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Mona Shields Payne
Kindergartner Jonathan Mondragon eats breakfast in the lunchroom at Cambeiro Elementary School in Las Vegas. Should Congress and the White House fail to reach an accord before year’s end on the federal debt, automatic spending cuts could threaten payments to the Clark County School District for participation in the federal program that offers free and reduced-priced meals for low-income students.
By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 | 11:32 a.m.
The Clark County School District could be forced into "drastic" budget cuts if the federal government is unable to resolve the country's looming debt crisis.
President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress are trying to broker a deal to rein in the federal debt. If they fail by the year-end deadline, the Budget Control Act of 2011 will trigger "sequestration:" a series of automatic tax increases and almost-across-the-board budget cuts of roughly $1.2 trillion to federal programs.
Should the country fall off the proverbial "fiscal cliff," school districts across the nation could face $2.7 billion in cuts to federal education programs serving 30.7 million children. Nevada would stand to lose about $18 million in federal education funding, $13 million of which would impact Clark County.
It’s unknown yet how sequestration would affect the Clark County School District, which educates the majority of Nevada’s children. Officials are now starting to prepare contingency plans as politicians in Washington deliberate different budget solutions.
"We're all sitting on the edge of our seats," said Jeff Weiler, the School District's chief financial officer. "Like everyone else, we are very concerned."
School Board members say sequestration could lead to teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, shorter school weeks and a loss of courses, extracurricular activities and special services.
That's why the School Board unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday that calls upon the federal government to stop sequestration from happening. The resolution was drafted and approved based on a recommendation from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the Council of Great City Schools.
Clark County Schools Superintendent Dwight Jones commended the board for adopting the resolution.
"A $13 million hit to our school district – especially to our neediest children – would be a pretty devastating hit for us," Jones said.
The board rarely considers a resolution on a federal matter they have little impact on and no jurisdiction over. However, sequestration is a grave matter for the School District, board members said.
If sequestration comes to pass in Clark County, this new round of belt-tightening would come on the heels of a Great Recession that has decimated state coffers and forced the School District to slash more than $500 million since 2007.
The district can’t afford to lose any more funds, officials said.
* * *
The School District receives about $170 million in federal funding from the U.S. Education Department annually for elementary and secondary education programs. If sequestration occurs, the School District is estimating an 8.2 percent reduction.
Even though that $13 million cut represents just about 1 percent of the School District's general and special revenue fund budget – which totals more than $2 billion – it's still a significant amount of money, Weiler said.
That's because the vast majority of these federal funds go to Las Vegas' most disadvantaged children.
"A cut in federal funds would be very devastating," Weiler said. "All this money goes to programs that help the most needy students in some of our most at-risk schools."
About half of the federal money – nearly $82 million – is in Title I funding, which go to public schools with high numbers of students from low-income families.
A record 224 schools – or about 63 percent of the district's 357 schools – are considered Title I schools this year, up from 91 schools last year. These schools are using this federal money to fund "high-need" teaching positions, as well as after-school tutoring, literacy and math programs.
The rest of the federal money is going to "turnaround" schools, professional development and consultants, programs for English Language Learner students and special needs students, career and technical education, and community learning centers.
If federal education funding is cut beginning Jan. 1, the School District would most likely curb these entitlement programs, Weiler said.
However, since the federal government mandates many of these programs – such as special education services – the School District may look toward more drastic measures to bridge any federal funding gaps. These options include shorter school days and furlough days for staff.
It’s still too early to tell how the district would respond to sequestration, Weiler said.
"At this point, it's all speculative," he said. "We're waiting for better information to see where the cuts might happen."
* * *
Aside from federal education dollars, the School District also receives about $90 million from the U.S. Agriculture Department to pay for free and reduced-priced meals for low-income students.
About 171,000 students – a little more than half of the 311,000 Clark County public schoolchildren – receive free and reduced-priced breakfasts and lunches.
This school meal program is unique in that all of the federal money – $2.61 per meal – covers the entire cost of the School District's food services department. Any federal cuts to this meal program could mean the School District is liable to pick up the tab.
If the district decides it can't eat the loss, schools may have to reduce the amount of food it serves per meal, or increase the eligibility requirement to serve fewer students. Both options would hurt struggling families and children in Las Vegas, Weiler said.
