$12 million sought for school hires

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, March 13, 2002 | 10:39 a.m.

The facilities division of the Clark County School District says it needs to hire 106 additional workers in order to keep up with the demand for building new schools and will ask the School Board Thursday for $12.9 million in bond funds and tax revenues to pay for the new hires.

This is the second time in less than a year that the facilities division, responsible for overseeing about $300 million in construction projects last year, has asked the board to increase its staff. A request last June for $2.8 million to fund 36 additional jobs was turned down.

The Bond Oversight Committee, formed in 1989 the year after voters approved $675 million in tax increases to pay for new schools, voted in November to support the new staffing plan. The committee stipulated that six-month progress reports on school construction will be required, and that jobs may be phased out when the need for workers dips.

The nation's sixth-largest school district with nearly a quarter-million students, Clark County opens about 12 to 14 new schools each year. Six high schools are planned for construction in the next three years.

The new facilities jobs would be paid for using bond funds and motor vehicle privilege tax revenues. The proposal also calls for cutting eight facilities jobs currently paid for by the school district's general fund, which is also used for teacher salaries.

A 2001 audit by the firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers found the facilities division was understaffed by 139 positions.