Washoe County Schools Face Huge Problems As Teachers Win Arbritration

From the RGH: The binding arbitration ruling on Friday that pre-empted a 2.5 percent pay cut for Washoe County teachers may have a ripple effect that will be felt for the remainder of this year and the biennium, said school district and union officials who have analyzed the situation.
Dana Galvin, president of the Washoe Education Association that represents local teachers, and other union members were gratified that they will not have to take a pay cut. The union made salary contract concessions after the 2010 special session of the Legislature resulted in a Washoe County School District revenue shortfall.
But both sides acknowledged some tough choices ahead for teachers and the district , and it’s not all about monetary issues, but also new language developed by the union to define circumstances for teacher or administrator layoffs.
Jane Woodburn, the school district’s deputy superintendent, put the current fiscal dilemma bluntly: The choice is to lay off teachers or go into the contingency money.
“If we (hit cash reserves), that means for (fiscal year 2013) there will be a larger structural deficit, and we’re probably looking at $18 million,” Woodburn said.  http://www.rgj.com/article/20120124/NEWS/301240034/Teacher-pay-ruling-ripple-effect?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
CCSD will have the same problem is the teacher's union win their arbitration hearing, which should come fairly soon.  If the the CCSD teacher's union wins, we will see massive teacher layoffs in the middle of the school year.  The teacher's union is banking on that extra tax money will be available because of a slightly better economy money will be available to pay for teacher raises and other benefits.
If CCSD administration wins, then teacher's pay will be frozen and no step pay increases for the teachers for the current contract.
So, we will see shortly what will happen when the arbitrator rules- either mass lay offs or no raises.