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Committee reviews budget adjustment requests, federal and state grant alignments and weapons-detection indirect-cost treatment
Summary
Budget director and finance staff reviewed a large set of budget adjustment requests (BARs) covering operational, federal and state grants, capital projects and a transfer for RGPI equipment; staff clarified that indirect costs cannot be charged to certain capital-equipment grant expenditures such as the weapons-detection system.
Budget staff presented a consolidated set of budget adjustment requests (BARs) to the Finance Committee on April 17 that cover operational transfers, federal grants, local and state grants, and capital projects. Staff said the district is consolidating BARs where appropriate and walked the committee through notable items including a transfer of roughly $60,000 for mat services and a $200,000 reallocation tied to the Rio Grande Preparatory Institute for Career Technical Education equipment purchased from legislative GRO funds.
Budget director Alex Saenz and finance staff explained the GRO-related allocation is part of prior legislative funding that remains available and is being used for equipment — examples included desktop mills, laser printers and construction equipment for CTE programs. Superintendent Ruiz and staff said the district secured $500,000 of a requested $2,000,000 for RGPI construction and will continue to pursue additional funding while moving forward with design work.
Staff also described federal grant BARs (items 30–39 in the packet) that realign budgets to grant award amounts for supplies, professional development, substitutes and indirect costs. Regarding the weapons-detection system grant, staff explained federal guidance does not allow charging indirect costs (IDC) to large capital equipment purchases. Finance staff said the weapon-detection equipment is treated as capital equipment and therefore is excluded from IDC allocation per federal rules; they explained that IDC applies to management and administration where allowable but not to equipment line items.
On federal-school calendar misalignment, staff explained one grant runs on a calendar year not the district fiscal year; the BAR aligns budget reporting to the grant calendar and does not represent a loss of funds. Budget staff said summer-school programming funded by federal grants will include high-school credit recovery and a middle-school program hosted at Camino Real open to district middle-school students. Food services BARs were presented to align revenue and expenditures recorded for staff meal sales.
Board members asked for follow-up materials on certain BARs, including details on the research-and-development contract listed in BAR 12 (staff said the consultant is Lupe Alicia Consulting Services and that the contract is billed hourly and covers strategic-plan support and professional learning), and a memo on weapons-detection startup and annual maintenance costs. Finance staff said they would follow up with the requested details.
