Staff have reduced the $163.2 million estimated cost increase on its $1.26 billion worth of bond projects to $56.8 million as of its July 22 board meeting by projects coming in under budget, delaying air handling replacements and modifying construction materials.
However, Chief Financial Officer Bryan Guinn said at the July 22 meeting he doesn’t anticipate staff will be able to do more substantial cost-saving measures without some changes. He proposed a budget workshop in August to share staff recommendations and get board feedback on the remaining shortfall.
"As you've heard previously from our design and construction group, those efforts will require some difficult decisions, but we believe we'll get to a point where we're meeting the needs of the district within the $1.26 billion that was authorized by voters [in May 2023]," he said.
The backstory
This comes after FBISD staff notified trustees in February that projects from the $1.26 billion bond program would cost millions more to complete. An investigation showed the shortfall was due to district leaders not adjusting project costs for inflation when the bond proposal was delayed from November 2022 to May 2023.
Since then, FBISD officials have updated trustees monthly on their progress, with the overrun getting reduced by roughly $4.4 million since the June update.The big picture
One avenue for closing the gap on the cost increase is using some or all of the roughly $17 million in bond contingency funds from the district's 2014, 2018 and 2023 packages, Guinn said.
However, the district is only able to use 2023 contingency funds for projects within the approved proposition—a limitation FBISD didn’t have for previous bond issues.
A law passed during the 2019 Texas Legislature requires public school districts to split special purpose items, such as technology and athletics, into their own propositions to allow voters to weigh in on which projects they’d like to support, Guinn said. FBISD voters approved the following three propositions in May 2023:
- Proposition A: $1.18 billion for construction of buildings, transportation and facility upgrades
- Proposition B: $52.47 million for technology purchases
- Proposition C: $22.9 million for a natatorium
Meanwhile, trustees unanimously called for Rogers, Morris and Grove, a contracted law firm for the board, to investigate issues relevant to the scope of the proposed natatorium, which was Proposition C in the bond.
In a phone interview, board President Kristin Tassin said the firm will investigate FBISD administration's intent for the bond project compared to what was communicated publicly.
At previous board meetings, trustee Angie Hanan has said she believes calling the project a natatorium was misleading for voters, because the facility's design is more similar to FBISD’s existing aquatic practice facility.
FBISD's aquatic practice facility is a naturally ventilated facility with garage doors that open, while the district’s Don Cook Natatorium is an enclosed facility with air conditioning and more seating capacity, district staff said at the previous meeting.
The district's advertising material in Community Impact for the election also called the project a natatorium, but it also stated the proposition would provide an indoor swim center in the southeast part of the district.
Building the project as a natatorium, which is projected to run over the board-approved budget by $4.5 million, would cost about $2.6 million more to construct, Hanan said in June.
Next steps
There's no timeline available yet on when the investigation into the natatorium proposition could be completed, Tassin said.
"It's important to us that promises made are kept as much as we possibly can," she said. "Even though I wasn't on the board on the at the time, it's important to me that promises made to the public are kept. So we're going to do the best we can under tough circumstances to make the best decisions we can."
The board's next agenda review workshop is scheduled for Aug. 12.
