Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDUCATION :

Hard lesson: Budget cuts mean layoffs

School district officials say there’s nothing left to slash but staff

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Superintendent Walt Rulffes is warning School District employees that the next round of state budget cuts will almost certainly lead to the elimination of hundreds of jobs.

“The writing is on the wall. We clearly will have a reduction in the number of positions,” Rulffes said.

For the time being, the only positions being targeted for elimination are in administrative offices.

The superintendent has instructed principals to discuss the looming cuts in meetings with staff members and parent groups this week.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has called for education funding, along with the budgets of other state agencies, to be cut by 14 percent for the upcoming biennium. That would mean $120 million less for the Clark County School District.

The district has cut $130 million from its budget since December. Making another $120 million in cuts without reducing personnel is probably impossible, said Jeff Weiler, chief financial officer for the district.

“There’s no way you could cut that much, both at the central office and school level, without touching staff positions,” Weiler said. “Salaries and benefits are 86 percent of our budget. And 89 percent of those people are in schools. That’s the real unfortunate part.”

The warning comes as voters are being asked to sign off on a room tax increase that would benefit public education. But Rulffes said the timing of his warning wasn’t intended to influence voters.

“There is a demonstrated lack of resources to provide necessary services, including education, in this state,” he said. “This isn’t Chicken Little saying the sky is falling.”

Exact numbers are tentative until the 2009 Legislature finalizes the state budget, but the district tentatively plans to cut 261 employee positions assigned to central and administrative offices for a savings of $17 million.

This is the first time since the budget crisis began in December that the district has proposed job cuts of this magnitude. Of the 261 proposed job cuts, 210 are support staff, 28 are licensed personnel and 23 are administrators. In some cases, administrators and licensed personnel whose jobs are eliminated might have the opportunity to return to the classroom, a move that would allow the district to hire fewer new teachers for next year.

“We’ll do our best to protect existing employees through reassignment,” Rulffes said.

The nonsalary budgets of the administrative offices will also be cut by 12 percent, or $15 million. Another $57 million will come from the district’s 341 schools, equaling 3.5 percent of each campus’ budget. (That would be on average $127,054 per elementary school, $156,087 per middle school and $391,633 per high school.)

Principals have been asked to complete a survey, detailing what each school is prepared to cut and what it wants protected.

Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, said that since principals have begun talking about the cuts with staff members, he’s fielded a steady stream of phone calls from teachers worried about their jobs.

“The message to everyone, not just teachers, is that if things continue to go down in the economy and the Legislature doesn’t act, nothing is sacred in the district,” Murillo said. “Our goal is to work with the district to minimize the impact on our kids.”

Recent legislative audits of the Clark County School District’s management and operations have been almost uniformly favorable. But some critics say the district could do more with the funding it has.

There are district expenses widely viewed as ripe for trimming, such as reliance on expensive consultants. School Board members expressed similar concerns at a recent meeting, and district officials say they are doing their best to get out of existing contracts and set new limits on future ones.

Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, praised the district for taking steps now to prepare for the harsh fiscal portrait being painted in Carson City.

“The reality is we don’t have any money,” Gansert said. “I don’t see any changes in the near term. We’re going to have to hobble through the next biennium before we can expect to see things start coming back up.”

Told that layoffs were possible in the state’s largest school district, Gansert said she’s not surprised. Gansert and several other lawmakers recommended this year’s 4 percent cost-of-living pay increase for public employees — including educators — be deferred.

“The trade-off for the raises is jobs,” Gansert said. “If we had cut that 4 percent, schools wouldn’t have to cut 3.5 percent now.”

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