LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The budget issues surrounding the Clark County School District intensified as the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) addressed the potential budget shortfall nearly four hours into Wednesday's board meeting.
The board discussed what enforcement authority the state superintendent has and the next steps regarding the letter NDE sent CCSD last week.
Also last week, Governor Joe Lombardo sent separate letters to CCSD regarding their budget.
We are concerned with reports that CCSD's current budget issues will potentially result in the release or elimination of teachers and other staff positions. Given last session's unprecedented increase in funding for education, such a scenario would be unacceptable.
Channel 13 has reported on the financial deficit the district is facing— leaving schools scrambling to make new budgets after they learned they won't be getting as much money as they initially thought and the district's CFO being terminated due to the issue.
The Department of Education wants answers to questions — including if any budget calculations during the previous and current school year were inaccurate.
They also want to know if there's a current shortfall and if so, what is that amount.
The board of education gave CCSD until Thursday to provide them with those answers.
If the state superintendent believes that CCSD violated any laws or found CCSD to be non-compliant, the state superintendent could file a notice of noncompliance — which details what they are violating.
After filing that notice, the state superintendent can give CCSD a certain time frame to get it fixed.
CCSD also has to submit a plan to the state superintendent showing how they plan to fix the issues.
"The first step is that non-compliance. After the notice of non-compliance, she can do several things. She can do a plan Correction. She has two lines of authority for that. 3DHD and 385, 175 so she’s two different ways she can do a plan of correction. Basically, that is sending a demand to the school district to, specifically, to the board of trustees saying fix this. You have a certain amount of time to give me a plan that I will approve. If I don’t approve it, then I’m gonna basically, do a plan that will force you to do it," said David Gardner, Deputy Attorney General.
The state superintendent also has the authority to send "compliance monitors" to work at the district while CCSD fixes the budget issues.
The compliance monitors will be able to attend meetings and have access to financial data.
"That is somebody who basically will be working at the Clark County School District on behalf of the [state] superintendent," said Gardner.
Just last week, CCSD blamed its budget issues on student enrollment changes, salary increases, cyber security expenses, and litigation.
At the start of the meeting, two people addressed the budget during public comment.
“This letter is to express the Hickley Elementary School Organizational Team (SOT) concerns about our school's recent decrease in our state allocation and our English learners fund for the current school year. We are asking that the State Board of Education and the state superintendent investigate this matter further,” said Jessica Jones, who sent a letter to NDE about CCSD’s budget.
