State funding shortfall costs CCSD $5.4 million

Seventeen dollars doesn’t sound like a lot until it adds up to a $5.4 million loss.

To the Clark County School Board, it was cause for outrage Friday after hearing that the state will provide $17 less per student in funding than pledged this school year.

“This is a case of not getting what was promised,” said board member Carolyn Edwards, critical of the state for the miscalculation.

“We’re supposed to plan a budget on ‘oops?’ ” she asked.

And that $17 loss adds up, said Clark County School District Chief Financial Officer Jim McIntosh, informing the board of the late-notice reduction that will force midyear changes to the district’s 2014-15 spending plan of $2.2 billion.

With a little more than 318,000 students in the Clark County School District, that $17 per student reduction is a $5.4 million loss for the cash-strapped district, which already is putting schools on year-round class schedules and stocking up on portable classrooms to ease crowding because it doesn’t have the money to build new schools.

While revenues will be scaled back Friday because of the state’s bombshell — lowering the $5,544 pledged per pupil basic state funding to $5,527 — district expenses also will be more than predicted.

Included in Friday’s amended spending plan was a $7.15 million increase to expenses due largely to pay raises and other contributions given many employees in recently negotiated union contracts. District officials did not decide at the meeting how to compensate for the $5.4 million loss.

School officials also Friday received an independent auditor’s report of last year’s finances, which found no significant deficiencies requiring corrective action.

Auditors with Kafoury, Armstrong &Co. confirmed that the district’s revenue increased by $158 million last year, or 5.6 percent, due to more state funding and collections of the local school support tax, a component of the sales tax. The local school support tax was the largest revenue source at $832 million, or 29 percent of all revenue, and has been one of the few revenue sources that has increased in the past five years.

Property taxes, the second-highest revenue source at $692 million, or 24 percent of all revenue, also increased.

While property taxes produced $3.5 million more for Clark County schools in 2014 than 2013, a 0.5 percent increase, it’s still far short of where it used to be, limiting the district’s ability to bond and finance school construction, McIntosh said.

Board member Chris Garvey said that’s a “serious problem,” pointing to a report on the taxable assessed value of Clark County homes, down from $63 billion in 2008 to $33 billion in 2014.

While district revenues grew by $158 million, expenses also expanded by $85 million, or 3 percent, due to hiring more teachers while also reducing class sizes. Turning many half-day kindergarten classrooms to full-day kindergarten also came at a cost.

Contact Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @TrevonMilliard.