EDUCATION :

Hard lesson: Budget cuts mean layoffs

School district officials say there’s nothing left to slash but staff

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

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Clark County School District

Superintendent Walt Rulffes is warning School District employees that the next round of state budget cuts will almost certainly lead to the elimination of hundreds of jobs.

“The writing is on the wall. We clearly will have a reduction in the number of positions,” Rulffes said.

For the time being, the only positions being targeted for elimination are in administrative offices.

The superintendent has instructed principals to discuss the looming cuts in meetings with staff members and parent groups this week.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has called for education funding, along with the budgets of other state agencies, to be cut by 14 percent for the upcoming biennium. That would mean $120 million less for the Clark County School District.

The district has cut $130 million from its budget since December. Making another $120 million in cuts without reducing personnel is probably impossible, said Jeff Weiler, chief financial officer for the district.

“There’s no way you could cut that much, both at the central office and school level, without touching staff positions,” Weiler said. “Salaries and benefits are 86 percent of our budget. And 89 percent of those people are in schools. That’s the real unfortunate part.”

The warning comes as voters are being asked to sign off on a room tax increase that would benefit public education. But Rulffes said the timing of his warning wasn’t intended to influence voters.

“There is a demonstrated lack of resources to provide necessary services, including education, in this state,” he said. “This isn’t Chicken Little saying the sky is falling.”

Exact numbers are tentative until the 2009 Legislature finalizes the state budget, but the district tentatively plans to cut 261 employee positions assigned to central and administrative offices for a savings of $17 million.

This is the first time since the budget crisis began in December that the district has proposed job cuts of this magnitude. Of the 261 proposed job cuts, 210 are support staff, 28 are licensed personnel and 23 are administrators. In some cases, administrators and licensed personnel whose jobs are eliminated might have the opportunity to return to the classroom, a move that would allow the district to hire fewer new teachers for next year.

“We’ll do our best to protect existing employees through reassignment,” Rulffes said.

The nonsalary budgets of the administrative offices will also be cut by 12 percent, or $15 million. Another $57 million will come from the district’s 341 schools, equaling 3.5 percent of each campus’ budget. (That would be on average $127,054 per elementary school, $156,087 per middle school and $391,633 per high school.)

Principals have been asked to complete a survey, detailing what each school is prepared to cut and what it wants protected.

Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, said that since principals have begun talking about the cuts with staff members, he’s fielded a steady stream of phone calls from teachers worried about their jobs.

“The message to everyone, not just teachers, is that if things continue to go down in the economy and the Legislature doesn’t act, nothing is sacred in the district,” Murillo said. “Our goal is to work with the district to minimize the impact on our kids.”

Recent legislative audits of the Clark County School District’s management and operations have been almost uniformly favorable. But some critics say the district could do more with the funding it has.

There are district expenses widely viewed as ripe for trimming, such as reliance on expensive consultants. School Board members expressed similar concerns at a recent meeting, and district officials say they are doing their best to get out of existing contracts and set new limits on future ones.

Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, praised the district for taking steps now to prepare for the harsh fiscal portrait being painted in Carson City.

“The reality is we don’t have any money,” Gansert said. “I don’t see any changes in the near term. We’re going to have to hobble through the next biennium before we can expect to see things start coming back up.”

Told that layoffs were possible in the state’s largest school district, Gansert said she’s not surprised. Gansert and several other lawmakers recommended this year’s 4 percent cost-of-living pay increase for public employees — including educators — be deferred.

“The trade-off for the raises is jobs,” Gansert said. “If we had cut that 4 percent, schools wouldn’t have to cut 3.5 percent now.”

Discussion: 14 comments so far…

By LikeSoup

10/22/08 at 4:04 a.m.

Comment removed by staff.
By KDR81

10/22/08 at 8:17 a.m.

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Staff should have been the first thing cut they are the most expensive.

The state should start figuring out NEW WAYS to meet demand for education, like charter schools. The private sector builds charter schools freeing up funds (or lowering taxes).

Nevada has one of the highest capital outlay and education debt burdeons in the nation!!!!!

Time to get creative.

http://npri.org/blog/ranking-nevadas-edu...
By KDR81

10/22/08 at 8:23 a.m.

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Raising taxes, btw, will, at best, shuffle wealth from one sector of the economy (and thus kill those jobs) in order to save teacher jobs.

Assuming the new taxes don't impose more compliance costs or heavy opportunity costs (ie teachers provide the same utility for Nevada as the other workers who lost their jobs instead...unlikely though).
By CCSDTeacher

10/22/08 at 8:34 a.m.

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The cuts that are happening in the schools are not at the administrative level. Programs are being cut.... not administrators.

Here are some things to cut right now:

1. Every school should have one principal and one assistant principal. Cut the deans at every middle and high school.

2. All sports programs -- football, basketball, and baseball -- should be "pay-as-you-play." If the parents want their kids in these sports, they must pay for them.

3. Currently CCSD rents school buildings to churches and other community groups. Triple the fees for these groups.

4. Eliminate NCLB mandates. If the feds want this program implemented, then they should pay for it.

5. Eliminate ALL after-school programs. This would include any and all latch-key programs. Have parents pay for these programs.

6. Adult high school programs should be "pay-as-you-learn" programs. These kids dropped out of "free" school programs; if they want an education now, they should pay for it. No FREE rides for these slackers.

Now its your turn to add to the list.
By bluez1

10/22/08 at 8:36 a.m.

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When administrators are placed as teachers back in the classroom, they still retain their present salary. I suppose the difference in paying subs and this salary schedule is somewhat mitigated.
There are administrators who left the classroom because they wanted to get away from students. There are also administrators who were not very good teachers. Maybe they are the same...
By azsk8fan

10/22/08 at 9:18 a.m.

