The Austin Independent School District board of trustees unanimously voted to use the remaining 2008 bond program contingency funds to renovate what the board's agenda called "critical" facility and maintenance issues.

The $16.1 million will go toward several projects, including:

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning renovations at approximately 17 facilities: $3.8 million

Roofing renovations at approximately four facilities: $4.2 million

Electrical renovations at approximately seven facilities: $1.2 million

Elevator installation at one facility: $150,000

Flooring installation at one facility: $56,000

Plumbing renovations at 12 facilities: $1.4 million

The action will include looking at spending $4.1 million on north central overcrowding and $380,000 on the Graduation Pathways Education Program run by Responsive Education Solutions.

The board also approved for $430,000 to be put toward retrofitting Allan Elementary School to accommodate the IDEA Public Schools in-district charter program.

While a good part of the discussion at the Jan. 23 board meeting was separate from IDEA, there was some holdover from the December protests, as a few anti-IDEA proponents were present at the meeting. The concern surrounding funds appropriated for IDEA seemed to lie in the notion that the 2008 bond money predates the district's new charter school.

"No 2008 bond money should be able to be used or put into IDEA," Geneva Govea-Oliva said in her public comments. "This school is a charter school and was not part of AISD in 2008. This is not what we as voters voted for."

But trustee Cheryl Bradley said that the attitude paints AISD students as if they are not part of the district.

"We're talking about IDEA as if they are going to be instructing children that are going to be dropping out of the sky," she said. "I want them to have the very best as I would want all of our children and all of our schools to have the very best."

Trustee Annette LoVoi voted in favor, but cited issues with the lack of funds set aside for Govalle and Ortega elementary schools—schools that kids who opt out of IDEA would attend.

"My concern tonight was a very serious concern," she said. "Many of the parents and students have told us they don't want to attend an IDEA charter school, even though that's their neighborhood school. They've told us they want to attend Govalle or Ortega. So, my concern tonight was that I looked through the materials, and there was not a proposal to allocate funding for those students."

LoVoi, who voted against and was outspokenly opposed to the in-district charter, said that her opinion has not changed since the Dec. 20 meeting.

"I stand by my vote," she said. "There was inadequate community input. The wrong questions were asked. The community was asked not whether they wanted a charter, but how to implement a charter."

When asked about the unanimous vote at the June 20, 2011, meeting to explore a partnership with IDEA, she said, "explore is not approve."