Trustees looking at construction projects approved by the board as part of the master plan found the district had been planning more Measure G-funded projects than officials had bond money to fund.
“So with everything that’s been approved by the board, we’re looking at $45 million,” said Trustee Evelyn Muro, at the regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday.
The bond would bring in about $41.7 million, according to the same report.
“So we have a deficit of $3 million, correct?” Muro said. “I mean, are we thinking of this correctly?”
The district already has about $11.5 million in projects set to be funded by the general fund—which pays for general expenses such as teacher salaries—including a new $7 million physical education building, according to the report.
Roseanne Lascano, the director of finance and operations, emphasized that the numbers shared in the report did not reflect meetings with the architect or construction managers.
“Just overall, it looks like we’re spending out our budget,” said Trustee Steve Delay.
He commented that Fund 17—also called the general fund reserve on the books—was listed as an available funding source for construction, though he thought that money was reserved in case the district ran out of money.
“I just assumed all the funds were available,” Lascano said.
Board President Ray Rodriquez commented that Fund 17 might mean one thing to Delay and another to a different trustee and urged the board to look into this.
Trustees probably have individual budget philosophies but they might need to come up with a board one, Muro said.
Superintendent Perales agreed with Delay.
“I’m absolutely not comfortable spending our entire budget down,” he said. “I absolutely agree we cannot put our district in jeopardy because we want a nice building.”
The conversation drifted into one about the kinds of bond projects that would be visible to the public since the modernization of classrooms might not be as obvious to voters.
Robledo added that the parking lot and tennis court project would be visible. So would closing Nash Road, he said.
Rodriguez, the board president, added that the proposed arts building or the vocational education building would be visible, new construction.