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Why not trim the fat in the middle - ask these people just what they really DO as it pertains to their 'job' and they probably wouldn't be able to answer you. It's always about cutting out the little guy - heaven forbid we should put some middle ranking executive out of their over-paid position.
By ccsdsupportstaff

10/22/08 at 10:51 a.m.

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I am a CCSD support staff employee (10 years)and I have a comment regarding this comment.
"The trade-off for the raises is jobs," Gansert said. "If we had cut that 4 percent, schools wouldn't have to cut 3.5 percent now."

I would have certainly waived my 4% if it meant keeping people from being laid off, but did anyone ask me??? NO!
Why weren't we asked about this? And, another way to save money is to cut the higher ups salaries. Does the superintendent really need to make more than the president of the US? We are already short of teachers and you want to take more away??
Believe me, there are plenty of other ways to cut the budget without people losing their jobs!
By KDR81

10/22/08 at 11:14 a.m.

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All of CCSDT teacher's suggestions are fine by me. Those should happen but that is just a start.

There needs to be serious education reform to keep costs down and quality up.

At anyrate, someone has to lose their job. We have a sour economy which is resulting from an economic bubble popping.

We had too many people employed and invested in one segment of the economy (or more) and that was not sustainable. Many of those people will have to lose their jobs and move on to new jobs to help create a more sustainable economy for the future (baring any additional government screwups).

Nevada's government grew 28% back in 2004 and they thought the good times would go on forever. The result was to shift jobs out of the private sector and put them into temporary and unsustainable government jobs.

If you are going to lose your government job, it is only because the government killed your private sector job first.
By Tinkerbelle

10/22/08 at 12:57 p.m.

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I want to comment about several comments.
Lol!! You are right in so many ways but, you can't go around taking an eye for an eye.

I also agree with ccsdteacher:Adults should pay for the education that they refused when it was free.

No NCLB mandates and Cut the DEAN. I grew up with one principle and one assistant and they were enough to put the fear of not graduating and having a future in a Senior class of 780 students or so with no problem!

Also counselors for each grade should be given more grade levels to manage since 90% (to my belief) of all students pertinent information, grades and so on are kept on the computer and follows the students from grade school to college at the tip of your fingers.
And last but not least.
The Superintendent should put a healthy sum in the kiddie and take a serious cut in pay and later resign. There should be some sort of cap on the amount that the overpaid executive administrators earn.

The trade-off for the raises is jobs," Gansert said. "If we had cut that 4 percent, schools wouldn't have to cut 3.5 percent now."

OMG!!! No one asked me either! I would have gladly given up my 4% if it means having a job to singlehandedly raise my three children of 8,10,and 13yrs of age .
So don't make us the escape goat to lining your own pockets.
Everyone has some great input . Let's save our children and their future. Start cutting at the Tip Top and work down to each school.
We need our support staff badly to keep up with all the new technology.
By Public_Education_NV

10/22/08 at 1:27 p.m.

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With leadership, commitment and hard work from all of us, we can make Nevada a leader in Education.
By stevem

10/22/08 at 2 p.m.

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All they have to do is grow up, get a clue, and start selling advertising on the school buses.

Thousands and thousands of dollars of lost revenue each month.

If I'm correct, the same bus goes through each neighborhood every day, right? Like when I was a kid I rode bus #12 that year.

Imagine how valuable that would be to a Realtor, restaurant, or clothing store that was in the neighborhood that bus went through.

Time to come down off our 6 inch stripper heels and realize we need to be less dependent on tourists for our local survival.
By schoolaide

10/22/08 at 6:44 p.m.

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I also am a support staff employee (7 years) What the district needs to do is reduce the staff at the region level. Every region has a superintendent and two assistant superintendents who each have assistants and secretaries. I thought years ago when the district was cut into regions it was to reduce the higher ups. Instead they keep growing and growing. Every department although necessary also have all kinds of bosses. Let's get back to the good ol days where there was one boss and one assistant. Another way to save jobs is to put the teachers who DO NOT have an actual class back in the classroom, i.e. music, art, GATE, ECS, librarians, special ed facilitators, etc. What everyone needs to know and most already do, support staff actually runs the district, not to say we don't need licensed and administation, but most support staff is as effective if not more so than these other positions.
By azsk8fan

10/23/08 at 8:16 a.m.

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Where I work we have 3 busses that come all within 10 mins. of each other - apparently to pick up special needs children because they come inside the community rather than picking up at the street. Why not get co-ordinated here because running 3 busses all at once, into the same community, to pick up a few kids seems rather expensive - maybe a large van to make one stop instead of 3?
By LVtaxpayer

10/24/08 at 2:38 p.m.

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As an employee (20 years) and a taxpayer, there are things our school district could look at for saving serious money. Some suggestions would be:

#1 To seriously look at a 4day - 10hr schedule, other districts are doing it and it is saving as much as $25,000 per elementary school alone in utility costs @ approx. 200 sites = $5M. Now include transportation savings, food service savings, etc. and add in middle and high schools and you have some serious money being saved, afterall this is the desert.

#2 Time clocks throughout the school district would add to accountibility. I would add administration along with support staff when it comes to "punching in."

#3 Instead of all the used office space (purchased by taxpayers who are also broke)and expensive buildings there are many jobs that can be done from home. We are in a technology age where we can work from home and do anything that can be done at the office. Even if working from home was an option for 2 days a week, more work would get done, less utilities would be used and district costs would decrease exponentially!

I am sure there are many other ideas that district employees could come up with and I am sure we would welcome a district survey for input on cost savings from all levels and departments.

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