This podcast contains comments from Bryan ISD superintendent Christie Whitbeck and her chief of staff, Ginger Carrabine, during the April 5, 2021 BISD school board meeting.

The Bryan ISD school board is told spending plans for the 2021-2022 school year are being made without know if the state will forward $58 million dollars in federal pandemic grant money.

Superintendent Christie Whitbeck told the board it puts the district "in a very precarious place because we know what the needs are. We know that we just can't sit around and hope and wait. We've got to do something to make sure we're covering our bases for the children."

Dr. Whitbeck also said "We can't wait until these decisions are made (by Texas elected officials) to do our planning. So we're planning now, I guess, in the good faith that our elected officials in Texas will see to it to allocate the money that's coming from the federal government."

Whitbeck said when the state forwarded more than $4 million dollars in federal grant money last year, BISD lost an equal amount in state funding.

The superintendent's chief of staff, Ginger Carrabine, told the board that a committee has been formed to research every possible way federal grants can be spent, should the state forward that money to the district.