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Thursday, March 25, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Walt Rulffes
Potential benefits of traditional school calendar
- In addition to $13 million in savings in personnel and operating costs, the district would save another $7 million in support services such as transportation and special education.
- School maintenance would be reduced because of less wear and tear on facilities, and it would be easier to schedule major repairs.
- Many parents prefer to have all their children on the same academic calendar, so older siblings can keep an eye on the younger ones. This might be particularly true for struggling families looking for work, or where day care costs have become prohibitive.
- The problem of air conditioning failures at schools in the summer — a common occurrence, particularly at older campuses — would be solved.
- Some campuses might be able to offer summer institutes, with programs for both remedial students and those seeking enrichment and accelerated learning.
Sun coverage
Sun archives
- Year-round schools could face calendar shift to save money (3-16-2010)
- Superintendent Walt Rulffes: Schools need plan of action for success (12-27-2009)
- Teachers resist increasing pressure to accept pay cuts (2-5-2010)
- Budget crunch puts shorter school year, teacher pay cuts on table (2-4-2010)
- Education cuts may never be healed after special session (3-2-2010)
No public entity has been affected more by Southern Nevada’s explosive growth than the Clark County School District, which used soaring enrollment to leverage a $3.5 billion capital campaign to build more than 100 campuses, while adding dozens of programs and thousands of employees.
Now comes the flip side.
The district is likely to feel the pain of the recession long after experts say we should be recovering. That’s in large part because of the district’s reliance on a funding formula that is almost entirely beyond its control and will take longer to reflect an improved economy.
The School District’s rebound will lag because its revenue is largely predicated on property and sales taxes — which will be slower to recover than the rest of the economy, according to Jeremy Aguero, a principal for Applied Analysis.
“We’re going to have to put people back to work and we’re going to have to work through the large overages in our real estate market before we see significant recovery in the revenue streams that go directly to fund K-12 programs.”
Since late 2007, the district has lost more than $250 million in state funding, with another $123 million in cuts required through the end of the biennium. Clark County is bracing for a drop in local tax revenue as well. For the current fiscal year, local tax revenue accounted for 58 percent of the district’s $2.1 billion operating budget, compared with 34 percent from the state. (The state’s share is higher than it used to be because the funding formula is designed to protect districts when local revenue can’t cover the minimum per-pupil guarantee approved by the Legislature.)
“We’re not going to have a quick recovery,” Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.
“Once things do start to get better, we’ll be focused on rebuilding (district programs and services eliminated in the cuts) before we can even get to improvement (in student achievement). The timeline works against any possible optimism for 2011.”
Although the state’s higher education system has leeway in raising tuition and fees as a means of generating revenue during tough times, that option is not available to Nevada’s public school districts. Indeed, the only revenue stream directly controlled by local districts is the price of school lunches. The district can’t even charge students to take the bus to school without the approval of the Legislature.
“It’s all controlled by outside forces,” Rulffes said. “Our only tools for making major reductions is cutting programs and laying off people.”
In 2009, the district’s enrollment dropped by 1 percent, the first decline in more than 25 years. School demographers think enrollment will decline through 2013.
That’s where the district’s plan to move all year-round schools to nine-month calendars factors into the equation. The School Board will debate the proposal at tonight’s meeting. Complicating the board’s deliberations is the fact that enrollment predictions are uncertain given the region’s depressed economic climate. Even a slight uptick in the local job market could bring new families — and their children — to town, requiring more classroom seats.
The idea of converting year-round schools to nine-month schedules is prompted by the Legislature’s orders to cut education spending by 6.9 percent, or about $123 million. The district plans to meet that target through increased class sizes in grades 1-3, delaying textbook purchases and eliminating 10 percent of school administration positions.
However, that’s still $32 million short of the target, and moving the 76 year-round elementary schools to nine-month calendars is projected to save the district another $15 million to $20 million.
