Budget cuts are students’ loss

Funding for Moapa Valley’s only higher education provider, the College of Southern Nevada campus, is set to dry up in 2009

Steve Marcus

CSN administrators in Las Vegas said serving residents of Moapa Valley and other outlying regions is integral to the college’s mission. But the school simply can’t afford to keep the Logandale site open, they said. CSN is facing budget cuts that could top $28 million between July 2009 and July 2011.

By Charlotte Hsu (contact)

Saturday, July 12, 2008 | 2 a.m.

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Isabel Tamayo, 16, a Moapa Valley High School student, discusses what the college means to her.
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Raina Stump, 38, of Logandale, has six children and talks about how the CSN campus is essential to her children's education.
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James Stump, 19, explains what he would have to do if he didn't have access to the CSN campus.
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Brittany Hentzell, 20, talks about how CSN has benefited her and others in her community.
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April Krell, the site coordinator for CSN's learning center in Logandale, talks about her concerns with closing the center.
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Ronald Dalley, 71, teaches courses at CSN and compares the service the center provides the community to the money saved by closing it.
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Steve Marcus

"The service is one of those things that is not measurable in dollars and cents," says CSN instructor Ronald Dalley at his Logandale home. "And it would seem to me that they should probably seriously think about what's happening and what they're denying the people of Moapa Valley."

Steve Marcus

CSN student Brittany Hentzell, 20, seated, talks with site coordinator April Krell at the Moapa Valley center. Hentzell plans to finish an associate degree this fall. She said she might not have started college had CSN not had its campus in Logandale.

Steve Marcus

College of Southern Nevada student James Stump, 19, is pursuing an applied science degree in construction management. Commuting to classes in Las Vegas would cost him hundreds of dollars in gas a month.

‘Drastic’ cuts announced at College of Southern Nevada (6-30-2008)
CSN swimming upstream in quest for funds (6-12-2008)
How budgets cuts have bled students, faculty (2-11-2008)

College of Southern Nevada

Moapa Valley — The campus of the only college in this valley of about 10,000 people is a two-room modular building, cream blue, plopped in a parking lot behind the lone public high school.

Now the state’s budget quagmire is threatening to swallow this no-frills establishment that folks in the towns of Logandale, Moapa and Overton have relied on for 15 years.

This outpost of the College of Southern Nevada, which officials plan to close in June 2009, is a place locals turn to when they have a dream.

James Stump, 19, is taking classes at the former community college, determined to earn a construction management degree. A construction foreman, he hopes education will spare him from a lifetime of manual labor.

Brittany Hentzell, 20, plans to finish an associate degree this fall before transferring to Brigham Young University. She said she might not have started college had CSN not had its campus in Logandale.

“The service is one of those things that is not measurable in dollars and cents,” said Ronald Dalley, who has lived in the area for more than 60 years. “And it would seem to me that they should probably seriously think about what’s happening and what they’re denying the people of Moapa Valley.”

Closing the Moapa Valley center will save an estimated $58,500 a year, most of which goes to salary and benefits for the campus’ single full-time employee. To cut another $579,000, officials plan to shutter five other branches — three in Las Vegas, one in Boulder City and one in Lincoln County. The figures do not include money the college spends on instructors.

“We are extremely regretful of having to plan the closure of (the Logandale) site, as well the rest of the sites on the closure list, and are frustrated that this budget-cutting process mandated by the Governor is forcing us into a position where we are not able to meet the needs of the community we serve,” CSN Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs Darren Divine said in an e-mail.

One factor officials used to determine which sites to shut down was how many people the centers served. Moapa Valley had 80 students enrolled this spring and 100 in spring 2007. In contrast, a campus in Mesquite, which is not on the closure list, had 240 students this spring.

On Tuesday, Divine will meet with people in Logandale to discuss ways his institution can continue serving the region. Expanding online offerings or finding money outside CSN to finance the local learning center are options, he said. But unless the state or other organizations can find more funding for CSN, Moapa Valley’s only college will be gone next year.

