State legislators are taking another run at a bill that would revise the process by which school districts are partially reimbursed for large construction projects.

House Bill 210, introduced by state Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, would replace PlanCon (also known as the "Planning Construction Workbook") with a new system called ArcCon, which stands for the "Accountability and Reducing Costs in Construction Process."Last week, the legislation passed the House Education Committee."The PlanCon process, which is not in statute, is overly cumbersome for school districts and requires Department of Education approval at 11 separate stages," Grove said. "The process is full of antiquated requirements, exemplified perfectly by a rule still on the books which mandates the submission of plans and bid specifications on microfilm."In the 2012-13 fiscal years, PDE was approximately $20 million short of being able to reimburse all approved projects.According to a report from PDE in 2013, of 354 projects moving through the process prior to reimbursement, 166 projects should have been approved for reimbursement."Due to fiscal constraints, these projects were being deliberately bottlenecked in the process by PDE at the last stage before reimbursement payments from the state would begin," Grove said."A second PDE report noted that by 2014 more than 200 projects were being deliberately bottlenecked prior to the reimbursement stage."Grove's bill was on the table last year, but failed to get a vote.Lehighton Area School District board member Rocky Ahner testified in Harrisburg in September, speaking in favor of the legislation."With this bill there would be more transparency for the taxpayers because the public would have access to the state electronic database to follow each step of all projects across the state," he said."Also with ArcCon there are fewer steps in the process eliminating costly paperwork and more focus on accountability on renovation versus new construction."Lehighton is currently proposing around $20 million of renovations to its middle and high schools, a new $32.5 million elementary center and a $5 million multipurpose athletic stadium.ArcCon, Grove said, would create a fully transparent system, with a searchable database of school construction projects available online.It would direct the Department of Education to issue reimbursements in the order they are approved rather than "haphazard fashion.""It also would require the state and school districts to work together to ensure that the construction of new facilities is more cost effective than renovating or expanding existing facilities," Grove said.Grove's bill now awaits consideration from the full House.