Staffing Cuts, Bus Transportation Hot-Button Issues in School District Budget Talks
Reducing next year’s budget by several million, which potentially includes increasing walk zones and cutting positions, was discussed Tuesday by Washoe County School District trustees.
The district’s $477.3 million budget for the 2019 fiscal year is due July 5 to the Nevada Department of Taxation, although a tentative budget is due by April 15.
A hot-button issue quickly became school bus transportation.
Increasing the elementary and middle school walk zones by a quarter mile would remove between eight and 10 full-time driver positions and save between $300,000 and $375,000 in salary and benefits, along with an additional $120,000 in fuel, repairs, maintenance and labor.
Elementary school students are currently eligible for bus rides if they live more than a mile from school and middle school students are eligible if they live more than 2 miles from campus. Bus eligibility could increase to 1.25 and 2.25 miles next school year, respectively, if trustees agree to recommended cuts.
This didn’t sit will with Trustee John Mayer.
“That’s going to make kids cross McCarran, for example, or Pyramid Way,” Mayer said. “The variables of increasing it a quarter mile is a major factor as far as looking at safety.”
District transportation director Rick Martin said rezoning for the 2019-20 school year will help solve some issues. Two new middle schools and one new elementary school are scheduled to open then.
“Obviously we’d look at the broad aspect of what a safe pedestrian opportunity is,” Martin said. “If it has major crosswalks, lights and 4-way stops, those are all considered viable by the city and county as safe pedestrian opportunities.”
Mayer said children have been hit in crosswalks and increasing walk zones will increase opportunities for accidents. He noted that in August an O’Brien Middle School student was hit and sustained minor injuries in a marked crosswalk at Silver Lake and Stead boulevards. In 2004, a Dilworth Middle School student died after being struck in a crosswalk on Pyramid Way near D Street.
Cutting department travel by half is also recommended. This includes reducing travel to conferences and using more online training. A savings of about $394,000 would result.
Changes to high school transportation aren’t being recommended. Students are bus eligible if they live more than 3 miles from campus.
Suspending field trips and athletic transportation, which would save $725,00 and $650,000, respectively, is also not being suggested. However, a report to trustees said further analysis on increasing athletic fees to defray transportation costs would be visited in the next year or two.
Funds for bus purchases this year were reduced by half to about $420,000 and that amount is expected to remain the same next year, district staff said.
Other possible cuts include leaving an area superintendent position vacant and cutting the number of teachers and administrators on special assignment who implement new curricula and professional development. Cuts to English language learner programs due to the program being remodeled and moving several gifted and talented allocations to grant funding are also options. A total of 34 teaching, counseling or administrative positions are on the chopping block and will likely be eliminated through attrition, although some are already vacant.
Superintendent Traci Davis said executive staff in non-bargaining positions didn’t get cost-of-living raises this year and raises aren’t in the budget for next year either. She also noted that any land sale, such as the old Incline Elementary School, wouldn’t go toward the district’s general fund but into a separate fund per state law.
Trustee Veronica Frenkel said she’s wary about cutting staff that teach English-language learners, one of the region’s “most vulnerable populations.” She also questioned academic return on investment.
“It’s a new thing we’re doing,” Frenkel said. “It’s obviously got some challenges so I want to hear about discussion around perceived results or what was determined to be a return. There are so many ways and measures that can be used.”
Mark Mathers, district chief financial officer, said there are few concrete examples of how academic return on investment is used.
“For new programs, that’s the time to start the measurement,” he said. “They don’t recommend doing it retroactively and don’t recommend making comparisons to other agencies. Fundamentally we need to identify expected outcomes of programs and that will lead you how to measure these outcomes.”
Davis reminded the board that items recommended for cuts were only for consideration.
“We had to put everything up and it’s for you all to make the decisions,” Davis said.
Board president Katy Simon Holland said the process won’t be easy.
“All these proposed reductions that affect students are very painful,” Simon Holland said.
