During the November 1997 Special Session of the Florida Legislature, Florida Statute 235 was amended to require each school district to develop and approve a district five-year capital outlay work plan. The plan must be submitted to the Department of Education prior to October 1 of each year. The plan must include a schedule of all major repairs, renovation, and new construction projects planned, and information about class size and the use of portable classrooms in the school district. The capital outlay revenue of the district must be projected. All projected new construction must not result in the district creating an inventory of student stations that is in excess of the Capital Outlay Full Time Equivalent (COFTE) students projected by the Department of Education. The COFTE projections do not include pre-kindergarten students and are based on cohort projections from the annual live birth rates within the school district.

Last year the school district acquired the services of a demographer to assist in developing COFTE projections for our district for a 20 year period. The Five-Year Work Plan includes projected capital need, not only for the current 5 year period, but years 6-10 and years 11-20. While Hillsborough County Public School's (HCPS) projections and the State's projections were similar last year and are similar for the 2008/09 school year, they were substantially different for the remaining four years, with the State projecting a much slower rebound in growth than district projections. HCPS is required to use state-prepared projections, since our appeal of those numbers was rejected.

The plan can be changed by Board action at a noticed meeting at which the public has an opportunity to comment.

The plan identifies $287,158,839 in funded maintenance and major repair projects. An additional $96,133,121 in new construction, renovation, and remodeling projects are identified. Sufficient revenue is projected to be available for listed projects. Renovation projects totaling $111,685,345 are unfunded.