• • •

To understand why the local college matters so much, you need to know a little about Moapa Valley, a whisper of civilization along the Muddy River about 60 miles from Las Vegas.

The next closest population center is Mesquite, about 35 miles away.

Many valley high school students take college classes. But if they had to choose between activities such as basketball and band or night classes in Mesquite, extracurriculars would win out, said Grant Hanevold, principal of Moapa Valley High School. In a place without big-city amenities, high school sports are central to community life. Parents and grandparents attend every game.

“A kid couldn’t be in football and drive to Mesquite every Monday and Wednesday night,” Hanevold said. “Those kids are going to choose football over college.”

In addition to sports, religion is a focal point in the lives of many residents. Many men who belong to the area’s large Mormon community leave home on religious missions at age 19. CSN gives these young people a chance to earn college credits before heading off, said April Krell, who lives in Overton and runs the center in Logandale.

The college is also a resource for older residents. Most Moapa Valley professionals, including firefighters and construction contractors, work in Las Vegas, said Vernon Robison, president of the region’s Chamber of Commerce.

As a result, you will find many people in the position of Anna Becker, 49, a special education teacher who earned an associate degree from CSN before earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education at an Arizona college that allowed her to train under local teachers.

When Becker began her studies in 1997, she saw CSN as her only choice. Her husband, an electrician, commuted to Las Vegas, and her daughters, now 16 and 18, were young. With her husband gone 12 hours a day, Becker did not want to travel for school. Internet programs were not an option at the time because the family could not afford a computer.

“Had it not been for the community college being out here in the valley,” Becker said, “I would not be teaching today.”

• • •

Krell said CSN administrators did not visit her center before announcing they were shutting it down. When Divine comes to Moapa Valley on Tuesday — he is visiting because Krell asked him to — Krell, Hanevold and others will have a lot to show him.

“If you look at where we’re headed, which they may not know, then maybe that decision would have been different,” Hanevold said.

It would have been nice, Dalley said, if officials had made the effort to learn more about the community before, and not after, deciding to take its college away.

Dalley said CSN began offering classes in Moapa Valley in the 1980s using high school classrooms. The college got its own building, the modular, about 15 years ago, locals said.

The Logandale center offers courses that fit into students’ regular high school schedules. Last year, just two subjects were available — English and math. In 2008-09, students will also be able to choose from political science, accounting, information systems and business.

The dual-credit program is open to juniors and seniors, and those who enroll receive high school and college credit. Last year, 17 took the English courses. This year, 43 have signed up.

“We just get going and they pull the rug out from under us,” said John Pulver, a professor of sociology who teaches at the Moapa Valley center.

CSN helps put Moapa Valley teenagers “on equal footing” with their counterparts in Las Vegas, who have access to college-level courses and magnet programs, said Dalley, who teaches English at the Logandale campus. Classroom instruction is crucial for high school students, who often struggle to stay motivated in online programs, Krell said.

• • •

Stump, who has been working in construction since 2005, said he would have gone to college whether or not CSN had a campus in Logandale. Once he finishes general education requirements, he’ll have to head to Las Vegas to take construction management courses anyway.

Still, the Logandale campus is saving him a lot of money — good news for his parents, who have five other children ages 5-19. Commuting to Las Vegas in his pickup truck would have cost Stump hundreds of dollars each month in gas.

He said his earnings total between $30,000 to $35,000 yearly, and his father, a construction superintendent, told him an associate degree would raise that amount to as much as $50,000 right out of school.

Stump’s goals are not extravagant, and he’s set on achieving them. Many young people around town are less certain about their futures. And for those who do not have a dream, the valley’s only college is often the place where they find one.

“I’ve known a lot of kids who weren’t thinking about going to college,” Stump said. “But they felt comfortable with (CSN) and started taking classes, so that kind of drove them into getting a degree.”

