Carson City school board passes budget

The Carson City School Board approved a final budget including $7.2 million in cuts at a meeting with no public objections Tuesday night.

The board used the cuts to close a budget shortfall for next fiscal year assumed under a state budget proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

People appreciate how hard the school board worked to ease the pain of the cuts, said Board Trustee Norm Scoggin. The appreciation was easy to see at the meeting, he said.

"Most of all, nobody showed up," he said.

School officials dropped earlier suggestions to close an elementary school and move a year-round school to a traditional calendar. Hundreds of parents and teachers complained about the proposed cuts.

The board balanced the $53 million general fund budget through savings including:

- $2.7 million in job positions cuts. Layoffs left 35 positions open this year. The positions include 11 bus drivers, eight teachers, eight teaching aids, five custodians, a clerk, a library media technician and an auto service worker;

- $1.8 million in budget surpluses from previous years;

- $1.7 million in cuts to instructional spending for principals;

- $550,000 by postponing the purchase of new textbooks;

- $550,000 through reductions in utility and maintenance costs;

The cuts will cause more students to walk or get rides to school.

Students at the district's six elementary schools will have to live 1.5 miles away from school rather than 1 mile away to be eligible for bus rides. Students at the district's two middle schools and high school will have to live 3 miles away rather than 2 miles away.

The old bus routes will be one of the first things the district will restore if it gets more money from the Nevada Legislature or the federal stimulus bill, said Bob Anderson, district fiscal services director.

The district could restore the old bus routes with $165,000, he said, but predicting what the legislature will do is difficult.

"Things are so convoluted," he said. "Just trying to explain what's going on is beyond my comprehension."

Assembly Bill 563 would restore $270 million of the $690 million in cuts to K-12 education the governor proposed. The bill passed the Assembly and Senate and has been handed to Gov. Jim Gibbons. Gibbons has promised to veto the Legislation.

Superintendent Richard Stokes said the bill would give the district $3 million. Hopefully the legislative process will work in favor of the schools, he said.

"It's been interesting to watch," Stokes said. "This has really been a lesson in social studies and U.S. government."