Five area high schools face sanctions

Emily Richmond and Erin Neff

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Five Clark County high schools are in danger of losing their accreditation because class sizes are too big, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack McLaughlin said Wednesday.

The schools have been warned about the problem, which is the first step toward losing their accreditation, McLaughlin told the Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy. He blamed the school funding crisis in Nevada, because the Clark County School District cannot afford to hire enough teachers.

Accreditation means that the high school is recognized as meeting certain standards. Most colleges will accept student coursework only from accredited schools.

"The (Clark County) school district is in a tough spot, they've already had to cut their budget to the bone," McLaughlin said.

There may be little relief in sight for the schools.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia said this morning the Clark County School District will need to cut $10 million out of next year's $1.1 billion budget

Garcia will ask the school district's board of trustees to approve the cuts tonight. The specifics of the cuts were not available this morning. Garcia said he took suggestions from the five regional superintendents.

"We've cut $74 million the last two years, and now we need to cut even more," Garcia said. "People are going to realize tonight the difficult decisions we're facing."

Garcia said he hoped the accreditation group would grant the some leeway given the school district's fiscal struggles and tremendous growth of region.

"We're talking about a cause and effect of finances," Garcia said. "To bring down class size is a huge expense, and we already have deep budget cuts on the table."

The Northwest Association of Schools -- Nevada's school accreditation organization -- mandates that high school teachers of core subjects like math and social studies instruct 160 students per day. That equates to 32 students per class during a school day.

Lauren Kohut-Rosti, an assistant superintendent of Clark County School District's southeast region and the state chair of the accreditation association, said she was prohibited from disclosing the names of the high schools that have been warned. Kohut-Rosti said she is only allowed to say whether a school has accreditation.

Individual school administrators can choose whether to publicly discuss the details of the warnings, Kohut-Rosti said.

McLaughlin said he believed some of the high schools had as many as 36 students in some classes, risking accreditation.

"Those schools are on the first level of three levels of being warned and then disaccredited," McLaughlin said. "This is extremely serious."

Nevada currently has a class-size reduction program in grades 1 through 3. All first- and second-grade classrooms have a 16-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio. The ratio is 19-to-1 in third grade.

The state spends about $90 million to fund class-size reduction. About $5 million in federal grants to support 18-to-1 ratios in lower grades is used to fund teacher development in grades four and five -- although Nevada does not have class-size mandates in those grades.

McLaughlin said since the state spends so much on hiring teachers for lower grades, upper grades often have fewer resources. As a result, he said, some high school classes in Clark County have bulged to 36 students.

Sheila Moulton, president of the school board, said this morning she often hears from parents of high school students who believe their children's classes are too big.

"We've had to increase our class size by one last year, and 90 percent of our budget goes to personnel, salaries and the budget," Moulton said. "If those class sizes are jeopardizing accreditation, we're even more concerned."