School board approves final budget

by Scott Neuffer

sneuffer@recordcourier.com

On Wednesday, while state lawmakers in Carson City were debating a $780 million tax package designed to offset a record revenue shortfall, the Douglas County School Board was approving an $87.7 million final budget for the next fiscal year.

Board members voted unanimously, with board member Karen Chessell absent, to approve a $51.8 million general fund, which is about $4 million lighter than last year's.

Acknowledging the still uncertain outcome of the state budget, district Chief Financial Officer Holly Luna said conservative budgeting was the best option.

"At this point, they (legislators) have agreed to expenditures, but they have obviously not resolved the revenue side," she said.

Luna said more information will likely be available at the board's next meeting in June, but that by July, the district should have a good idea of the state's biennium budget.

"If indeed we have a balanced budget, then we can consider budget add-backs and what those will be," she said.

Preparing for the worst, not helped by declining enrollment numbers, school board members have made a series of cuts in all departments over the last few months, resulting in layoffs of more than 30 district employees, from teachers to custodians.

However, depending on the outcome of the state budget, the district may begin a recall process in the future. Personnel cuts were made in advance to meet not only the district's budget deadline, but the deadline to send out notifications to affected employees.

Included in the final budget on Wednesday was more than $500,000 worth of additional cuts approved by board members in late April.

Worried that a 2.5 percent ending fund balance in the general fund wouldn't be sufficient to meet emergency needs, such as last year's special legislative session, board members decided to boost the ending fund balance up to 3.7 percent, from $1.2 million to $1.8 million.

The money came from other programs, meaning the elimination of two gifted and talented teachers, two certified middle school librarians and one teacher at Jacobsen High School at China Spring Youth Camp.

The cuts also included a reduction in counselor contract days and a reduction in work hours for support classified staff, as well as the elimination of school field trips.

Although taking a conservative line, one savings measure district officials couldn't include in their budgeting was Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed 6 percent pay cut for state workers.

"Because salaries are bargainable, we could not make that presumption," Luna said. "It's clear that we cannot do that without bargaining."