Another pressing issue for the School District concerns talks of reducing or eliminating the tax exemption status on municipal bonds, which has kept interest levels low on school bonds.
The district – which recently failed to garner voter support for a tax initiative to fund school repairs – will be banking on a new capital bond program in the coming years to fix its aging school buildings.
Eliminating the district's tax-exempt status would mean the district must pay more in interest on its school bonds.
"It's like your mortgage rate going up," Weiler said. "That hurts us on the capital side."
Regardless of the consequences, sequestration's impact on Clark County would only occur in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2013. That's because the School District has balanced its budget for this school year, which leaves a little lead time to figure out where to make up a potential shortfall.
With the upcoming Legislative session coming in February, one of the School District's options – should sequestration occur – includes asking state legislators for more funding. Sequestration won’t affect any per-pupil funding from the state.
Gov. Brian Sandoval has pledged to keep education funding flat, but he might be pressed by local school districts for more state funding should federal dollars fall short.
As a former Vegas resident who wants to move back, one of my big hesitations is over the public school system. I dont feel the public school system in Vegas is adequate.
You're correct Ashley its not, although my kids made it through and got college scholarships. Its important as you well know to vet the school your child will attend before making your decision. I wish you luck.
>>Regardless of the consequences, sequestration's impact on Clark County would only occur in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2013. <<
So, in other words, the scare tactics of the sky falling on January 1 are EXACTLY that-scare tactics. This critical fact that cuts wouldn't happen until at least half way into next year should have been in the first paragraph.
Cutting teachers seems to be the answer to everything for the CCSD. Why not cut administrators? Support staff? Consultants? Anything and everything to avoid classroom cuts?
It's too easy to cut teachers because those running the district don't believe that class size matters. Before this lot is done, we'll have a third world education system with broken buildings and 70 kids in a classroom built for 30.
Ashley why would you want to move back to this hell hole? For your own good stay where you are!
The CCSD website has two phone directories on line. One is a school directory and the other is a directory of the administrative offices in CCSD. I used both of those directories and the Transparent Nevada salary and benefit data for CCSD from 2011. This was the latest year that data was available. I feel that the salaries and benefits for 2012 would be at least equal to the 2011 figures, if not slightly higher. There may have also been some turn-over but the costs would be roughly the same.
The first directory that I looked at was the administrative directory. The first thing that I did was to eliminate duplicate names that appeared in more than one listing in the directory. After I did that, I had a listing of approximately 2072 names. After I listed the salary and benefit information for each name from Transparent Nevada, the total was $170,736,957.79. That works out to an average salary and benefit in 2011 for each name of $82,203.64. For a teacher to earn that much in pay and benefits, the teacher would have to have a master's degree with 32 additional credits and be on step 10. For that teacher, the salary and benefits package would total $82,014. The current CCSD contract with CCEA has a salary schedule that has remained the same since the 2008-2009 school year. The salary schedule shows that a teacher with a bachelor's degree and maximum experience makes a total of $57,563 including salary and benefits. The same schedule shows a teacher with a master's degree and maximum experience earns a total of $71,919 with salary and benefits included.
An examination of the administrative listing shows that 1603(77.18%) names make more than the teacher with the bachelor's degree. Of those names, 1229 (59.17%) make more than a teacher with a master's degree.
In the listing, I then looked at positions with titles such as Director, Coordinator, Facilitator, Academic or Program Manager, Principal, Assistant Principal, Dean, or Regional Trainer, as well as Superintendent, Deputy/Associate/Assistant Superintendent. There are 595 positions with those titles. That is approximately 28.7 % of the names on the list. That doesn't include positions listed as supervisors, mentors, or other non-academic positions. To put that number in perspective, if you add the number of elementary school assistant principals, the number of middle school administrators (principals, assistant principals, deans) and high school administrators (principals, assistant principals, and deans) the total is 572. The administrative phone directory shows 495 names with the titles Director, Coordinator, or Facilitator. That is 95 names more than the total number of middle school and high school administrators (principals, assistant principals, and deans). If you just look at the number of directors, coordinators, and academic managers, the total is 352. The total number of administrators (principals, assistant principals, and deans) in high schools is 209. To reach that total of 352, you would also need to include the assistant principals and deans in middle schools. If you included those numbers, the total would be 342, or slightly less than the number of directors, coordinators, and academic managers. The administrative listing makes up approximately 5.46% of the 38,000 CCSD employees.
