AISD board creates temporary budget committee

In order to better tackle the district’s financial complexities, Austin Independent School District At-Large Trustee Kendall Pace has put forward the idea of creating a new AISD budget committee that will look at the district’s multimillion-dollar (billion before state recapture) budget. But with Pace absent Monday night, board members went back and forth over whether the measure was redundant, considering that all board members would probably want to debate the matter at length in regular meetings anyway. In addition, trustees wondered to what degree the committee would advise the board at large. As a compromise, President Gina Hinojosa suggested going forward with a temporary committee to look at the overall budgeting process. A change in that process and in the way information is presented might enable board members to ask more detailed questions but still keep out of administrative affairs, suggested Vice President Amber Elenz. Pace (via text) and District 6 Trustee Paul Saldaña volunteered to sit on the temporary committee.