Good use of bond money revealed

Terry Webster

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 10:11 a.m.

The Clark County School District is performing above average in its management of the 1994 and 1996 construction bond programs, according to a PriceWaterhouse Coopers audit.

Although it said there is room for improvement, the firm gave the district an overall rating of very good, School Board member Sheila Moulton said.

School officials said they are pleased with the report.

The 1994 bond issue of $605 million was expected to build 24 new schools and expand three. It actually built 25 and expanded three schools. The 1996 bond issue of $642.7 million was to build 16 new schools, add to 114 and modernize another 184. It actually built 18 new schools -- two of them replacements -- added to 143 and modernized 183.

Pat Herron, assistant superintendent for the facilities division, said that out of 10 schools evaluated by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, only two received a rating of very good. The rest were average or poor.

However, the audit found the district is understaffed compared with similar districts and that staffing levels have not kept pace with the district's rapidly expanding construction levels.

Over the past six years capital spending in the district has increased from about $66.6 million per year in 1994 to more than $400 million in 2000.

The audit added that the district's staffing is not keeping pace with increasing workloads.

"Staff are thinly stretched over the current workload," the audit states. "Based on our experience with larger districts (Clark County's) staff levels appear to be lower than comparable districts."

The audit suggests hiring more staff members instead of relying on consultants to help reduce costs and increase district control.

Contract employees could be used as a temporary supplement instead of a primary source of staff, according to the audit.

It also calls for better coordination between departments.

"Coordination inefficiencies may have caused rehabilitation projects to lag projected completion and expenditures," the audit reads.

Herron said those criticisms can be traced back to an overworked staff.

"In some cases, project managers are overseeing over 100 projects," he said. "They just get too busy to return every phone call."

Areas covered by the audit included how well bond programs fulfilled their goals, the programs' ability to react to changing education and enrollment conditions and their efficiency, as well as a critique of school construction management and a comparison of Clark County to other districts with programs of similar size and scope.