The Georgetown ISD board of trustees approved a budget amendment and financial policy Jan. 17 after GISD Interim Chief Financial Officer Steve West completed an internal audit and identified a nearly $1.6 million shortfall in the 2011–12 budget.

The budget amendment was intended to align actual spending with what was approved in the 2011-12 budget. West said the board had originally approved a budget expecting a $500,000 surplus.

"We had asked Steve to go line item by line item to make sure what we had budgeted was the true and correct spending," GISD board President Scott Alarcon said. "He found some areas where we weren't exactly in line, so what is required when you aren't meeting that budget to a tee is a budget amendment, which is essentially what he brought forward [Jan. 17]. So we were congruent with our actual spending to what the board had approved."

The board also approved a debt service management policy, which will help the board manage debt, set best practices and maintain the long-term fiscal health of the district, West said.

"It gives very prescriptive detail on how we are going to monitor funds and the role of the CFO and the finance team," he said. "So instead of bringing someone new in and doing a post audit, it would be more real time on a month-to-month basis."

The district is also beginning work on the 2012–13 budget, which could include between $5 million and $5.5 million in state and federal funding reductions.

"It's going to be somewhere between $5 million and $5.5 million, which is significant when you've already taken almost $7 million in the previous year," Alarcon said. "In the past, we probably could have said there was fat that we were cutting, but now we are really starting to get closer to the muscle and the bone. So we have to be very strategic and intentional about the selections that we make."