Dial what?

If I were an otherwise normal human being and not a reporter, I would never call the main number to the Nevada Department of Education again.

But every once in a while, when I forget about the three minute and 34 second pre-recorded message at the department, I give the general number a call with the hope of getting in touch with a person who can help.

What am I - crazy? Option 9 doesn't come on until well past three minutes in the message.

What if, at this point, you've forgotten why you've called or weren't as attentive as you should have been?

You'd hit 0. You might reach someone somewhere else, but at the department, the three minute 34 second message starts over.

"You have reached the offices of the Nevada Department of Education's automated telephone system," you'd hear again. "To better serve you, our system has been updated as of May 2003."

Excuse me?

I hit 0 again and again and again. The message starts over again and again. Suddenly, the purpose of my call - why statistics aren't updated more frequently on the Web site - has become less relevant.

How do people actually get through to a person if they want to?

I finally hit the extension for the superintendent's office. Someone picks up, and I ask to be transferred to the person who handles the nevadareportcard.com Web site.

I'm calling because the demographic statistics portion hasn't been updated since December 2004. I'm told it's updated only when the No Child Left Behind results come out every August, which means this August the updated demographic portion will be labeled "Data as of: December 1, 2005."

This is not OK to a reporter (but better certainly than using December '04 statistics when it's May 2006). When the 2006-07 school year starts, I want the demographic subgroup data - like the number of students who receive free and reduced lunch and the number who are enrolled in special- education courses - to be from that school year, not from the year before.

Otherwise, my conversations with readers are of stories that are a year old.

The thing is, school districts compile these numbers after count day every September. The state gets them and could easily post them - and I'm calling with the hope that they are posted elsewhere.

I'm directed to a link with more recent information, and while the spreadsheet contains December 2005 numbers, they're only regarding enrollment at each grade level at each school.

This is No Child Left Behind we're talking about - the most topical subject in education. How is the public supposed to engage in intelligible conversation about progress, if the demographic subgroup numbers the department provides is from the year past?

We need to be in the present if we want to progress in the future.

Frustrated, I decide the department owes me at least one number - an up-to-date statistic from sometime in 2006 regarding total state enrollment.

The Nevada Report Card Web site shows it at 399,425 in December 2004; the new link I'm taken to moves it to 413,252 as of December 2005.

I dial directly into the superintendent's office and hope it will take just a few seconds to get transferred to the department and get an answer.

Lo and behold, no one picks up.

I'm prompted to leave a voicemail.

• Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.