CISD 2002/07/23July 23, 2002
MEMORANDUM
TO: Jim Witt, City Manager
FROM: Clay Phillips, Deputy City Manager
SUBJECT: CEDC Grant Meeting with CISD
As you know, I met with Ralph Seely and Vonita White today concerning the status of
the grants recently received by CISD. The meeting was precipitated by your recent
memo in which you notified the various grant recipients that additional funding was
available based upon our latest sales tax projections. Approximately $194,000.00 is
available to the CISD. As such, the CISD had several questions, each of which are
outlined below along with the direction I gave them regarding how to proceed.
Can the District amend their original grants to include additional funds for teacher
salaries where actual salaries are higher than the projections used to formulate the
grant requests?
The situation arose in all of the grants where salaries were a part of the requested
funding. The District was able to hire experienced teachers for these programs resulting
in a higher starting salary. The amount needed to fully fund this issue is approximately
$85,000.00.
Based on our discussions yesterday, I instructed the District to amend any of the original
grants necessary to request the accurate amount of salary dollars necessary to fund the
program as presented. In order to avoid confusion, I suggested they use the actual grant
application used originally and add the new information in the appropriate place(s) on the
application in bold type. In so doing, the CEDC will have the existing grant language
and funding in front of them along with the easily distinguishable amending information.
The District will be submitting amended grant requests as outlined above as soon as
possible. They plan to have the items on their August 31 board meeting agenda as you
and I discussed yesterday.
Can they submit additional grants for additional programs in order to use the
remaining funds allocated to CISD this year? ($194,000 - $85,000 = $109,000)
Grant Fund Meeting/CISD
7/23/02
Page 2 of 2
I informed the district that they could submit additional grants for additional programs.
The CISD will be submitting two new grants in September or October.
This discussion did lead us to review how much of the allotment each district could
request given the fact that the total allocation is based upon sales tax projections. They
do not want to find themselves in the last quarter of any given grant period with fewer
dollars than anticipated, particularly if the grant is salary related. Should each District
leave a portion of its allotment in reserve should a sales tax shortfall materialize? This is
an issue that the CEDC has most likely already tackled. If not, it should be considered.
How and when are the payments received from the CEDC?
The issue of when payments are due is spelled out clearly in the grant agreements. Most
have a first payment due date of August 1, 2002 with a quarterly payment schedule
thereafter. The Summer Literacy grant appears to have a lump sum payment date of May
15, 2002. Two questions remain unresolved at this point concerning payments.
Does the CISD need to request payment or does the CEDC make the first payment
as scheduled in the grant agreement without any further action on the part of the
CISD?
I was not able to give the CISD a definitive answer regarding this issue. We most likely
need to respond to each ISD regarding this question.
Can the CISD and other Districts expect the first quarterly payment to include the
total necessary for equipment and materials purchases along with one quarter of the
salary funding? In other words, will the first payment be larger than the
subsequent quarterly payment by an amount equal to the equipment and material
requirements?
The Graphic Design grant, and possibly others, have some equipment and materials
purchases included in the projected expenditures. If the total amount for the start-up
materials and equipment is not provided in the first payment along with the first quarter
salary funding, each ISD will be operating short on funding for each grant that includes
start-up materials and equipment. If the answer is that all payments will be quarterly
unless otherwise noted in the agreement, the CISD will also seek an amendment to the
funding for the Graphic Design grant to allow them to have start-up funding in place at
the outset of the program.
Finally, Vonita would like to meet with a member of the CEDC to be better prepared to
fulfill the CEDC's wishes concerning the grant request formats.