If you look at the 2012-2013 school year budget, the personnel cost is approximately 1.7 Billion. The 2011 cost of the administrative directory was $170,736,957.79 or just over $10% of the budget for 2012-2013. Those salary and benefit costs are 2011 costs. The actual cost for 2012 will probably be the same if not higher.
The second directory is the School Directory. This lists the principal, assistant principal, dean and office manager of every school in CCSD. The ESD schools and/or other alternative schools are listed in both directories, and have been included in the administrative directory totals. There are 217 elementary schools listed in the directory. There are 211 elementary school principals and 172 assistant principals. There are 216 office managers listed. Some people hold multiple positions or some positions are currently vacant. The 2011 salary and benefits information on Transparent Nevada shows a cost of $58,575,079.88. There are 59 middle schools listed with 58 principals, 70 assistant principals, 63 deans, and 58 office managers. The 2011 salary and benefits listed is $24,470,969.09. There are 47 high schools listed with 41 principals, 100 assistant principals, 68 deans, and 39 office managers. Transparent Nevada shows a salary and benefit cost of $27,527,996.39. The total 2011 salary and benefit cost is $110,574,045.36 for 310 principals, 342 assistant principals, 131 deans, and 313 office managers, or a total of 1096 names, or 2.88% of the approximately 38,000 employees of CCSD. This is approximately 6.5% of the 2012-2013 personnel budget. Again, the 2012 salaries and benefits will likely be the same if not higher. Using the same comparisons to teachers with bachelor's degrees and master's degrees, there are 1022 (93.25%) people who make more than a teacher with a bachelor's degree and maximum experience. There are 816 (74.45%) people who make more than a teacher with a master's degree and maximum experience.
The number of assistant principals and deans for high schools is misleading. While the total number doesn't seem large when viewed against the total number of schools, the distribution is uneven. The number of assistant principals varies from 0 to 5. The number of deans again varies widely, ranging from 0 to 3. In some schools, the total number of assistant principals and deans is 6, while in other schools the total number is 2.
Combining both directories, the number of people totals 3168 or 8.33% of the approximately 38000 CCSD employees. After combining the 2011 salary and benefits costs for both lists, the total comes to $281,311,003.15 or approximately 16.55% of the 2012-2013 personnel budget. The cost for 8.33% of the personnel comes to 16.55% of the personnel costs. Totaling, the administrative personnel from the administrative directory and the principals, assistant principals, and deans from the school listing, you get a total of 1378 administrators. Using a total of 18000 teachers employed by CCSD, you get a teacher to administrator ratio of just over 13 teachers to 1 administrator.
I hope that this analysis serves as a beginning point for a discussion on the number and pay of senior CCSD staff when compared to the number and pay of support staff, teachers, and police officers. As I looked at the data in Transparent Nevada, a number of interesting facts emerged. The Superintendent's office has a total of 5 secretaries, including the two highest paid secretaries. Elizabeth Carrerro had a total pay and benefits in 2011 of $143,720.44, which included $44,487.69 in overtime/call back pay. The next highest was Debra Eloi whose pay and benefits in 2011 totaled $98,583.43. This total also included $17,736.94 in overtime/call back pay. For all 5 secretaries in the Superintendent's office, the overtime/call back pay totaled $67,624.56. Why is all of this overtime/call back pay necessary with 5 secretaries? That total is more than the pay and benefits of a teacher with a bachelor's degree and maximum experience. It is only slightly less than the pay and benefits of a teacher with a master's degree and maximum experience.
Of the 174 names listed as admin secretaries, 151 made more than a teacher with a bachelors degree and maximum experience. Of those 151 people, 62 made more than a teacher with a masters degree and maximum experience.
For all of the 174 names the overtime/callback pay totaled just over 88K. Of the 88K, over 66K or 75% was earned by the secretaries in the office of the Superintendent.
