have required districts to repay the state for part of the cost of constructing special education classrooms that were built with 100 percent state funding given to the Los Angeles County Office of Education when it ran the programs.

Ten Antelope Valley school districts stood to lose more than $12 million, and the potential loss for four elementary school districts in the Santa Clarita Valley was $2.3 million, based on the number of classrooms that were built, officials said.

The classrooms were built in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the special education programs were transferred from LACOE to the districts from 2000 to 2004.

At the time school officials said the districts had grown to such a point that they commanded the resources to assume responsibility for providing such services.

AB 2947 states that if LACOE transfers title of the classrooms to the districts within 10 years of them being occupied, then the districts would have pay the state back.

The county still has title to the classrooms but wants to transfer it to the districts because the law says LACOE's eligibility for special education school construction funding, which was hurt by the transfer, can't be restored until the title transfer occurs.

The nine local superintendents went to Sacramento more than a week ago to meet with officials from the Office of Public School Construction, who said the program transfer was in effect a transfer of title.

"If the transfer occurred before Jan. 1, 2007, it makes it a defacto transfer. Their opinion was since the transfer of title occurred before the law took effect, no payment is required," Wilsona School District Superintendent Ned McNabb said.

OPSC officials said they agreed that the law will not be applied retroactively.

"We have agreed with the local school districts that the law is not being interpreted as being retroactive. It will apply to any future transfers of that type that takes place after Jan. 1 of this year," OPSC spokesman Bill Branch said. "We are delighted we have been able to clear it up to everyone's satisfaction."

School officials, though happy with the results, were expressing caution. Regulations have to be written and approved before the districts can safely say they are out from under the financial threat.

"It looks like we were successful in accomplishing our goals. I say hopefully because it's still in the rules-writing process. There may be still some additional debate," McNabb said.

"We are mildly optimistic, cautiously optimistic. It's not done until it's done. The final regulations won't be written until the March meeting. The regulations will be written in such a way that the law will be interpreted that there will no retroactivity," Ordway-Peck said.

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