During its regularly scheduled accounting year-end close-out process, the Clark County School District (CCSD) initially identified that the district was undergoing an estimated $20 million budget deficit. It has now been reported to be around $10.9 million.
“Our commitment to transparently serving and supporting schools led us to work with principals throughout the process,” the district said in an announcement for the CCSD Newsroom. “We kept principals informed of issues as they were discovered and addressed, and we have been working closely with principals to support those experiencing significant challenges balancing school budgets for this school year.”
The district has reported this is due to unanticipated expenses, such as excessive litigation. Some cases included settlements to parents for sexual assault and negligence.
“You don’t necessarily get notified of these lawsuits until the plaintiff’s attorneys file suit, and so therefore, some of these come in very late and can be very costly,” former chief financial officer for CCSD Jason Goudie said in an interview with 8 News Now.
Each school has been impacted by the budget deficit differently.
“It mainly impacted lower level schools, like elementary,” Principal Donna Levy said. “They’re structured differently, so it’s harder for them to have rollover funds to protect themselves in the case of a budgeting crisis such as this. We got lucky because I saved money from previous years just in case, but others weren’t able to save money for this sort of thing.”
Legislative sessions held in Carson City determine the amount of money given to school districts and how it should be used. Despite a legislative session not taking place this year to determine the budget, in 2023 it was ruled that the district needed to approve a record amount of money to be allocated for teacher and staff raises.
“[CCSD] knew that the dollar amounts were approved,” Teaching and Training teacher Laura Jeanne Penrod said. “Education is a public entity, and the public should know exactly where the money is going, and we frequently don’t. We’re not talking about $200,000, we’re addressing a budget of $20 million that has been used for purposes other than the ones directed by legislation. There needs to be more transparency and accountability held to the people that make the decisions that put us in this very tight spot.”
Budget cuts also held the possibility for tech schools to lose funding for their programs.
“Specialty schools face the challenges of having resources to keep programs running at a high standard year after year,” Fashion teacher Levi Harbeson said. “[Funding] can come from the general school budget or grant money and donations, but it mainly comes from the state allocated budget. Us program teachers rely on funding for materials, equipment, and maintenance.”
Teachers and staff were relieved that any impacts were avoided at the school level due to Levy’s professional experience with money handling.
“We’re very lucky that Ms. Levy has a former CPA background, which you can’t get better when you’re looking for a person to audit and budget,” Penrod said. “She’s a wealth of knowledge in that department and she was able to save us from some of the terrible things going down in other schools. We’re lucky to not lose teachers, or programs, or activities, and we can only hope that other schools will be able to build themselves up to the standard we were able to save.”
