School cuts go to bargaining as lawmakers leave

After four months of heated debate in the Nevada Legislature and down-to-the-wire votes in the early morning hours Tuesday, the dust is finally settling around a $2.2 billion K-12 schools budget and a slate of new policy reforms.

Per-pupil funding is about $400 better than predicted in the bleakness of January, but with the state cutting about $130 million of general fund support between the past two years and the next two years, districts must negotiate for the lower teacher pay levels as the Legislature recommends, or impose layoffs.

"I've had people walk up and say, 'You must be thrilled,"' said Washoe County School District Superintendent Heath Morrison about the improved K-12 budget, which a month earlier had called for a $380 million cut in general fund support. "No, I'm not thrilled. But I'm obviously pleased."

In the case of Washoe County School District, the new numbers reduce a $75 million budget hole to $53 million. It's now time for the hard work of bargaining with unions to fix some of the problem; if there were no concessions, the district would have to eliminate about 300 positions.

A bright spot for districts came Tuesday, when a measure squashed in early April by a governor's veto made a comeback in the last 10 minutes of the 2011 session. School Works, a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, allows districts to tap into "frozen" money in a bond reserve account and use it to complete renovations on aging buildings.

It was the first bill Sandoval vetoed, because his budget recommended using those same bond debt reserves to backfill cuts in school operating expenses.

When the state Supreme Court ruled May 26 that certain sweeps of local money were illegal, Sandoval scratched the item from his budget and backed Smith's idea.

Clark County School District can't take advantage of the measure yet, but other school districts will be able to tap into extra money. Members of the beleaguered construction industry had supported the bill, saying it could put unemployed Nevadans back to work.

Legislators also put a package of education reform bills on the governor's desk. The bills will come into play over the next few years. One creates a council to design a four-tiered teacher evaluation system based at least 50 percent on student achievement.

Evaluations will figure more prominently into decisions about promoting or firing teachers. Another bill extends a probationary period for new teachers from two to three years, and requires them to earn satisfactory evaluations before they leave probation and have more job security.

Morrison called the reforms "significant," saying they bring Nevada in line with 36 other states and will help parents feel more confident about their child's teacher.

But he also said they should be part of a "professional growth system" that aims to help teachers improve their craft, and not just an easier way to boot employees.

Lawmakers agreed to remove a "Last in, first out" policy, and specified that seniority cannot be the sole consideration when a district makes a round of layoffs. Proponents say the measure will protect newer teachers from a layoff simply because they are new to the field.

The last reform to pass changes the way the state school board is selected. The Superintendent of Public Instruction will be appointed by the governor, and the state board will be composed of four voter-elected members, three governor appointees, and four non-voting members.

Existing law calls for a 10-member elected board, but recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Education Reform Task Force, which developed Nevada's application for Race to the Top federal funding, called for a more streamlined power structure.

Many legislators who agreed to the budget said they weren't happy with the amount of money going to education, but thought the compromise at least averted a crisis.

Chief among the unhappy groups is the teachers union, whose members are facing salary and benefits reductions equal to a 7 percent pay cut.

Craig Stevens of the Nevada State Education Association said the blame will fall on the governor for a bad budget, the Republicans for resisting new taxes, and the Democrats for not fighting hard enough for revenue.

Plans to raise $1.2 billion through new taxes on services and business gross revenues dissolved as time ran out in the session. Democratic leadership tried to revive the plan Tuesday in the form of a voter initiative on the Assembly floor, but Republicans - irate that the major proposal resurfaced with three hours until the drop-dead deadline - won out and the proposal was canned.

Members of the teachers union say they still plan to take the tax question to voters in coming months.

"All session they've heard about the bad teachers and that they'll be held accountable, but they're not given the resources to do it," Stevens said. "It's disheartening."