School district braces for ‘tough two years’

Terry Webster and Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, May 2, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

State budget developments have left Clark County School Superintendent Carlos Garcia with one comment: "It's going to be a tough two years."

The state's projected shortfall is not as severe as originally expected, but Garcia said he doubts the district will see any additional funding.

If that happens, the district will have to wait two years until the Legislature's next session for relief.

"All I can say is everyone knows what we need to do," said Garcia, who leads the nation's sixth-largest school district. "The only question is, are they going to do it?"

School officials Tuesday said they are disappointed the Legislature does not appear to willing to create more revenue for education.

Garcia began beating that drum in January when he started a campaign he calls "playing Chicken Little."

Joining him were the local and state teachers' unions. The unions even launched an unsuccessful attempt to create a business tax to help fund education in Nevada.

But lawmakers do not appear convinced that the sky is falling.

"If people do not think we are in a crisis, maybe they will be more certain when the crisis actually hits," Garcia said. "As a leader, I'm the type of person who believes you should solve a problem before it's created."

He refuted comments made by Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, that the district is using scare tactics to get more funding.

"If this is all a myth, then why did we spend four hours today looking at where our next $12 million in cuts are going to be?" Garcia asked.

Clark County Education Association President Sue Strand called Raggio's comments Monday "a kick in the teeth."

"The district is not cutting money for the fun of it," she said. "We have already cut enough."

School officials have pointed out that the district cut about $50 million out of its budget over the past two years.

"It's getting to appear that the chamber of commerce and big business people do not want an educated work force," Strand said.

The district's latest round of budget discussions included proposals to have parents pay for arts and athletics programs and to reduce busing for high school students.

Meanwhile about 200 teachers rallied Tuesday near the Sawyer State Office Building to voice concerns about education funding and other issues in the district.

"I can tell you that the frustration level among the employees is very high," Strand said.

Local officials were not as shaken by the Economic Forum results.

Las Vegas Deputy City Manager Steven Houchens said the city had created its own financial forecast and trend analysis when preparing its upcoming fiscal budget, which begins July 1. The numbers the city was crunching were similar to the results that came out of the forum.

"The forecast just reinforced what we've been looking at for several months -- that we're in a bit of a downturn and not seeing the same growth rates we've had in the past," he said.

Henderson's finance director, Steve Hansen, said the shortfall would have little impact on his city's 2001-02 municipal budget.

Sun reporter Jeffrey Libby contributed to this report.