House Bill 1589 became law on April 25, 2016 and is now known as Act 25 of 2016. This Act includes a moratorium on new PlanCon Part A submittals received by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) from May 16, 2016, thru June 30, 2017. Accordingly, the Division of Budget and School Facilities needs to receive the Part A submittal on or before May 15, 2016, in order for it to be placed in the PlanCon queue of projects pending approval.  Given that  May 15, 2016, falls on a Sunday when PDE offices are closed, land-mailed or hand delivered Part A submittals must be received at PDE by no later  than 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 13, 2016. If you are mailing the submission, please do so as soon as possible, because the Commonwealth’s security screening procedures may cause a delay and the submission must be received in our offices no later than close of business on Friday. Any electronically submitted Part A’s need to be received in a PDE staff person’s Inbox or in our general electronic mailbox   (RA-SchoolFacilities@pa.gov) on or before Sunday, May 15, 2016.

Concerning the District-Wide Facility Study (Study), all prerequisite requirements noted in the PlanCon Part A forms/instructions are still applicable.  Overall, this entails:

1) The Board accepting/adopting a Study that includes all required content items and is no more than two years old.

2) Following this accepting/adopting, at the same Board meeting the Board can act on a PlanCon Part A submittal for a construction option that was considered/evaluated in the Study.

As long as the Part A has been received on or before May 15, 2016, and all of the prerequisite requirements have been followed, the project is not subject to the Act 25 moratorium. The project will be placed in the queue regardless of when the Part B materials (i.e.: Site Plan, Scheduled Area Floor Plan, and Educational Specifications) are received. Please keep in mind, however, that the PlanCon review/approval process cannot begin until both the Part A and the Part B materials have been received.