Final school forum draws another large gathering

Thursday, March 13, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

Robyn Hultengren, a fifth grade teacher at Mountain View Elementary School, teaches class all day and, for two hours after school three days a week, tutors 34 students in reading, writing and arithmetic.

"I'm very concerned with funding cuts in the school budget," Hultengren said Wednesday night in the Chaparral High School gymnasium, which was filled with about 1,000 parents, teachers, students, counselors and Clark County School District officials.

It was the fourth and last in a series of four school forums designed to address possible state budget cuts in the school system.

Most of the children Hultengren tutors are first and second graders placed in the program under President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

"If you can't read, you can't do anything," said Hultengren, who moved to Las Vegas from Michigan six years ago.

In the worst-case scenario, if the Legislature doesn't pass any new taxes, school officials will have to chop $220 million out of the budget over the next two years -- and everything is vulnerable, said Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent for operations. Although the district has built 38 new schools in recent years, it needs another 30 to meet demand, he said.

The district's proposed $1.4 billion budget for 2004 has $11.6 million in leftover funds from this year, Rulffes said. That amount would operate the Clark County School District for two days, he said.

With a final budget due in May and the Legislature in session until June, any shortage will translate into cutting staff positions, Rulffes said.

District Superintendent Carlos Garcia said the School Board must submit a balanced budget.

"We can't generate money," he said.

He urged parents and students to phone, write and e-mail legislators with their concerns.

"When is it a good time to fix it?" Garcia asked. "The time is now."

The district's budget serves 260,000 students and spends $5,778 per pupil, compared with a national average of $7,284 for each student, according to census figures. Nevada ranks 46th in pupil funding, toward the bottom of the rankings with states such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, Garcia said.

School officials handed out a list of programs for the public to prioritize in case of budget reduction. Everyone who spoke at the meeting Wednesday night said they could not decide what to cut.

"Tonight we are here to decide what component of our school budget to cut," said Buffy Kilarski, whose son attends Valley High School. "What programs should we cut?"

The audience roared, "None."

Risa Garda's two sons attend Sunset evening school, which serves students who are behind in credits or in danger of dropping out.

"If they didn't have this school to go to, they would all drop out," Garda said.

Terry Simpson, 11, attends C.V.T. Gilbert, a magnet school for the performing arts.

"I sing, I dance and I act and a lot more," Simpson said. "Please don't take that away from me."

Michele Wilcox, born and raised in Las Vegas and a single mother of five children, said three of her children were in special education programs.

"I don't know how we can cut any of these programs," Wilcox said. "If we don't fund the counseling, the arts, basic education, we will need funding for more prisons."

A tearful Katina Singer spoke as one of her daughters also cried.

"A counselor saved my daughter, who had had so much trouble watching her grandmother die of cancer," Singer said. "Teachers are a team, a family and you need them all together."