Middle-school principal aims to keep cuts out of classrooms

During the last week of September, principals across the Clark County School District began making cuts to their budgets to help address a $50 million to $60 million districtwide shortfall. The refrain was the same at many schools: Let’s keep this as far from the classroom as possible.

Cashman Middle School principal Misti Taton had extra incentive to do that. Her school has a high population of refugee students in the district, from countries such as Turkey, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chad and the Republic of the Congo.

The district has just under 400 refugee students, down from about 500 two years ago. That’s partially because of President Trump’s travel ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries, said Ouiza Weber, facilitator for the district’s Refugee School Impact Grant.

Nonprofits such as Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and the ECDC African Community Center relocate families into apartments near Cashman and several other schools in the valley.

“Some of them, it’s not only learning English, it’s learning school,” Taton said. “Some of them haven’t had any formalized education for years. That’s why my biggest concern was no impact on the school, no impact on the student. Zero.”

The district so far has blamed budget cuts on underfunding from the state and increased costs as the result of a $19.5 million arbitration award with administrators earlier this year. Schools across the district were tasked with collectively trimming $17.4 million from their budgets.

For Cashman, administrative pay increases in salaries were $54,000 higher than expected. That was the biggest change in the school’s budget.

Thanks to Taton’s foresight, her thrifty habits and a little bit of luck, Cashman won’t be cutting any teachers. But that came at the cost of eliminating a front-desk clerk position and taking a little over $20,000 out of the school’s general supplies budget to cover the gap.

A teacher hired in spring who ultimately declined the job also helped Taton out; the principal eliminated the position, saving that salary for her budget.

But parent and school organization team member Roosevelt Maddies was not happy about the cuts, especially to the clerk position.

“As a parent, that position to me is very important, because … not just anyone can be up there,” Maddies said.

But Taton encouraged Maddies to think about the position, not the person, in times of cuts. Taton said she’d rather have a teacher in a classroom, even if that meant she had to answer the telephone at the clerk’s desk.

“We’re really big on what’s in the best interest of our students, not what’s expedient for adults,” Taton said after the meeting. “That’s a hard process for some people to think about.”

The responsibility of the cuts falls hard on a principals’s shoulders, Taton said. She has lost many nights of sleep over it.

“To us, it’s not just a teaching position … Those are you staff members that you want the best for. It’s people,” Taton said. “I have teachers that have moved across the country for jobs.”

Cashman aims to maintain stability for students, Taton said. School is where many get free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch. It’s where they learn English. It’s where they stay in the afternoons to eat dinner, get tutoring and play games and even receive extra food for the weekend.

If that means sharing a stapler with her secretary instead of buying her own, double-checking teachers’s supply requests and applying for grants, Taton said she’ll do it.

“That’s just our mentality here,” she said. “You’re never going to see my kids go without.”

Contact Madelyn Reese at mreese@viewnews.com or 702-383-0497. Follow @MadelynGReese on Twitter.