Investigators: Former Fort Bend ISD superintendent, top deputies to blame for bond shortfall

Budgeting misses by former Fort Bend Independent School District superintendent Christie Whitbeck’s administration were the primary cause of a major shortfall in the district’s 2023 bond program , according to investigators hired to review the shortfall.

The probe, which Fort Bend board members commissioned in February, aimed to settle how the district arrived at the $133 million shortfall within months of voters approving the $1.3 billion spending package. The school board’s legal counsel, Houston-based law firm Roger, Morris, and Grover, conducted the investigation.

Investigators determined members of Whitbeck’s administration failed to factor in inflation costs when budgeting how the district would pay for building new campuses and updating old buildings, among other projects. Administrators also made unrealistic cost projections and failed to include the architects in conversations about planning for the bond, investigators found.

In recent weeks, district leaders have said they’ve shrunk the shortfall to $77.3 million, largely by minimizing costs. Fort Bend Trustee David Hamilton, who has been critical of Whitbeck’s leadership and supported the investigation, expressed confidence in new Superintendent Marc Smith’s administration handling the situation moving forward.

“The bond was a large promise to the community, and that large promise touched every neighborhood in the school district,” Hamilton said. “Given the situation with the budget, we have to break that promise one of two ways: either not do all the projects or ask for more money from the community.”

Whitbeck, who went through a messy divorce from the district in December 2023, cast doubt on the validity of the investigation in an interview Wednesday with the Houston Landing. She accused trustees and investigators of trying to “manipulate” the results of two May school board races, which will partially serve as a referendum on her leadership .

“(The board is) paying them to try and find something,” she said. “This is a bigger issue. This is political. Look at the timing with the board election.”

Whitbeck added that she “trusted the people who were putting together” the bond packages. District leaders also were “optimistic that any overages could be absorbed” in the process of carrying out projects, Whitbeck said.

“It’s not egregious. It’s not unlawful. It’s not saying anybody lied,” Whitbeck said of the report.

Whitbeck retired from her position several weeks before district administrators disclosed the shortfall at a public school board meeting. Whitbeck said the district’s board president, Judy Dae, threatened to fire her if she didn’t resign. Dae has said she told Whitbeck that she believed the board would support a leadership change if trustees held a vote to replace her .

Who’s to blame?

Concerns about the bond first became public in February, when then-Deputy Superintendent Steven Bassett presented the $133 million shortfall to trustees. Bassett and other administrators largely blamed the district’s former executive director of design and construction, Carolina Fuzetti, for not bringing potential cost overruns to their attention earlier.

The investigators faulted Fuzetti for making some arbitrary cost estimates and failing to involve more Fort Bend staffers in the budgeting process, among other missteps.

But investigators said most of the blame lies more broadly with Whitbeck’s administration and its failure to properly account for expected construction inflation costs.

Investigators found Fort Bend administrators budgeted the bond largely based on how much it would cost to build and renovate campuses in 2022, when the district expected to hold a bond election. District leaders ultimately delayed the election until May 2023, which meant construction would not begin until 2024 at the earliest.

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PBK, an architectural firm retained by Fort Bend, provided district officials with annual projected costs factoring in inflation for each project through 2026. For example, PBK officials estimated rebuilding Clements High School would cost $223 million if work started in 2022, but it would total $284 million if construction began in 2026.

“In some instances, decisions not to use PBK’s cost projections resulted in budgeting decisions that did not adequately account for anticipated inflation or failed to account for inflation altogether,” the investigators wrote.

“While there were several administrative decisions that have led to the current projected shortfall, the primary cause relates to the failure to properly account for anticipated construction inflation during the budget planning.”

Fuzetti and the district’s former chief operations officer, Oscar Perez, told investigators they repeatedly raised concerns about inflation to Bassett and Whitbeck. Perez said Whitbeck bore the ultimate responsibility of adjusting budget numbers.

Under pressure?

The investigators said Bassett and Whitbeck told them they were aware that 2022 cost projections were being used on projects that wouldn’t start for years. Bassett said district leaders believed Fuzetti could keep costs down. Whitbeck said she wasn’t made aware of the need for a revised budget, and there wasn’t enough time to redo plans before the May 2023 election, according to investigators.

All three administrators added that they felt pressure from some school board members and the public, who were criticizing the size of the bond, according to investigators. Whitbeck pushed back on the assertion in an interview with the Landing, saying there was no such fear.

Investigators ultimately found Whitbeck’s explanations unconvincing and inconsistent, concluding that “the evidence demonstrates that the administration clearly understood the risks of inflation, particularly as it relates to delays in construction.”

Hamilton said he believes the report provides needed answers about who is responsible for the shortfall.

“It was very important to be transparent and accountable to the community, and it was very important to clear (Fuzetti’s) name,” Hamilton said.