21-13-309(m)(vi), and shall evaluate the request in the best

21-13-309(m)(vi), and shall evaluate the request in the best financial and educational interests of the state, taking into consideration the most efficient and cost effective approach in order to deliver quality educational services.

(f) The state construction department shall:

(i) Implement policies, guidelines and standards as adopted by the commission for school district facility plans required under W.S. 21-15-116;

(ii) Subject to W.S. 21-15-117(a)(iii), establish a consistent, systematic research approach for student enrollment projections used by districts in developing district facility plans and forecasting building and facility needs to comply with statewide building adequacy standards;

(iii) Develop cost per square foot guidelines to be used in estimating the cost of constructing, renovating and otherwise remediating buildings and facilities to comply with statewide adequacy standards, which shall account for demonstrated differences among regions and communities within the state;

(iv) Establish a statewide school facilities database comprised of building and facility specific condition, suitability, accessibility, capacity, inventory and site data;

(v) Enter into or approve project agreements with school districts, as appropriate. Each agreement shall:

(A) Require the district to make arrangements for appropriate professional supervision and management of the project;

(B) Provide for the review and approval by the department of project plans and specifications;

(C) Provide for review and approval by the department of project changes and change orders provided that:

(I) The agreement may specify parameters identifying the circumstances under which changes and change orders may also be approved;

(II) All changes and change orders shall be approved by the district or its representative.  (D) Establish payment schedules involving state funds;

(E) Assure the state is not responsible or liable for compliance with project schedules or completion dates;

(F) Provide that the agreement shall expire upon completion of the project or projects;

(G) Contain any other provision mutually agreed upon by the department and the district;

(H) Allow for alternate design and construction delivery methods as defined in W.S. 16-6-701 for provision of design and construction services, if approved by the commission; and

(J) Require a contract compliance audit by independent auditing expertise of project budgets and expenditures prior to completing the project or projects.

(vi) Review district proposals for the disposition or demolition of buildings and facilities made surplus by an approved project or by changes in school population, including allocation of resulting costs and revenues and report the proposals to the commission. Disposition shall include options for use, lease, sale and any other means of disposing of the surplus building or facility. The costs and revenues incurred by the disposition or demolition of the building or facility shall be accounted for in each district's school facility plan and considered in any building or facility remedy for that district, including the allocation of revenues resulting from the disposition of property rendered surplus to offset property demolition costs. The department shall report this review to the commission. The commission, after receiving a report of the review by the department, shall approve the proposal related to disposition or demolition submitted pursuant to this paragraph unless the commission determines that the proposal does not protect the financial interests of the state or is not otherwise in the public interest. Any revenues resulting from property disposition under this paragraph shall not be considered or counted under W.S. 21-13-310(a)(xiv) or (xv);

(vii) Authorize, subject to commission review, the purchase and acquisition of sites for any project within the approved district facility plan if state funds are to be expended for the acquisition;

(viii) Review any proposed sale of existing land owned by a district, which land is within the scope of the district's facility plan, and determine the impact of the land disposition upon that plan. The department shall report the review to the commission. The commission, after receiving a report of the review by the department, shall approve the proposal related to a sale submitted pursuant to this paragraph unless the commission determines that the proposal does not protect the financial interests of the state or is not otherwise in the public interest. If the commission determines land disposition adversely impacts the cost-effectiveness of the district's facility plan, the revenues resulting from land disposition shall be considered by the commission in any future building or facility remedy for that district and, notwithstanding paragraph (vi) of this subsection, the commission may direct the department of education to consider or count those revenues under either W.S. 21-13-310(a)(xiv) or (xv);

(ix) Review requests submitted by charter schools pursuant to W.S. 21-3-304(k) to determine whether space exists within the applicable district for operation of the charter school that is available and adequate.

(g) The department may contract with appropriate expertise and professionals, including auditors, in administering this act and performing duties imposed under this act.

CHAPTER 16 - HIGHER EDUCATION GENERALLY

ARTICLE 1 - WYOMING HIGHER EDUCATION LOAN PLAN

21-16-101. Repealed By Laws 1984, ch. 18, § 2.

21-16-102. Renumbered as 21-16-113 By Laws 1994, ch. 69, § 2.

