As used in the Public School Buildings Act, "capital improvements" means expenditures, including payments made with respect to lease-purchase arrangements as defined in the Education Technology Equipment Act [Chapter 6, Article 15A NMSA 1978 ] but excluding any other debt service expenses, for:

A. erecting, remodeling, making additions to, providing equipment for or furnishing public school buildings, including pre-kindergarten classrooms belonging to the school district or charter school located in the school district;

B. payments made pursuant to a financing agreement entered into by a school district or a charter school for the leasing of a building or other real property with an option to purchase for a price that is reduced according to payments made;

C. purchasing or improving public school grounds;

D. purchasing activity vehicles for transporting students to and from extracurricular school activities; provided that this authorization for expenditure does not apply to school districts with a student MEM greater than sixty thousand;

E. administering the projects undertaken pursuant to Subsections A and C of this section, including expenditures for facility maintenance software, project management software, project oversight and district personnel specifically related to administration of projects funded by the Public School Buildings Act; provided that expenditures pursuant to this subsection shall not exceed five percent of the total project costs; and

F. purchasing and installing education technology improvements, excluding salary expenses of school district employees, but including tools used in the educational process that constitute learning and administrative resources, and that may also include:

(1) satellite, copper and fiber-optic transmission; computer and network connection devices; digital communication equipment, including voice, video and data equipment; servers; switches; portable media devices, such as discs and drives to contain data for electronic storage and playback; and purchase or lease of software licenses or other technologies and services, maintenance, equipment and computer infrastructure information, techniques and tools used to implement technology in schools and related facilities; and

(2) improvements, alterations and modifications to, or expansions of, existing buildings or tangible personal property necessary or advisable to house or otherwise accommodate any of the tools listed in this subsection.

History: Laws 1983, ch. 163, § 2; 1999, ch. 89, § 3; 2007, ch. 366, § 19; 2009, ch. 25, § 1; 2017, ch. 73, § 2; 2019, ch. 179, § 4.

The 2019 amendment, effective June 14, 2019, included "pre-kindergarten classrooms" within the definition of "capital improvements" as used in the Public School Buildings Act; in Subsection A, after "public school buildings", added "including pre-kindergarten classrooms belonging to the school district or charter school located in the school district".

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, expanded allowable expenditures to include purchasing and installing education technology improvements, excluding salary expenses of school district employees, but including certain tools used in the educational process; at the end of Subsection D, deleted "or"; at the end of Subsection E, added "and"; and added Subsection F.

The 2009 amendment, effective June 19, 2009, added Subsection D.

The 2007 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, added Subsections B and D.

The 1999 amendment, effective March 19, 1999, substituted the language beginning "including payments" and ending "any other" for "exclusive of any" in the introductory language.