Earlier this month, the Austin ISD board of trustees approved the district's updated Facility Master Plan, which gave the Facilities and Bond Planning Advisory Committee, or FABPAC, the green light to initiate bond planning to fund the highest-priority facility improvement projects.

Tonight, AISD's Chief Financial Officer Nicole Conley Johnson appeared before trustees to request access to $4 million from the district's general fund to pay for pre-bond expenditures, including money to pay for an external planning partner that will assist the advisory committee in updating the long-range facilities plan and developing a scope of work for future bonds.

Trustee Amber Elenz said she was "disappointed" by the lack of information provided to the trustees prior to the board's discussion.

But Conley urged trustees to move forward with approval of the resolution so the advisory committee has the resources necessary to create a bond package, which could go before voters for approval during a future election.

"My fear is that we won't have a bond package for the board to consider by June if we don’t have the capacity to develop and do pricing analyses to advance to FABPAC in way that is meaningful and makes sense and allows us to go through deficiencies details to cull out projects that make sense for each campus," she said.

The money would also be used to pay for for external consultants to update the district's Facilities Condition Index, which quantifies and tracks the status of each facility and helps guide the repair, restoration or replacement of buildings.

If called for by the trustees in June, the first bond election would occur this November. In the interim, Johnson is proposing the use of general fund money to cover pre-bond expenditures, money that would be reimbursed by proceeds from future bonds if ratified by voters.

The resolution was approved on consent.