Future School Cuts May Hit Bone

By James Haug

By JAMES HAUG

REVIEW-JOURNAL

Looming reductions in state spending, inflation, surging energy costs and the demands of a growing student population are creating a siege mentality within the Clark County School District.

“We’re getting hit from all sides,” Superintendent Walt Rulffes said Friday.

Education officials think they might have dodged an immediate threat to teacher salary increases. Rulffes said lawmakers are telling him they have little appetite to cut back budgeted cost-of- living raises, a possibility raised by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

But the superintendent of the nation’s fifth-largest public school system is now concerned about reductions that may occur in 2009-2010, which could prove catastrophic. State spending by then is expected to decline as much as 14 percent, or about $106 million a year.

Rulffes agrees with the assertion made by university system Chancellor Jim Rogers earlier this week: The state’s series of spending reductions in public education require unthinkable sacrifices.

“It’s often been said that we’re given the option of cutting off our right arm or our left arm,” Rulffes said.

What’s now vulnerable is public education’s entire anatomy, said Rulffes, who may face future staffing cuts that would require laying off teachers and increasing class sizes.

That’s a scenario Rulffes loathes to set in motion. He said the district’s class sizes are among the highest in the nation. It’s not uncommon for some high school classes to have up to 40 students. Many high school teachers serve 200 students a day.

The economic downturn already has the district scaling back teacher recruitment. Martha Tittle, the district’s chief human resources officer, said that recruitment of teachers for the next school year is at 98 percent of projected staffing needs. In addition to having to replace retiring teachers, the district also needs to staff four elementary schools, one high school and a new career and technical academy scheduled to open in 2008-09.

“We’re still growing, just not as fast,” Tittle said.

Tittle is worried that the current housing market will make it even tougher to recruit nationally. Teachers will be less likely to move if they can’t sell their houses, she said.

Rulffes said he’s still waiting for financial planning direction from state officials for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years.

He is more secure about the status of state funding for employee raises of 4 percent, which will take effect July 1. State funding for that purpose was thrown into question by Gibbons, who said he may call a special session of the Legislature to roll back raises for teachers, university staff and state employees from 4 percent to 2 percent.

A state report on March sales tax revenues released Wednesday wasn’t as bad as officials feared it would be. After reviewing that information – which showed a revenue decline of 3.9 percent over March 2007 – Gibbons delayed the decision on calling a special session until mid-June.

“Unless we get some really bad news, I think we’re going to be all right,” Rulffes said.

State Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said it would be pointless for the state to spend $80,000 for a one-day special session just to pass the cost of teacher raises back to local school districts.

“It’s not really a savings because they would have to make cuts in the classroom,” Oceguera said.

Oceguera added that “pay raises for teachers have been few and far between.” He said that reducing the 4 percent raises would hurt their ability to keep up with the cost of living.

John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said he expects the School Board to ratify a new contract June 19. The association is the bargaining unit for district teachers.

District officials already have adopted a $2.72 billion operating budget for the 2008-09 school year and are proceeding as if the promised state funds are going to be available, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Weiler said.

“We can’t act on the possibility that something might happen,” Weiler said. “That wouldn’t be fair.”

But the uncertainty is taking a toll on district leaders such as School Board member Terri Janison.

“It’s hard to reach decisions when you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Janison said.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702- 383-4686.

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