Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Las Vegas Badger Exclusive: CCSD On The Road To Budget Suicide

The Clark County School District recently received $54.2 million dollar from the latest stimulus bill that provided about $26 billion dollars for school districts and teachers. The bill was passed on the backs of the poor in which the Food Stamp program budget was slashed by about $11 billion.
Today, the Superintendent of CCSD, Walt Rulffes sent out an e-mail to staff and the school board saying that the district is going to raise it's budget significantly over the next two years.
From the e-mail: "While the bill allows some latitude in expenditures, I have discussed possible uses of these funds with the Executive Cabinet and others, and I believe that the best use of these funds is to increase school staffing from 97 to 100 per cent, restore a majority of school-based administrative positions, and restore/add several hundred school support positions. I also recommend that each principal determine how to best use the additional FTEs for the coming year."
In the past, I thought Superintendent Rulffes has done a great job working within the budget that he has been give, therefore I was shocked to see this budget.
First, many of the teachers he wants to hire will not happen until after September 2, meaning that there will be a huge distruption of classes in the weeks to come as new teachers are hired because school starts August 30.
Second, what happens to these positions in a year or two? We already are going to have a massive budget cut from the State of Nevada this school year. This is going to blow up the budget next year and the next. When this money dries up, then what? We will be forced to fire most of the teachers and support staff that CCSD is going to hire in the next few weeks and months.
To me, this is like a kid running through a candy store saying I want this and I want that on their father's credit card. Never mind that Dad is almost broke and will have his salary sliced even further next year. CCSD doesn't seem to care who is paying for it or what the consequences down the line will be. The kid at the candy store just wants his candy now and will throw a temper tantrum if they don't get their way.

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