Garland ISD Board Kept in Dark as Administrators Approve Millions in Excess Bond Program Charges

Garland ISD's $455 million bond program is on a course that would take it tens of millions over budget because of changes made without the school board's approval, the project manager said this week.Monday night's emergency school board meeting was the first time the board learned that there isn't enough money to do all the projects as currently budgeted."There comes a point when you run out of tricks ," bond program manager Herschel Acosta told the board at the meeting. "It's when you're starting to add more work to it that you run into problems."Acosta told the board that the changes to the bond program all happened under former Superintendent Bob Morrison, who hastily resigned and retired in December with a $448,115 settlement .The settlement agreement with Morrison called for the district to "agree not to make disparaging remarks about the other party" and he was not mentioned by name Monday. But in the months prior to his departure, some board members had raised serious questions about expenditures related to the bond, which voters approved in November 2014. Administrative changesThe bond was to provide updates to every facility, with construction through 2020. GISD itemized projects for each of its facilities as the bond was being advertised to voters. But the ballot wording of "$455.5 million for the construction, renovation, acquisition and equipment of school buildings" gives the district broad authorization in spending the approved funds.The changes were directed by the administration, Acosta said, and not taken to the board for approval. Nor were they part of the monthly bond updates Acosta and GISD's facilities department gave at the board's monthly meetings.  Continue reading...