Survey: CCSD employees prefer furlough day

Employees taking a day off without pay is the top choice for budget cuts in the Clark County School District, according to the results of an unscientific Web survey released Friday.

School Board President Terri Jansion thought it was significant that 71 percent of respondents would choose furloughs considering district employees represented 57.3 percent of the survey's 16,176 respondents.

"This speaks volumes that they would rather have reductions than the layoffs," Janison said.

Laying off employees and reducing salaries were the least preferred options.

Respondents were also strongly opposed to the elimination of school sports and school police. They also overwhelmingly supported the elimination of year-round school calendars and cutting jobs for administrators.

Increasing class sizes got the support of 56 percent of respondents who ranked it as either their first or second choice for budget cuts.

According to a breakdown of respondents, 38.4 percent were district employees and an additional 18.9 percent were district employees with children in the school system.

Parents and guardians who were not employed by the district represented 25.6 percent of the respondents. Community members without kids in district were 8.6 percent and students were 8.5 percent.

The district checked the e-mail addresses of every respondent and eliminated duplicate responses.

The survey's summary cautioned that it doesn't represent a scientific sample, but the data "is instructive in determining at least a general sense of public opinion."

One student sent in 4,000 responses, but the student wasn't trying to stuff the ballot box by voting for the same cause each time, said Jeff Weiler, the chief financial officer.

"He was probably trying to prove that he could do something automated," Weiler said. "And he did."

The district sought guidance from the public on how to make $123 million in cuts since the School Board is under an April 15 deadline to approve a tentative budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1.