21-16-103. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-104. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-105. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.  21-16-106. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-107. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-108. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-109. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-110. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-111. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-112. Repealed By Laws 1996, ch. 118, § 3.

21-16-113. Repealed by Laws 2016, ch. 110, § 3.

ARTICLE 2 - WESTERN REGIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION COMPACT

21-16-201. Ratification.

The legislature of the state of Wyoming hereby approves, ratifies and adopts the "Western Regional Higher Education Compact", approved by the western governors conference meeting at Denver, Colorado on November 10, 1950, which compact is as follows:

Article I

Whereas, the future of this nation and of the western states is dependent upon the quality of the education of its youth; and

Whereas, many of the western states individually do not have sufficient numbers of potential students to warrant the establishment and maintenance within their borders of adequate facilities in all of the essential fields of technical, professional, and graduate training, nor do all of the states have the financial ability to furnish within their borders institutions capable of providing acceptable standards of training in all of the fields mentioned above; and

Whereas, it is believed that the western states, or groups of such states within the region, cooperatively can provide acceptable and efficient educational facilities to meet the needs of the region and of the students thereof: Now, therefore, the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and the territories of Alaska and Hawaii do hereby covenant and agree as follows:

Article II

Each of the compacting states and territories pledges to each of the other compacting states and territories faithful cooperation in carrying out all the purposes of this compact.

Article III

The compacting states and territories hereby create the western interstate commission for higher education, hereinafter called the commission. Said commission shall be a body corporate of each compacting state and territory and an agency thereof. The commission shall have all the powers and duties set forth herein, including the power to sue and be sued, and such additional powers as may be conferred upon it by subsequent action of the respective legislatures of the compacting states and territories.

Article IV

(a) The commission shall consist of three (3) resident members from each compacting state or territory. At all times one (1) commissioner from each compacting state or territory shall be an educator engaged in the field of higher education in the state or territory for which he is appointed.

(b) The commissioners from each state and territory shall be appointed by the governor thereof as provided by law in such state or territory. Any commissioner may be removed or suspended from office as provided by law of the state or territory from which he shall have been appointed. The terms of each commissioner shall be four (4) years; provided however that the first three (3) commissioners shall be appointed as follows: one (1) for two (2) years, one (1) for three (3) years, and one (1) for four (4) years. Each commissioner shall hold office until his successor shall be appointed and qualified. If any office becomes vacant for any reason, the governor shall appoint a commissioner to fill the office for the remainder of the unexpired term.

Article V  (a) Any business transacted at any meeting of the commission must be by affirmative vote of a majority of the whole number of compacting states and territories.

(b) One (1) or more commissioners from a majority of the compacting states and territories shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

(c) Each compacting state and territory represented at any meeting of the commission is entitled to one (1) vote.

Article VI

(a) The commission shall elect from its number a chairman and a vice chairman, and may appoint, and at its pleasure dismiss or remove, such officers, agents, and employees as may be required to carry out the purpose of this compact; and shall fix and determine their duties, qualifications and compensation, having due regard for the importance of the responsibilities involved.

(b) The commissioners shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses from the funds of the commission.

Article VII

(a) The commission shall adopt a seal and bylaws and shall adopt and promulgate rules and regulations for its management and control.

(b) The commission may elect such committees as it deems necessary for the carrying out of its functions.

(c) The commission shall establish and maintain an office within one (1) of the compacting states for the transaction of its business and may meet at any time but in any event must meet at least once a year. The chairmen may call such additional meetings and upon the request of a majority of the commissioners of three (3) or more compacting states or territories shall call additional meetings.

(d) The commission shall submit a budget to the governor of each compacting state and territory at such time and for such period as may be required.  (e) The commission shall, after negotiations with interested institutions, determine the cost of providing the facilities for graduate and professional education for use in its contractual agreements throughout the region.

(f) On or before the fifteenth day of January of each year, the commission shall submit to the governors and legislatures of the compacting states and territories a report of its activities for the preceding calendar year.

(g) The commission shall keep accurate books of account, showing in full its receipts and disbursements, and said books of account shall be open at any reasonable time for inspection by the governor of any compacting state or territory or his designated representative. The commission shall not be subject to the audit and accounting procedure of any of the compacting states or territories. The commission shall provide for an independent annual audit.