Since March 2011, Kenneth Turner, who developed the star rating system, has been paid as a consultant to the Superintendent a total of $250,000. This year, the ratings all improved if you believe CCSD. On closer examination, if a school increased it's star rating it was immediately moved up. However, if the rating decreased, it was kept the same as a "hold harmless" measure. Surprise, there are no 1 star schools this year. This is a link to the CCSD warrants listed in Transparent Nevada for Mr. Turner. There are no listing past March 2012.
http://transparentnevada.com/ccsd-warran...
Superintendent Jones has at least one other consultant working for him. Her name is Allison Serafin. She is the former executive director for the Nevada branch of Teach for America. I'm not sure what she is consulting on, but she is not as well paid as Mr. Turner. From June 2011 to March 2012, she was paid, $134,690.90. No data is available after March 2012. This is a link to those warrants.
http://transparentnevada.com/ccsd-warran...
Great job Vegas. Keep laying off low paid teachers. Just don't get rid of the highly paid administrative staff. Also, can you make sure we ridiculously over- pay the police, and fire department.
Oh, that's already done? Ok, keep up the good work elected leaders. Just keep making sure we have an ignorant population, so they can keep voting in you same clowns. Check.
Cutting "consultants" is something they should be doing regardless of scare tactic cuts & funding issues. If appointed administrative leaders need "consulting" then we should be firing the administrators and replacing them with someone that actually knows what they're doing.
Teaching is an important job but so are other key positions that support the continuity of the school district every day. Human resource researches wage & salary information that are comparable to the duties and responsibilities of each job class. The pay scale and grades are then recommended and assigned to each job class. Perhaps Tanker1975 should contact CCSD's HR department to discuss how the pay scale & grades are assigned to each job class.
Support Personnel Pay Scale & Grades
http://www.ccsd.net/employees/resources/...
Job Description ADMINISTRATIVE SECRETARY IV
(Secretary to the Superintendent)
http://www.ccsd.net/employees/resources/...
What expertise & experience does Tanker1975 have in school district organizational design? What is the relevance of secretary pay to effective organizational design?
The job of secretary to a school district can be extensive providing administrative and secretarial support to assigned administrator; communicating information on behalf of administrator to school and district staff, other districts, public
agencies, etc.; ensuring compliance of department/program activities with financial, legal and administrative requirements; and
acting as liaison between the Administrator and other parties, providing information and addressing issues.
The job is much more than a typical secretary job and the pay grade reflects the responsibilities and skills required to it.
Re pix: Is there not a single blonde/blond grade schooler is CCSD? We're getting tired of NO representation of the "majority" of Americans. CCSD needs to stop ignoring the basic needs of all school children.
CCSD hasn't seen anything yet. Obamacare is gonna cost Nevada multi-millions the FIRST YEAR. DHHS "needs" dozens to hundreds of technicians to take all those MEDICAID applications and process the input.
MooTheCow. If you search Transparent Nevada for Admin Sec, there are 174 names listed. Of those names, 151 make more than a teacher with a bachelors degree and 5 years with CCSD, or more than $57,563. Sixty-two make more than a teacher with a masters degree and 9 years service with CCSD.
This is a link to that list.
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/se......
Everybody is complaining about excessive teacher salaries, but nobody seems uncomfortable with the 281 MILLION paid to less than 3200 people in 2011. That is almost 17% oc the current school year personnel budget for 5.5% of the CCSD employees.
Is an admin sec in Information systems and data processing more valuable than a teacher with a masters and 9 years in the district? What about an admin sec in accounting? How about in Curriculum and Professional Development? How about the Director of Purchasing? How about School User Support Group? How about Security Services? Is the admin sec in Facilities Administration more important and valuable than a teacher with a masters degree?
@MooTheCow.
According to the current CCSD phone book, these are the people who work in the Superintendent's Office. The pay data, which include benefits, came from Transparent Nevada and are the 2011 figures.
Superintendent, Dwight Jones, $396,202.83(including $38,954.15 in other pay)
Secretary to the Superintendent, Elizabeth Carrero, $143,720.44(including $44,487.67 in overtime/callback pay and $1,839.43 in other pay)
Administrative Secretary III, Joyce Pistone, $88,633.98(including $1,733.58 in overtime/callback pay)
Administrative Secretary II, Debbie Eloi, $98,583.43(including $17,736.94 in overtime/callback pay and $8,071.49 in other pay)
Administrative Secretary I, Carmen West, $75,587.00(including $3,238.00 in overtime?callback pay)
Secretary III, Pamela Banaszynski, $61,262.93(including $427.55 in overtime/callback pay).
