New Douglas County Superintendent Frankie Alvarado in front of the historic former Minden school that serves as the district's headquarters.
Photo by Sarah Drinkwine.
The Douglas County School District will end its fiscal year in June approximately $1.5 million short of its required ending balance of $2.4 million.
State law requires a 4 percent ending fund balance, which is equivalent to $2.4 million that schools need to maintain as reserves.
The school district approved a $67.4 million budget in spring 2024, including a $2.33 million ending balance.
During the amended process in December Director of Business Services Sue Estes projected an ending fund balance of just over $900,000, due to some extraordinary costs and other factors.
District Superintendent Frankie Alvarado doesn’t expect the current budget challenge to be an ongoing issue for the district, he said during the Parent Advisory Council meeting Tuesday.
“I feel it is a one-year issue and there is a multitude of factors that created the situation we are in,” said Alvarado. “We are going to try and focus on making reductions as far away from the classroom as possible.”
Despite the impact past legal fees had on the Douglas County School District’s budget, legal expenses only amounted to about 1 percent of the total, said Alvarado and instead, declining student enrollment in the district, Pupil-Centered-Funding, and staffing hurt the district far more.
Estes presented the budget to the board in December 2024 addressing the current state the district is in.
“It has been a pretty tough year for us to do this budget,” said Estes. “Our estimates just did not happen the way we had planned.”
The original budget was projected and presented to the board in April 2024. During that time, enrollment was expected to drop, with a total of 4,950 students for the 2024-2025 school year.
“We are experiencing declining enrollment at a higher rate than any other district in Nevada,” said Alvarado
Alvarado said there has been a steady decline in students since 2014.
“When we lose enrollment, we lose revenue because we are given so much per kid based on average daily enrollment,” said Alvarado. “If we lose 250 students on an annual basis and they are funded at approximately $10,000, that’s $2.5 million dollars lost revenue. If the state gives us $500 additional base allocation per kid and we have 5,000 students, now that’s a complete wash and that’s $2.5 million in revenue, but that declining enrollment is what is really harming us.”
Alvarado said the state collects data from schools in October when a clear indication of enrollment is known for the school year and that determines funding.
As a result, staffing must be reduced. Alvarado said once enrollment decreases staff has to be reallocated, whether that means one teacher or two, reducing support staff or instructional aides to fit the ratio of 22-25 students per teacher.
“It’s something we have to look at every single year, especially when we are experiencing declining enrollment,” said Alvarado.
Another factor is the change in Pupil-Centered-Funding, which favors districts with higher numbers of low or reduced income and English as a second language students.
The formula combines specific local and state revenue to provide a guaranteed basic level of financial support for each pupil to receive a reasonably equal education opportunity, regardless of which county they live in.
Every student is funded at a base of $9,414.
Douglas County School District currently receives $10,598 per student and there are roughly 5,000 students in the district.
The program has weighted categories, English learner students get an extra $4,236 added to the $10,598, at-risk students receive $3,284, and gifted and talent students receive $1,129. Alvarado said special education is supposably funded on “true and actual cost,” and districts with over 13 percent population get $1.5 million, but he nor any of his colleagues in the district have seen that money.
“We have not seen that money in Douglas County, and we are at 14 percent,” said Alvarado. “So, once I am able to meet with the Department of Education that is a question I will ask; why we don’t get access to that additional money.”
Alvarado also explained that funds are only provided in one bucket of the categories. So, if a student is gifted and talented and an English learner, only the highest bucket is funded.
Another factor is the district experienced a Title one reduction.
“The district received over $400,000 last year,” he said. “This year we got $48,000 so that decrease all impacted the general funding because we had programs and staffing positions that were paid out of that money and we expected to maintain that amount and that is all federal money that comes through the department of education.”
Other contributors have been rising costs in insurance rates as well as Public Employee Retirement increases.
Alvarado said some long-term planning is being put into place, including seeking case and grant funding, and reimbursements for as many services as possible.
Director of Communication and Marketing Hailey Sebahar is working on a school bus advertising project, which has already been presented at the Chamber of Commerce.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, but ultimately we want to remain compliant with NRS’ requirement and we want to reach long-range financial stability,” said Alvarado. “The district has been through difficult budget times before and we will get through this time as well.”