Article VIII

(a) It shall be the duty of the commission to enter into such contractual agreements with any institutions in the region offering graduate or professional education and with any of the compacting states or territories as may be required in the judgment of the commission to provide adequate services and facilities of graduate and professional education for the citizens of the respective compacting states or territories. The commission shall first endeavor to provide adequate services and facilities in the fields of dentistry, medicine, public health, and veterinary medicine, and may undertake similar activities in other professional and graduate fields.

(b) For this purpose the commission may enter into contractual agreements:

(i) With the governing authority of any educational institution in the region, or with any compacting state or territory, to provide such graduate or professional educational services upon terms and conditions to be agreed upon between contracting parties; and

(ii) With the governing authority of any educational institution in the region or with any compacting state or territory to assist in the placement of graduate or professional students in educational institutions in the region providing the desired services and facilities, upon such terms and conditions as the commission may prescribe.

(c) It shall be the duty of the commission to undertake studies of needs for professional and graduate educational facilities in the region, the resources for meeting such needs, and the long-range effects of the compact on higher education; and from time to time to prepare comprehensive reports on such research for presentation to the western governor's conference and to the legislatures of the compacting states and territories. In conducting such studies the commission may confer with any national or regional planning body which may be established. The commission shall draft and recommend to the governors of the various compacting states and territories, uniform legislation dealing with problems of higher education in the region.

(d) For the purposes of this compact the word "region" shall be construed to mean the geographical limits of the several compacting states and territories.

Article IX

The operating costs of the commission shall be apportioned equally among the compacting states and territories.

Article X

This compact shall become operative and binding immediately as to those states and territories adopting it whenever five (5) or more of the states or territories of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii have duly adopted it prior to July 1, 1953. This compact shall become effective as to any additional states or territories adopting thereafter at the time of such adoption.

Article XI

This compact may be terminated at any time by consent of a majority of the compacting states or territories. Consent shall be manifested by passage and signature in the usual manner of legislation expressing such consent by the legislature and governor of such terminating state. Any state or territory may at any time withdraw from this compact by means of appropriate legislation to that end. Such withdrawal shall not become effective until two (2) years after written notice thereof by the governor of the withdrawing state or territory accompanied by a certified copy of the requisite legislative action as received by the commission. Such withdrawal shall not relieve the withdrawing state or territory from its obligation hereunder accruing prior to the effective date of withdrawal. The withdrawing state or territory may rescind its action of withdrawal at any time within the two (2) year period. Thereafter, the withdrawing state or territory may be reinstated by application to and the approval by a majority vote of the commission.

Article XII

(a) If any compacting state or territory shall at any time default in the performance of any of its obligations assumed or imposed in accordance with the provisions of this compact, all rights, privileges and benefits conferred by this compact or agreements hereunder shall be suspended from the effective date of such default as fixed by the commission.

(b) Unless such default shall be remedied within a period of two (2) years following the effective date of such default, this compact may be terminated with respect to such defaulting state or territory by affirmative vote of three-fourths of the other member states or territories.

(c) Any such defaulting state may be reinstated by:

(i) Performing all acts and obligations upon which it has heretofore defaulted; and

(ii) Application to and the approval by a majority vote of the commission.

21-16-202. When binding; notice of ratification; power of governor to appoint commissioners; powers of commissioners generally; appropriation of monies.

(a) The compact shall become operative and binding at the time provided, and in accordance with article X of the compact. The governor of Wyoming shall give notice of the approval, ratification and adoption of the compact by the legislature of the state of Wyoming, to the governors of each of the states and territories named in article X of the compact. The governor shall appoint the commissioners for which provision is made in the compact and the commissioners shall have the power and authority specified in the compact, and such other power and authority as may hereafter be prescribed by law.