Discussion: 12 comments so far…

By DavidMorgan

7/12/08 at 2:19 p.m.

Suggest removal

Nevada is no place to be young, intelligent, ambitious and at the mercy of empty headed ideologues who mutter slogans (No New Taxes) to those who vote for them, the vast majority of whom have seldom even driven by a college but less taken any classes from one. Nevada, under the current administration, has a closer resemblence to "Planet of the Apes" than it does a member of the union of the United States.
By jfnance32

7/12/08 at 2:23 p.m.

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Nevada supports its unions at the expense of others.

Buckley and her Democrats buddies decided to fight tooth and nail not delay the 4% COLA to union state workers by one year.

On average those workers will get $31 a week after taxes.

Delaying the COLA by one year would have provided the budget $130 million dollars.

Score one for the Buckley's unions and zero for the taxpayers.
By alexant

7/12/08 at 3:11 p.m.

Suggest removal

Delay the COLA by one year? The budget will be even worse next year. "Delay" it then too? How many years can we "delay" the COLA and any other pay raise before the teachers and academics we wish we had the money to recruit and retain decide that there are better opportunities elsewhere?

I have been able to see first-hand how UNLV, even in the best of times, had a hard time recruiting top talent to one of the nicest places in Las Vegas. If you think teachers are beating down the doors to work in that SHACK in the story's picture, think again.
By MichaelGreen

7/12/08 at 4:40 p.m.

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Since I am a state and a CSN employee, my position on the COLA could be easily questioned, but even if it had been eliminated, that would not solve the budget problems created by Nevada's regressive, illogical tax system. But, as much as I sympathize with those affected by the closures of CSN centers, I am curious as to whether the people of Moapa, for example, voted for Jim Gibbons for governor. He opposes any new taxes, even for those who can pay them easily--or for that matter, any taxes to speak of for himself. If you voted for a gubernatorial candidate who wanted to destroy as many state services as possible, I don't know that you have any real grounds for complaint when he follows through on those goals.
By odeman

7/12/08 at 10:26 p.m.

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The USA is the top one, or close to it, in spending on education. If there is any reason why the results are less than stellar, read the key sentence above. "Those kids are going to choose football over college". Extracurriculars are far more important to them. We have far too many students who consider school a place to hang out and be with friends rather than a place that will prepare them for a better life.
By NVMojo

7/12/08 at 11:45 p.m.

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Idiots like Gibbons and Senator Bob Beers are on a mission to make Nevada a no tax state fit only for corporations who now have more civil rights then most human beings.

They don't want our education or government to be healthy. Afterall, rich, white old casino owners don't need educated, healthy workers who drive on safe streets to get to work. At $8. an hour, they are all easily replaced.

Shame on these Neanderthals with their fake conservative philosophies!
By MysterMr

7/13/08 at 12:38 a.m.

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Some of you guys how the educrap establishment is so grossly underfunded in Nevada are either shills for the school unions, benefactors of the waste (CCSD Administrators), or just morons.

The "empty headed idealogues" that voted for Gibbons did so PRECISELY because he promised "NO NEW TAXES" - did you think it was for his sparkling personality?

Is is nauseating that some of you think that think that "those that can pay more (taxes) easily" should have to when what is being overcollected NOW is WASTED so completely as it is.

To those of you that think corporations don't contribute, try starting one and hiring just ONE employee besides yourself and see how little you pay. You obviously have NO IDEA.

I say forget it... SHUT THE ENTIRE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM DOWN EXCEPT UNLV AND CCN - and if they can't start pulling their own weight in tuitions, close them down too. As long as we aren't Yale or Oxford or MIT, everyone here is just going to complain anyway. If you are so desirous of whatever school you're drooling over, MOVE THERE. I bet the resorts there suck! Hell I will contribute to your leaving the state.

