Lombardo: State concerned about CCSD's budget issues

State pressure is building on the Clark County School District to answer for its apparent budget struggles.

Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office released a letter today that he sent to state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzarro, D-Las Vegas, requesting an ongoing state performance audit of CCSD to include recently identified potential budget shortfalls “so that we can identify ways to address these issues in the long-term.”

Lombardo’s letter follows Nevada Superintendent Jhone Ebert sharing a letter Thursday that she sent to CCSD Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell about a “potential” budget deficit the district has admitted internally but not publicly confirmed or explained.

Lombardo wants to know the processes CCSD uses to allocate funding to individual schools, what happened with that process to cause the current issues, how CCSD can avoid similar circumstances in the future, and what, if anything, the legislative and executive branch can consider to prevent another similar situation.

“We are concerned with reports that CCSD’s current budget issues will potentially result in the release or elimination of teachers and other staff positions,” he wrote. “Given last session’s unprecedented increase in funding for education, such a scenario would be unacceptable.”

In her letter to Larsen-Mitchell, Ebert asked her to confirm if CCSD has a budget shortfall and if so, how large it is.

Ebert asked CCSD if its budgetary reports to the Nevada departments of education and taxation, or its own budgetary assumptions and allocations, were inaccurate. Pointedly, she asked if a budgetary shortfall currently exists at CCSD and if so, by about how much. 

If there are inaccuracies or holes, Ebert asked Larsen-Mitchell what caused the errors, when amended reports will be issued and what CCSD’s plan is to address the shortfall, including whether the district will ask schools to use their carry-forward funds to make up the deficit. (Carry-forward funds are the funds that weren’t used in one fiscal year and were carried into the following year.)

Ebert said she wanted “the most accurate answers you can (provide) as soon as you are able,” but no later than Oct. 3.

A CCSD spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment on the two letters.

CCSD released a letter Sept. 20 from Larsen-Mitchell to all staff titled “school strategic budget challenges” in which she said a “potential central budget deficit was identified during the district’s regularly scheduled accounting year-end close-out process… Although progress has been made, we are still unable to confirm whether a central budget deficit exists.” She said the central office will try to absorb “any confirmed deficit.”

Larsen-Mitchell’s staff memo was accompanied by several emails and memos from the budget and finance office to principals, who build their school’s budgets using information from the central office. 

These memos to principals, sent throughout September, said a potential deficit was found.

The Sun has asked CCSD several times for further clarification.