(b) In addition to those powers granted to the commissioners in the compact, the commissioners are directed and empowered:

(i) To control and authorize the expenditure of any funds appropriated for carrying out the provisions of the compact;

(ii) To ratify any contracts entered into by the western interstate commission for higher education or its officers which are deemed to be in the best interest of the state of Wyoming and its qualified students;

(iii) To impose residency requirements on admission to compact programs. Applicants may appeal any admission decisions rendered pursuant to this paragraph directly to the commission; and

(iv) In the interest of recruiting health care professionals to Wyoming, to impose a repayment program for participating students in dentistry, medicine, podiatry, occupational therapy, physical therapy, optometry, physician assistant programs and osteopathic medicine and obtain an agreement from each student first admitted as a WICHE program student to a participating institution of higher education for the 2013-2014 academic year and thereafter, subject to the following:

(A) The student agrees to:

(I) Actively engage in full-time professional practice in Wyoming in the field in which he was educated for not less than three (3) years as the commission requires. The taking of a medical residency program in the state shall be credited toward the practice requirements at the rate of one-third (1/3) year of full-time practice for each year of service in a medical residency program in the state; or

(II) Repay all amounts expended by the state of Wyoming on the student's education through the WICHE program, together with interest which shall begin accruing after the student's graduation or residency, whichever is later, but in no event later than eight (8) years after the student enters into an agreement, upon terms specified by the commission. However, interest shall begin to accrue when the student has withdrawn from the professional school or a residency program as determined by the commission or is otherwise not making satisfactory progress toward completion of the degree program as determined by the commission. Money expended under this paragraph shall accrue at an annual interest rate equal to that charged for federal Stafford loans at the time interest begins to accrue, which rate shall be adjusted annually to equal the federal Stafford loan rate. In no event shall the interest rate be greater than eight percent (8%).

(B) Upon application of the student, the commission may relieve a student of the obligation to repay amounts expended under subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, in whole or in part, where repayment would cause undue hardship. The commission shall annually report the number of students relieved from repayment under this subparagraph to the joint labor, health and social services interim committee not later than October 1;

(C) Any amounts paid by medical, podiatry, osteopathic, occupational therapy, physical therapy, optometry, physician assistant or dental students in accordance with the contractual arrangements authorized under this paragraph shall be credited to a WICHE program repayment account which shall be expended upon appropriation by the legislature;

(D) The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to the field of veterinary medicine.

(c) All monies appropriated for the purposes of the compact shall be appropriated to the board of trustees of the University of Wyoming for administration as directed by the commissioners.

ARTICLE 3 - INTERSTATE COMPACT FOR EDUCATION

21-16-301. Generally.

The Interstate Compact for Education is hereby enacted into law and entered into by this state with all states legally joining herein in the form substantially as follows:

COMPACT FOR EDUCATION

Article I  (a) It is the purpose of this compact to:

(i) Establish and maintain close cooperation and understanding among executive, legislative, professional, educational and lay leadership on a nationwide basis at the state and local levels.

(ii) Provide a forum for the discussion, development, crystallization and recommendation of public policy alternatives in the field of education.

(iii) Provide a clearinghouse of information on matters relating to educational programs and how they are being met in different places throughout the nation, so that the executive and legislative branches of state government and of local communities may have ready access to the experience and record of the entire country, and so that both lay and professional groups in the field of education may have additional avenues for the sharing of experience and the interchange of ideas in the formation of public policy in education.

(iv) Facilitate the improvement of state and local educational systems so that all of them will be able to meet adequate and desirable goals in a society which requires continuous qualitative and quantitative advance in educational opportunities, methods and facilities.

(b) It is the policy of this compact to encourage and promote local and state initiative in the development, maintenance, improvement and administration of educational systems and institutions in a manner which will accord with the needs and advantages of diversity among localities and states.

(c) The party states recognize that each of them has an interest in the quality and quantity of education furnished in each of the other states, as well as in the excellence of its own educational systems and institutions, because of the highly mobile character of individuals within the nation, and because the products and services contributing to the health, welfare and economic advancement of each state are supplied in significant part by persons educated in other states.

Article II As used in the compact, "state" means a state, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Article III

(a) The education commission of the states, hereinafter called "the commission", is hereby established. The commission shall consist of seven (7) members representing each party state. One (1) of such members shall be the governor; two (2) shall be members of the state legislature selected by its respective houses and serving in such manner as the legislature may determine, Wyoming's legislative members are to be appointed one (1) by the president of the senate and one (1) by the speaker of the house; and four (4) shall be appointed by the governor and may be removed by the governor as provided in W.S.