School district forced to make more cuts
Because of anticipated decreases in local property tax revenue, the Clark County School District must cut another $19.9 million from next year’s budget on top of $120 million in cuts that the School Board approved this morning.
In passing a tentative budget of $2.1 billion, which is down $74.1 million from this year, the school board also gave Superintendent Walt Rulffes authority to seek a waiver to increase class sizes for grades 1-3.
School officials, however, stipulated that the class-size increases might not be necessary since federal stimulus money could absorb the costs.
As an alternative to larger class sizes, Superintendent Walt Rulffes also said he could also renegotiate employees’ benefit packages. The district might also be forced to cut more jobs. The tentative budget calls for eliminating 684 full-time positions, or the equivalent of 854 jobs since many positions are less than full time.
School officials said there will be a public hearing on the third Wednesday in May, or May 20, before the final budget for 2009-10 is approved.
