School budget hearing today

The public will have a chance to review the Carson City School District's final budget proposal today before it is submitted to the state on June 1.

The public hearing will be 5:15 p.m. today at the district office, 1402 W. King St. From there, the budget will be presented to the school board for approval during its meeting Monday.

It will conclude a long, often contentious process in which the district presented different options to make cuts to meet an anticipated $7.2 million budget shortfall from this year's Legislature.

In the end, parents and teachers rejected proposals to close an elementary school or to change the calendar of Fremont Elementary School to match the year-round schedule of all other schools in the district.

Instead, much of the decrease in revenue came from staff cuts. In all, 43 positions were eliminated, according to Superintendent Richard Stokes.

They were either not filled when the employee left or the employees were laid off. Of the positions eliminated, 29 were support staff and 14 were teachers.

However, Stokes said, this budget still can be modified.

"We budgeted the per pupil amount that we had received from the Department of Education earlier this year," he said. "That was based on the governor's budget. However, the Legislature has put back some of the things the governor took out."

The district can amend its final budget in December and likely will.

"If, at the end of the Legislative session, there's money available, that could cause us to look at some changes," he said. "That's a typical part of our budget cycle."

Stokes said the district dipped into its ending fund balance, using about $1.8 million of its surplus.

"We're trying to be responsive to what may happen, but we're still also trying to be conservative in our preparations for next year," he said.