District needs $5 million to comply with special education plan

Terry Webster

Friday, Feb. 11, 2000 | 10:06 a.m.

The Clark County School District would have to come up with nearly $5 million to fund the Nevada State Board of Education's push for smaller special education teacher caseloads, the school district's chief financial officer said.

"It's a major problem," Walt Rulffes said Monday. "We didn't expect this."

Rulffes said the state's plan will cost the school district an estimated $3.7 million in additional personnel and another $1.2 million in construction costs.

Operating under a tight budget, the school district already is financially unable to implement a $10 million academic improvement program and has had to cut into the equipment replacement program, Rulffes said.

Most of the school district's $1.5 billion budget (87 percent) is tied to personnel costs, which include employees protected by legally binding contracts. The remaining 13 percent covers items like utilities and books -- areas that state law prohibits being dipped into for personnel costs.

"Any personnel costs have to come out of the personnel pot," Rulffes said.

Additionally, the Clark County School Board would have to approve any cuts made to cover the costs, he said.

The district already has made staffing adjustments by obtaining a state option that allows teachers to teach in some areas of special education even if they haven't specialized in that area.

The Clark County School District, growing at about 12,000 students a year, is competing against a nationwide shortage of special-education teachers.

"It's a problem everywhere, not just here," said Gloria Dopf, state director of special education.

On one side, state officials have argued that a lack of funding is not a good argument against reducing caseloads. School officials, by contrast, have said they support the concept but it is too expensive.

"No one disagrees with class-size reduction," said Charlene Green, assistant superintendent of the Student Support Services Division for Clark County Schools. "The biggest issue for us is that if they are going to mandate it, they should fund it. It's not going to happen if there is no funding for it."

Green said the district's special education population is keeping pace with growth in Clark County. "Last year we (special education) grew by about 2,000 new students," she said.

Under the plan, speech and language teachers currently carry a caseload of 60 and the recommendation would bring it down to 50. In resource rooms and early childhood special education, the caseload would be reduced from 24 to 22.

Statewide, the reductions would cost an estimated $4 million, but that figure does not include related construction costs, Dopf said.

The next step will be for the state board to refer the regulation revisions to the legislative counsel bureau. Then, the matter could be brought before the legislative commission for additional review. Upon filing with the secretary of state, the law would become effective immediately, or in this case, July 1, 2000, said Dopf.

School districts are asking for the measure to be considered in the following school year, to allow time for the state legislature to study the costs.