District raises delayed due to proposed budget cuts

Employees of Douglas County School District are now further away from pay raises thanks to Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed 4.5 percent budget cut for K-12 education.

"Salary increases for administrators, certified and classified employees should be on hold until we see the outcome of these cuts," said superintendent Carol Lark.

School board members postponed the approval of a raise for school administrators at their meeting on Dec. 11, causing frustration among school principals and administrators at the district office. In September, teachers unions declared an impasse in negotiations because they felt they weren't being offered what they deserved, deferring settlement to a third party. At the Dec. 11 meeting, teachers were invited back into negotiations by the school board.

But now, both parties will have to wait, and the district will need to decide what costs can be cut.

"Sometimes you start with programs that are newly initiated," said Lark. "Grants and funds that are not yet expended. I'm going to keep it away from student instruction as much as possible."

Nevada's superintendents met with Gibbons on Dec. 20 to discuss the budget cut.

Originally, K-12 education was exempt from a proposed 8 percent cut, prompted by a shortfall in tax revenue. But Gibbons said that because some agencies would be hit too hard by an 8 percent cut, he had to spread a lower percent cut across more departments.

"Following that meeting, we all agreed that the governor's numbers were inconsistent with our numbers," said Lark. "We agreed that his finance people would sit down with our finance people so that we would all be talking about the same amount."

According to an article that appeared in the Nevada Appeal on Dec. 21, Andrew Clinger, director for the State of Nevada's Department of Administration, said the 4.5 percent would apply to general fund money only.

Public schools receive tax revenues from county governments and also federal money.

Clinger said when all public school funding is counted, the overall cut drops to less than 1.5 percent.

"It's complex," said Lark. "I hope it's true that it won't be 4.5 percent off our Distributive School Account."

That account is funded by the state general fund based on the number of students a district has. Lark said it makes up the majority of the district's budget.

"The governor was receptive and would allow superintendents to set priorities," she said.

Some teachers were less optimistic.

"Gibbons promised he wouldn't cut K-12, but then rescinded," said Susan Lacey, a teacher at Meneley Elementary School and president of the Douglas County Professional Education Association. "The district was not given time to think this through. It was a bombshell."

But Lacey said she didn't think the budget cuts were designed to affect teacher salaries, or administrative salaries.

"Most districts in the state have settled negotiations with teachers," said Lacey. "The legislature approved that money, so how could the governor take back those raises?"

But according to an article that appeared in the Nevada Appeal on Dec. 23, the Legislature cannot interfere with the governor's cuts unless the state's ending fund balance, the amount in its general fund checkbook, falls below $80 million.

During their Jan. 8 meeting, school board members postponed the approval of pay raises for the district's classified employees, who had settled their negotiations in December.

"We approved it (raises for classified employees) in content. We're in agreement, but we can't make the final ratification until we know where they're going to make cuts," said Cynthia Trigg, who was elected school board vice president at the meeting. "It was obviously negotiated before the cuts were announced. Everything is on hold until the superintendents meet with the governor's finance people and straighten these budget cuts out."