Perhaps Jim Rodgers should bequeath a majority of his wealth to the states frugal and capable hands since he is so desirous of more money for education.

I am just so sick of the cash sucking education system in Nevada returning NOTHING, having NO ACCOUNTABILITY, etc. I just want to join up with them or be a vendor for them like McGraw Hill since together they are the biggest criminal enterprise ever!

Want better education? Start with the apathetic parents, then stop the school administration from throttling great teachers, fire 2/3 of the administrators at CCSD, then give that money to those teachers who were supposed to be the beneficiaries in the first place.

Until Rulfles and his team are put under a financial MICROSCOPE, prosecuted and put against the wall, don't whine to me about "we need more money"... ugh... annoying.

Pumping more money into this school system is like pumping more seawater into the Titanic. Want to fix things? Want to be at "the top of a list" ???

Outlaw the NSEA and the NEA, cut the education budget in 1/2, fire 3/4 of the administrators, give the money due the teachers to them, but make them WORK for it, have greater accountabilty for parents of these dredges, offer huge rewards for evidence of major corruption and waste, and enact the death penalty for corruption of the school superintendant and his team. Done deal.

You could pump another 10 billion into this disaster and you wouldn't even notice.
By bob_cirelli

7/13/08 at 7:38 a.m.

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Why not explore "online courses"? Several universities use this concept. Why not CCSN/CSN?
It may not be the best classroom environment, but it's better than nothing.
By alexant

7/13/08 at 11:51 a.m.

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I know. Let's fire all the administrators and have the professors handle the administration. Any given prof has plenty of time and expertise to handle CSN's recruiting, hiring, budgeting, payroll, legal issues, facilities planning, group benefits negotiation & paperwork, insurance, records management, curriculum planning, course scheduling, standards compliance, support staff management, counseling, building security. Heck, they could get this stuff done during their lunch hour. Profs from all over the country would be falling all over themselves to come to Nevada where the work is so varied and stimulating.

Better yet, let's just privatize our colleges. Then they would have no need for administration because they would be private and therefore 1000 times more efficient. Waste simply does not happen in the private sector. Just look at any business or corporation - no CEO, no board of directors, no management. Just busy worker bees buzzing around, working 18 hours a day at $8/hour out of the goodness of their efficient little hearts, and loving every minute it.
By MichaelGreen

7/13/08 at 8:23 p.m.

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Mr. Cirelli, we do indeed offer a lot of online courses at CSN. They are much like our classroom courses in this way: they are as good as the professors and students make them. Economically, they do make more sense than offering courses in the rural areas, but I do regret the lack of face-to-face contact--although with technology, we and our students actually can look at one another on the computer now! Anyway, your point is well taken, and thanks for saying it.

MysterMr, your satire is incredibly amusing. You read just like an R-J editorial writer. Great spoof of someone who doesn't care about his community or logic, and thinks education is totally useless. Keep it up!
By isabelalexandra

7/17/08 at 10:45 a.m.

Suggest removal

Anyone who has not been to Logandale and seen the Learning Center and has become part of the experience the communtiy recieves from the center can't fully understand why this building is so essential to the community. For pennies of the budget this center can keep running and servicing its people. The service offered at the Moapa Valley Learning Center is priceless, as Intrcutor Ron Dalley has said. There has to be a way to keep this center in this small community. Even the small things matter.
By diogenes

7/21/08 at 3 p.m.

Suggest removal

Well, since my first comment got cut by the moderator, I'll try again: for once in my life, I agree with that consummate campus politician, Darren Divine: the Moapa center, and most of the others, SHOULD be cut. They're simply not cost effective when online classes can get the job done just as well, in most, but not all, cases.
The best way for CSN to save REAL money though is to NOT pay people like Dr. Divine TWICE what he was making 3 years ago, simply bc he switched from being a TEACHER to an ADMINISTRATOR! Fewer working hours, more pay, more perks, what a job....

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