Katy ISD’s board of trustees unanimously voted to approve the $451,278 purchase of an emergency generator for Cinco Ranch High School at its Jan. 24 meeting. Officials said the unexpected expense is necessary after the original generator—which was installed when the school was built in 1999—failed.

“​​The emergency generator at Cinco Ranch High School has failed and is extremely cost prohibitive to prepare due to its age,” said Nathan Fuchs, KISD’s executive director of maintenance and operations, at the meeting. “We currently have a rental generator on site providing service for all life safety systems until a new generator can be installed.”

The funding source for the generator is the district’s 2021-22 general operating fund, and district officials said they would work next month to offset the unexpected expense.

“From a financial perspective, we're going to cover that in this budget—but I am going to bring up a budget amendment next month to replenish that budget because a $450,000-something like this is not expected,” Fuchs said. “And we're gonna try to replenish it through a budget amendment next month.”