Reworking of school district to top $5 mil.

Terry Webster

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

The cost of reorganizing the Clark County School District into five regions is expected to top $5 million.

District officials Thursday said they are still working on final figures for the entire reorganization. But it's known that the five new offices for the five new regional superintendents will cost about $1 million each.

Additional funds also will be needed to pay for staffing changes, promotions and positions that were added or eliminated, school officials said.

The final cost figures for the reorganization were to be contained in a report that school district officials were to release today. The reorganization was undertaken to improve education and make the schools more accountable to the public.

Approved in February by the School Board, the plan divides the district into five regions while leaving the overall school system intact.

The new offices -- modular units being built on existing school campuses -- will house the administrators and other employees named to new positions under the reorganization. The buildings are expected to be finished by mid to late September. Regional superintendents are now operating out of existing district offices.

Most of the cost for the new buildings, which includes the buildings and site preparations, will come from the district's motor vehicle privilege tax, said Pat Herron, assistant superintendent for facilities.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia asked staffers to draw up a study on the overall price tag of the reorganization, sources said.

Behind the cost of the reorganization are plans to raise student achievement and cut through district bureaucratic red tape.

Officials say it isn't just talk -- they know how they will do it.

The regional superintendents are writing reports and forming numerous school and community "outreach committees."

Five days are being set aside this year for training teachers in areas such as how to teach reading and algebra -- two of the district's top priorities.

Test scores and other records, which are going to be scrutinized more than ever, will tell whether student performance is improving, Garcia said.

Regional superintendents will be collecting more data on attendance, dropouts, special education referrals, test scores and textbooks being adopted at schools.

The regional superintendents also are touting the district's platform of increasing its accountability to the public.

"We have smaller groups and smaller settings," Leonard Paul, northwest regional superintendent, said. "People's voices are going to be heard."

Can that be proven? Yes, Garcia said.

A new computer program, which has yet to be unveiled before the School Board, will track who received a request or complaint and whether the issue was resolved.

"This will show how accountable we are, or not," Garcia said.

To make sure everyone is on the same page, the regional superintendents -- Allen Coles (southwest), Edward Goldman (southeast), Maurice Flores (east central), Marsha Irvin (northeast), Leonard Paul (northwest) -- are meeting weekly with Augie Orci, deputy superintendent for instruction.

Although plans are in place, the reorganization's success still remains to be seen. And Garcia is first to admit it.

"It's still too early to tell whether it's really going to work," he said. "I think that during the first year, we'll be getting all of the bugs out of it."

In the nation's second largest school district -- Los Angeles -- a similar plan, this one to divide the district into 11 smaller units, is earning mixed reviews.

The Los Angeles concept evolved out of same concerns here: Lagging student achievement and a bureaucracy too big to respond to the public.

Although school district officials disagreed with the finding, a Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury accountant in July concluded that the breakup is only creating an even bigger bureaucracy, according to the Los Angeles Times. The State Board of Education will decide in September whether to put the plan out for a public vote.

Clark County has had no public outcry against the school district's reorganization.

Staton Elementary PTA member Lorrie Curriden said she believes the school district is too large and should be broken into smaller, independent districts.

"If we can't do that, this seems like a good alternative," Curriden said. "Hopefully, some of the inequities that exist will be eliminated."

Yet Curriden questions whether the reorganization will do any good on issues such as overcrowded classrooms.

Valley High School Principal Ron Montoya said that even at this early stage, some results of reorganization are visible.

"I personally think it's a step in the right direction," he said. "All departments seem to be working together more smoothly."

Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, who wanted to allow voters the option of creating smaller districts in Clark County, said she will be closely watching the district's reorganization. Tiffany's petition effort to deconsolidate the district failed when enough signatures were not gathered in one Nevada county.

Tiffany called the reorganization "a shell game" -- all of the new regional administrators were already district employees.

A new law will require the district to make annual reports on administrative salaries and test scores to the state, but the Legislature won't review them until the 2003 session, said Tiffany.

Tiffany said she still believes the district should be broken into smaller districts. But she has put the issue on hold.