School district wants more employees in facilities office

Terry Webster

Wednesday, June 27, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

The Clark County School Board will decide Thursday whether to spend $2.8 million a year to add 45 new jobs to the school district's facilities division.

District officials say the positions are needed to keep up with school construction demands.

And the near future shows no signs of relief, with 15 new schools expected to open each year for the next three school years.

"As we continue to build more schools and increase the number of renovation projects, we need more staff," Pat Herron, assistant superintendent of the facilities division, said.

Funding for the new positions will come from a portion of the 1996 and 1998 bonds set aside for administrative costs, Ruby Alston, financial manager for the facilities division, said.

There is enough money in the bond fund to cover the salaries through June 2009, she added.

Over eight years, the 45 positions will cost a total of $22.4 million.

Bill Hoffman, the district's lead attorney, said it is legal to use the bond dollars for people to oversee the program.

"You have to have people to run it," he said.

The new positions include a school buildings operations analyst and five planners for special projects, along with five senior project managers and eight project managers for construction management.

The plan seeks the addition of 45 positions and the deletion of nine.

A resolution coming before the School Board states that the ability of the facilities division to competently manage the balance of the 1996 bond fund and to execute the 1998 capital improvement program is being impaired by a lack of authorized personnel.

Herron noted a January audit that Pricewaterhouse Coopers performed for the district determined the district's staffing levels are too low in proportion to the number of its construction projects.

For the 2001-2002 school year, the district plans to open 15 new schools to serve about 13,500 students. Twelve of the schools are scheduled to open in August, with the remainder opening midyear.