School braces for more cuts

Drastic budget cuts are coming to the state's largest educational institution.

College of Southern Nevada President Michael Richards said Monday that the school will eliminate 58 vacant faculty positions, shut down six satellite learning centers, cut operating budgets and reclassify 35 jobs to save money.

These measures will cut the school's population of 40,000 students by more than 10 percent, Richards said. So many students will be affected because there won't be enough instructors to offer enough classes.

"Folks are having a hard time understanding this. The sky is falling," he said at an afternoon news conference.

Richards said the college has already cut 4.5 percent from its budget. The cuts announced to staff Friday and to the public on Monday represent another 3 percent. More will have to be made to reach the goal of 14 percent in cuts Gov. Jim Gibbons has requested.

"By the time this is over," Richards said, "we could very easily impact 8,000 students by turning them away from CSN sites, classes and the opportunity for job training."

CSN spokeswoman K.C. Howard said those 14 percent cuts will be for each of the next two years, meaning more than $28 million will be cut from CSN's budget over that period.

In addition, part-time staff will be reduced and a hiring moratorium will stay in place.

Six satellite centers will close June 30, 2009. The one-year delay is because rules require employees to be given notice.

The centers are located in rural or low-income areas. They are: Boulder City Center; Downtown Learning Center; A.D. Guy Center; Lincoln County Center; Moapa Valley Center; and Sahara West Center.

The employees at those centers do not know yet if or when they will lose their jobs. About 550 students take classes in the centers, Richards said.

Typically, the centers offer classes in the community education mold, such as computer training, English as a second language and general education courses.

Rita Smith, the lone full-time employee at the A.D. Guy Center, said closing it will devastate the poor West Las Vegas community it serves. The center is located next to the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club on Martin Luther King Boulevard, north of Bonanza Road.

"Its purpose was to bring technology into the community," Smith said. "This center is needed."

She said about 1,000 people a month use the center.

"It's sad," Smith said. "It's really, really sad."

Johney Robinson, 21, was there Monday afternoon using the computer lab. He said he used the lab all the time before graduating from high school to do homework and school papers.

Lots of people in the neighborhood use the center to do homework, fill out job applications or create resumes, both Robinson and Smith said.

Robinson said he'll have to go to the library once the center closes -- and that could mean long waits for the computer.

Monday afternoon, Margarita Trejo came in with a flyer advertising free computer classes at the center. She wanted to be sure it was free and to find out when to show up.

In broken English, she said she moved here four months ago from Mexico.

"I need to know more computer," she said.

Smith said she often fusses at the young people who come into the center. She chides them to get to work on their resumes, to sign up for one of the free computer classes. She has often warned them that the place might not be there one day.

"One of them said, 'Mrs. Smith, what are we going to do if you throw us out? We'll be out on the streets, creating havoc,'" she recalled.

Others may be on the street, too.

Terri Kaulentis of CSN's division of Workforce and Economic Development said hundreds of people take adult literacy courses at the Sahara West Center each year. The center is near the corner of Valley View Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

She said that about 80 percent of the students are recent immigrants. The rest are American-born but can't read well.

Once the center closes, some of those classes may be moved, but others might be canceled for good.

"For my program, it's probably going to force all of our classes to be off-site," Kaulentis said.

That raises another problem. Kaulentis said people who are not used to going to school can be easily intimidated by unfamiliar settings such as large classrooms on large campuses, or dark conference rooms in government buildings, all without the support services offered when everything's at a central location like Sahara West.

Besides that, Kaulentis said, the shuttering of the center comes as federal grants are drying up. Already this year, 40 of the 240 adult literacy classes usually offered have been eliminated.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4686.