AN ACT appropriating funds to the department of natural and cultural rESOURCES to establish and implement a historic school preservation grant program.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Office of Archives and History, the sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2021‑2022 fiscal year to establish and implement a historic school preservation grant program. The Department shall provide grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations to preserve historic schools. These funds shall be used to rehabilitate certified historic structures that had an initial use for an educational purpose. The Secretary shall establish guidelines for eligibility to receive grants under this program. No recipient or new project shall receive a total of more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) of these grant funds for the 2021‑2022 fiscal year. These funds shall not revert at the end of the 2021‑2022 fiscal year but shall remain available for historic school preservation grants until all funds are expended.

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2021.