School Board passes reduced budget

The Clark County School District will be in for some belt tightening when it implements its new budget this summer.

The School Board had little choice but to unanimously approve a $1.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2000-2001 that included $34.5 million in cuts from the district's tentative budget. The school district's budget for fiscal 1999-2000, which ends June 30, was $1 billion.

Too little funding from the Legislature and $20 million in pay raises for district employees ordered in recent arbitration contributed to the large budget reductions, district budget department director Teri Jones said.

Statewide, funding has been reduced per student from $3,632 this fiscal year to $3,630 per student next school year, Jones said. When local funding is included, per-student spending in Clark County will rise slightly from $4,771 this year to $4,806 next year.

"The increase, which is less than 1 percent, doesn't even keep up with the status quo to maintain existing programs," district Chief Financial Officer Walter Rulffes said.

Among the areas that will take the heaviest hit are student-teacher ratios. They will be increased by one student per teacher in kindergarten and grades 4 through 12 to save $10.5 million.

Another $1.6 million was cut from the budget for hiring new teachers, as well as $3 million for purchasing equipment and filling open administrative positions.

The new budget also defers $5 million in funding that was earmarked for adding elementary school assistant principals, counselors and educational computing specialists.

Board member Sheila Moulton, saying programs in the lower grades were vital to the success of students later on in school, suggested taking $2.5 million from funds allocated for grades 10-12 to soften the blow to elementary schools. That would result in a half-student increase in classroom size for those higher grades.

"We really have to do something to help the elementary schools," Moulton said. "The older kids might be able to handle this better."

Moulton gained some support on the board for studying her proposal.

"Kids who drop out of school start to lose interest in schools in third grade," board member Lois Tarkanian said. "I feel very strongly that we have to put programs in place, especially elementary school counselors, to help prevent this."

The district has had a plan in the works to add close to 16 elementary school counselors, but for that to go forward now, funding would have to be taken from other areas in the budget.

"You could approve $2 million more, sure -- if you'll willingly take $2 million from somewhere else," Superintendent Brian Cram told the board.

While more legislative funding is needed for the school district, Tarkanian said that the district needs to ensure the money is going as far as it can.

"We need to make sure that no money is being wasted," she said. "Every insinuation has a certain amount of holes in it, and we need to plug up the holes. If we don't, then it is hard to go to the Legislature and ask for more funding."

Tarkanian emphasized that the school district would likely consider shifting funds to cover the most critical needs. That would not change the total of $1.1 billion.

The number of students in the Clark County School District could grow as large as 231,028, although it would be reported as 223,053 under a state pupil funding formula that counts kindergarten and handicapped students as 0.6 full-time equivalents. For financial purposes, the district assumes it will have a minimum enrollment of 226,408 next school year, but for the last two years enrollment has frequently exceeded projections.

More cuts may still be in the offing, Rulffes said.

"We still don't know what the outcome of the arbitration (for pay raises) for the 2000-2001 school year," he said. "So we could have to make more reductions."

School Board members said they were disillusioned by the pledges of politicians who claim to support schools, but forget their campaign promises after being elected.

"Every politician talks about education coming first," board member Shirley Barber said. "But education is really last on their list."

Valerie Miller

is a reporter for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2319 or by e-mail at [email protected]

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