Last week, former FBISD school board member Stan Magee issued a public comment asking where the $122 million dollar surplus "fund balance" had gone (now listed as nearly 93 million) on the FortBendNow.com website, while opposing further tax increases and supporting a balanced budget. He further issued a statement to the effect condemning the boards vote in June to move forward in building the $30 million dollar "Global Taj Mahal" duplicate spending project (see Global Science & Technology Center and HMNS project opening in October in Telfair).
Of special note, the same two board members whom had adamantly supported the GSTC project, David Reitz and former BOT president Sonal Buchar, seemed to lead the charge in the budget hearing for making drastic cuts in the operating budget over the next few years and then voted lock-step on an amended budget that actually increases spending over the administrations proposed budget. During the agenda session on the amendments to the budget, the trustees seemed to have quite a deal of difficulty implementing "Robert's Rules of Order", which govern most governmental meetings.
During the public comments portion, the district's teacher association made a very strong and successful case, to protect raises and healthcare benefits by using funds from the "fund balance" to attempt to reign in this years budget deficit projected at nearly 19 million dollars (the largest in the districts history).
Special note: The "fund balance", so often mentioned in the above piece, comes from prior district bond funds voted on by the public for school projects that were NOT used and then "slipped" (moved) to this account. The district regularly uses this account to fund other projects in the system.
Final comment: FBISDWatch will continue to post updates to this story as local media weigh in...
Background: http://blogs.chron.com/fortbend/archives/2009/08/fbisd_ags_rulin.html#c1452860