School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards has said she would support the conversion plan only if it were for at least two years. Otherwise, she says, it would be too disruptive to schools, students and families. Principals and teachers have expressed similar concerns. For the conversions to hold, enrollment would have to decline or hold steady not only next year, but through 2012.
Teachers at year-round schools would see their pay cut, as would support employees. Principals would lose a stipend for working at year-round schools, which amounts to about $3,000 annually. The district would also save on transportation, special education services and operational costs.
Those fiscal benefits aside, the district is running the risk of angering parents in the event year-round schools become necessary again because of population growth.
So far it appears possible to convert the school calendars, district officials say, provided the School Board waives some existing policies and allows counting portable classrooms as regular seats. But changing the definition of “classroom seats” is a risky move, and one that could haunt future school boards. With portable classrooms elevated to regular status, it could be more difficult for future bond campaigns to make the case that new campuses — with permanent seats — are necessary.
In the short-term, the district’s actions are logical, Aguero said.
“You’re talking about continuity of education, the cost of providing services,” he said. “They’re looking under every rock known to man to find ways to be more efficient.”
I just checked the CCSD directory. Mary Ella Holloway (the previous CCEA president) still works there in her made up "teacher morale" position. If the district was truly serious about making cuts, that position would be one of the first to go.
The years of "explosive growth" were a house of cards with no structure to hold it up in either government talent, or substance in community level oversight.
"Once things do start to get better, we'll be focused on rebuilding (district programs and services eliminated in the cuts) before we can even get to improvement (in student achievement). The timeline works against any possible optimism for 2011."
did walt really say this...
what an idiot!!!
And they wan to spend more on education. When Rory Reid was asked about how his recently published education plan would be funded, he said that it is budget neutral. What the heck is budget neutral and what does it mean?????? His daddy has taught him well. He was in the seat of power during this build up, why is that not mentioned?
Nevada's third world-style education funding system is a disgrace.
VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS NEXT ELECTION(S) !!!!!
So after tonights meeting will we know if the year round schools are going back to 9 Months in the Fall? When is this final??
"even a slight uptick in the local job market"...
i wouldn't be holding my breath, kiddies.
It is not true that year-round teachers will get their pay cut. Year-round classroom teachers teach the same number of days as teachers on the traditional nine-month calendar, so their pay is the same.
The only exception is for specialists (music, library, PE, etc.) who DO teach more than 180 days.
Emily Richmond:
The_elop is correct and the article should be corrected.
Thank God the schools are controlled by the county and funded by the state. If Henderson was given free reign to run their schools, our property taxes would double immediately. And they'd still turn out mumbling tip dependent incoherent dumbbells parking cars and yapping "Cocktails, drinks?".
And more "administrators" who do nothing.
Nice system.
I find it funny to think that it was less than three years ago that the CCSD CFO represented to the year-round study group that the operating cost of year-round schools was cheaper than the operating cost of 9 month schools, but now we find out that it has been costing taxpayers an extra $20 million annually. Could it be that there was an agenda that had to be supported whether the facts were there or not?? Now that the budget is in a shambles, the truth comes out.
Also it appears that the $20 million estimate does not consider other central administrative costs associated with maintaing two separate school calendars. The $20 million is only direct costs--the central admin. should be able to cut more of its own budget too!
Good point Shannon K ! This is further evidence that the illustrious teacher "association" is still in bed with CCSD. They have not bargained in good faith for teachers since the 1980's. And when people like Holloway leave the "association", they are awarded cakewalk jobs in CCSD like Teacher Morale" facilitator........ What a joke and waste of taxpayer money!
Do you citizens of Nevada get asked if you want to pay a parcel tax to help the schools? Here in Pasadena, CA the Pasadena Unified School District is trying to get the voters to approve a $120 per year parcel tax (eg. a property tax hike to help the PUSD). I say no way!! In San Marino they actually approved an $800 parcel tax and they are still going to lay off teachers.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/rds_sear...