According to the current CCSD pay scale for teachers, which has been the same since 2008, the pay and benefits for a teacher with a bachelors degree and 5 years experience with CCSD is $57,563. A teacher with a masters degree and 9 years teaching experience with CCSD would have a salary and benefits package of $71,919.
This is a link to the CCSD teacher salary schedule.
http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/......
All of the secretarial staff made more than a teacher with a bachelors degree and 5 years experience with CCSD. Four of the 5 made more than a teacher with a masters degree and 9 years experience with CCSD.
My first question is why it is necessary to pay the secretarial staff $77,534.68 in overtime/callback and other pay. I would also point out that the Superintendent has a number of deputy/assistant superintendents that serve as his executive cabinet, and report directly to him. I'm not sure that secretarial staff would serve those functions in a large school district.
This is a link to the CCSD Administrative Phone Book. There are approximately 2100 names in that directory.
http://ccsd.net/district/directory/resou......
The first 5 people listed on Transparent Nevada for CCSD include the Superintendent, the General Counsel, the Director of Employee Management Relations, Chief Financial Officer, and the Associate Superintendent for Community relations. The total salary and benefits for that group in 2011 totaled $1,160,733.93. With that administrative staff and others, I'm not sure that the secretarial staff would have the duties and responsibilities that you describe. According to Transparent Nevada, Elizabeth Carrero ranks 103rd in the Tranparent Nevada listing of CCSD from highest to lowest.
This is the link to Transparent Nevada.
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/cl......
@MooTheCow. I am a retired Army officer, have worked in both private and public arenas including as a city manager. I have been a teacher for over 15 years. My data is just a reporting of facts, what it means is up to each individual to decide. I would ask you the same question. There are only 6 states with higher ratios than Nevada's state wide average of 18.5 to 1. This is the link.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/snf_report03......
Tanker1975,
Thank you for serving our country.
Many believe their job and what they do is more important than others. Tanker1975, you have every right to believe your teaching job is more important than a school administrator secretary. Unfortunately, you're not a school administrator and don't understand how pay is determined because if you did you would not be dragging into your argument a job class that has a higher pay grade and step increases than that of teachers. You have a right to have your own opinion concerning optimal CCSD organizational design & staffing levels however, until you understand all of the functions and requirements of the school district then your opinion is essentially baseless.
@MooTheCow. I also worked as a city manager, and have been involved in classifying employees pay. I do understand organizational theory. I would suggest that CCSD go to zero base budgeting, where every position has to be justified on it's impact to educating kids. I think that approach would be interesting. Just looking at some of the offices and departments in the CCSD Administrative phone book. Equity and Diversity Education Department with 13 employees. Communications office with 13 employees. Internal Audit department with 11 employees. Community and Government relations--4 employees. Government Affairs--3 employees. Parent Services--2 employees. School-Community Partnership--13 employees.
Somebody riled up an over paid CCSD Administrative Secretary! I don't think you will find many supporters who would believe that any CCSD Secretary should make more than a teacher. Maybe just your other Secretaries. I don't care what you claim your duties are, your duties do not include influencing the education of even a single student.
Comment removed by moderator. Off Topic
I find it interesting that the only pay scale that shows annual salaries is the Teachers. The Administrators shows monthly salaries and the Support Staff shows hourly rates. Why?
This is the Administrators Salary schedule.
http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/...
This it the Teachers Salary schedule.
http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/...
This is the Police officers Salary schedule.
http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/...
This is the Support Staff Salary Schedule.
http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/...
This is the Substitute Teacher Salary Schedule.
http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/...
Is everyone aware of the qualifications of a Title 1 school? The school must prove that they are burdened by minorities, underprivileged (monetary, or abuse), or disadvantaged (academically remedial). To say that 63% of out schools qualify not only shows out dependency on the funding, but should also be concern that there is a confined effort to be better in order to support the dependency on this type of funding.